Do Liverpudlians collect hub caps?

[desrobinson]

I'm due to drive my Mercs from home town London to Southport (between Liverpool and Blackpool) this weekend.

I've driven to many places and not worry too much about whether my car get broken into or not until now.

One of the guys I'm going with, in a convoy, claims that I'll get my hub caps nicked at traffic lights in Liverpool. Now I've got visions of coming back from shopping at a Supermarket only to find my car on bricks.

Ofcourse I'll take the usual precautions. Does anyone have experience of this in or around Liverpool. Any words of advice?

Incedently, my first car was a Vauxhall Cavalier SRi it was 8 years old when I bought it with standard wheel and hub caps. I went to my local DIY centre and came back to find the offside front hub cap missing. Either I knocked if off on a kerb on the way there or someone pinched it. I think it was the latter.

 

[jberks]

You're not serious? Its an old 80's joke. Not really true. Liverpool is quite upmarket these days.

I'd be (and have been) far more worried taking my merc to London than Liverpool. There are far more thieves, muggers and general criminals per square mile in London!

As far as hub caps are concerned, its prudent to tie wrap them on. That way they can't fall off and are harder (though not much) to nick.

 

[robbi-wan]

Never mind Liverpool: I got a knock on my door one morning at 07.30 to be told by my neighbour that 2 of my wheels were missing and that side of the car was left on bricks!
Nowhere is safe these days :sad:

 

[M6AJJ]

Just don't believe all those old jokes. Normally started by scousers themselves.

Liverpool is a great city, full of vitality with a fascinating heritage.

I too would be just as worried in London, take the normal precautions and you will be fine.

 

[desrobinson]

Thanks for your comments.

I didn't think there was anything in it.

I've parked my car in some undesirable places in London through lack of choice and expected it to be either vandalised or stolen but have always been lucky enough to find it untouched. That's when I make the sign of the cross and give my thanks skywards.

 

[mlc]

at the risk of upsetting the couple of nice people living in Liverpool:

As you take off from John Lennon airport the pilots normally annouce "if you look through the LH windows you will see the Irish sea and if you look through the RH windows you will see the good people of Halewood removing the alloys from your company car.

OR

Williams F1 team have employed a new pit lane team from Liverpool. Apparently they can achieve a refuel, wheel swap and full respray in burberry in under 10 seconds

Would I park in Liverpool? Why would I ever want to leave Manchester!

PS. Only kidding, Liverpool is a great place to come from, its just the going back thats bad

Mark

 

[mike65]

Mike.

 

[Blobcat]

As far as hub caps are concerned, its prudent to tie wrap them on. That way they can't fall off and are harder (though not much) to nick.

Only thing to be careful of when using tie wraps is to check that they do not foul the brake calipers.

 

[topscalcookie]

lucky we scousers like a laugh, besides we like alloy wheels not hub caps

 

[mlc]

lucky we scousers like a laugh, besides we like alloy wheels not hub caps

I thought the good people of the wirral claimed to be from Cheshire rather than scousers?

 

[davidsl500]

Last time I went to Bootle I parked up and got out and this kid came up to me - must have been all of 10yrs. "mind your car mister, only £5"
I said, "no thanks, my dobermans on the back seat". He looked at me for a couple of seconds and said "he can put out fires can he mister?"

Seriously though I have been in corner shops in some parts of Liverpool (usually when I have got lost) where you have to ring the bell so the shopkeeper can electronically unlock the door and when you go in the whole counter is behind a glass screen with a couple of small holes to poke the goods / money through!

That said, I have some good mates in the Liverpool area and my father was born there and its hard to beat their sense of humour.

I think the original joke was - I like Liverpool, I go there every year to visit my hubcaps....

A funny (true) story happened to a mate of mine re cars on bricks. Going back a bit now, His MG Montego Turbo, which was parked on the road outside of his house, had its wheels nicked and the car was left teetering on 4 piles of bricks. His next door neighbour reported my mate to the Police on the grounds that the car was parked on a public highway in a dangerous condition !!

 

[television]

We are very backward down here, they have just started on MB valve caps, a friend rang last week saying " don't use a certain car park for you will loose the caps". well I do not use car parks anyway.

malcolm

 

[Silver Arrow]

Apparently parts of Liverpool were closed off today after a suspect device found on a car.......

