I’m a member of another group where someone’s car has broken down while travelling in Switzerland towing their caravan. They have full breakdown cover but the car is not valuable and the repair costs would be €8000+ .The sting is in the small print where they will only repatriate the car and caravan if the car cannot be repaired. The car is not worth the repair bill so she is now returning home in a hire car without the caravan.

Steve

That's interesting. Anything can be repaired if you throw enough money and time at it, unless there was nothing left to repair, so I wonder if any cars are ever repatriated.

Ours was when a dozy German woman drove into ithe Eriba. Car was only 3 months old and cost £8000 to repair. The caravan was written off on my say so. Insurers (Saga) believed me when I said it was beyond repair. It was, having slid on its side and flipped over. Still in one piece but very badly damaged. Presumably the Eriba ended up in a German scrap yard or caravan breaker.

Is it correct that if you leave an unusable registered vehicle in a foreign country you may be asked to pay import duties?

Don’t know about that Robin, we only abandoned the Eriba (obviously unregistered) at the VW dealer who recovered both car and van. The dealers rang me several weeks later to ask what was happening with the Triton, still in their yard. I referred them to Saga and never heard any more.

I need a new rear window for my Triton...