Police later identified it as a tax disc

 

[davebox]

We are very backward down here, they have just started on MB valve caps, a friend rang last week saying " don't use a certain car park for you will loose the caps". well I do not use car parks anyway.
malcolm

I know why you would not use them Malcolm, but how do you get away with not doing so?
If I travel anywhere that I do not know the area well I just have to follow the P signs. I try to park either by a looked after motor or as far away from everyone that I can - even then I come back to find a car on each side. The wife thinks its magnetic.

 

[Rory]

I had a set of wheel trims nicked in Liverpool.

My mate had his stolen several times, and finally decided to steal some back, from a car that shouldn't have had that style on. He got caught on CCTV and turned out the guy had bought them.

My Mercedes valve caps were nicked recently in Nottingham - amazing really, I left to car for 30 seconds (to go to daughters house and get the parking permit) and there was no-one around, but the caps had gone.

 

[television]

I know why you would not use them Malcolm, but how do you get away with not doing so?
If I travel anywhere that I do not know the area well I just have to follow the P signs. I try to park either by a looked after motor or as far away from everyone that I can - even then I come back to find a car on each side. The wife thinks its magnetic.

I only live a 5 min walk to the shops and sea front where most things can be bought , plus if I drive down before 9am and park in the allocated parts of the high st, I can be finished before the parking rules apply, if I go inland to shop I choose quite times. The car park around the best beaches do not have allacated places, so no problem there. The doors on the SL are so wide I could never get out of the car in a allacated place anyway. When I go to Exeter tomorrow, I will leave the car in one of my suppliers car park, and take the bus to the center.
Re when you come back and find a car either side, it seems to be an on going saga,all around the world, even if you park between to Rolls Royces, when you get back to the car, they are long gone, and there are two builders trucks instead :cry: . Ok, I can use the other car, but I try and look after that one too.

Malcolm

 

[desrobinson]

I went to Southport over the weeknd and nothing happened my motor. Southport is quite a nice area with some bungalows and expensive cars in their drive.

But we went to visit Anfield. Well, put it this way. I didn't stop because the area is well run-down. Most shops and houses are boarded up. One shop displayed a sign "THERE IS NOTHING OF VALUE WORTH TAKING HERE". Needless to say I didn't stop anywhere there I just slowed down enough for my mate to take a snap of the Liverpool Stadium which is very nice on the outside at least.

The City Centre is quite nice I felt comfortable enough to park up and go have something to eat. On the whole Liverpool is a nice city but like all Cities I suppose it has it's dodgy parts.

 

[steve_k243]

Some really unsafe places to park a car are out in the country! Not many thieving pikeys in cities you see. Plenty of cars parked due to fishing-shooting-twitchers-ramblers etc etc.

Had my old w124 broken into for a cd player worth about £10. Total bill for the insurance £1.2K--I got a nice new Blaupunkt out of it though--gippo did me a favour in a way.

 

[C220GJS]

Had my old w124 broken into for a cd player worth about £10. Total bill for the insurance £1.2K--I got a nice new Blaupunkt out of it though--gippo did me a favour in a way.

And you are proud of yourself, are you ?. Makes you no better than the guy who broke into your car ; inflated insurance claims cost us all money.

 

[Neil Plumridge]

I was forced to work in Manchester for about 6 months last year, based in Salford Quays, all nice and modern. But I was amazed that the local Tesco Metro store had guards on the door and the same sort of anti theft devices that you see on bottles of expensive booze on the shopping baskets!! Why would anyone nick a shopping basket ?!

Having said that, apart from some noisy neighbours we had no problems at all. One of the guys I was working with even left a 620 Rover in the carpark - unlocked - for 6 months in the hope that someone would nick it and to the best of my knowledge it's there to this day.

I live out in the Sussex countryside and our neighbours had their car stolen from outside their house in the middle of the night and our friends had their Imprezza stolen whilst they were working on their house. Someone walked in through the front door, picked up the keys, got in the car and drove off in it! Middle of the day, broad daylight.

We have one police station about 4 miles away that is only open 9 to 5 and not at all at weekends so if anything happens at the weekend the nearest station is 20 miles away. No wonder the crimo's are operating more in the country side now.

Still, I wouldn't leave a car in London if you paid me to.