BBC website Donkey crash garda car 'cost more to repair than vehicle's worth'

the culture of deference

another fantastically embarrassing headline today on their website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17617929

Donkey crash garda car 'cost more to repair than vehicle's worth'



Delegates at the conference in Wexford were told the gardai's transport fleet was deteriorating


Irish police spent 4,000 euro on repairing a patrol car which crashed into a donkey, even though the vehicle was not worth that much.



The details emerged at the annual conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI).
The association has called for a cost-benefit analysis to be carried out on the garda transport fleet.
Delegates were told that almost half of the gardai's 24.5m euro transport budget is spent on repairs, RTE reported.
The AGSI said money was being wasted on a deteriorating fleet of cars, vans and bikes, and officers could not be expected to provide a service with poor quality vehicles.

PirateShampoo

Sounds like they made a bit of a ass of it.

44leto

the culture of deference wrote: »

another fantastically embarrassing headline today on their website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17617929

Donkey crash garda car 'cost more to repair than vehicle's worth'



Delegates at the conference in Wexford were told the gardai's transport fleet was deteriorating


Irish police spent 4,000 euro on repairing a patrol car which crashed into a donkey, even though the vehicle was not worth that much.



The details emerged at the annual conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI).
The association has called for a cost-benefit analysis to be carried out on the garda transport fleet.
Delegates were told that almost half of the gardai's 24.5m euro transport budget is spent on repairs, RTE reported.
The AGSI said money was being wasted on a deteriorating fleet of cars, vans and bikes, and officers could not be expected to provide a service with poor quality vehicles.

That's illogical manure, to have a working vehicle 4000
To replace the vehicle 30 to 50 grand.

They are pandering for more resources, has the guards ever bought second hand cars for less then 4000. Off course they haven't.

ejmaztec

PirateShampoo wrote: »

Sounds like they made a bit of a ass of it.

That's the law for ya, isn't it?

micropig

44leto wrote: »

That's illogical manure, to have a working vehicle 4000
To replace the vehicle 30 to 50 grand.

They are pandering for more resources, has the guards ever bought second hand cars for less then 4000. Off course they haven't.

*awaits to hear from The Gardai are under resourced brigade


Personally I don't think they are, This is plain & simple bad management of finances

44leto

micropig wrote: »

*awaits to hear from The Gardai are under resourced brigade


Personally I don't think they are, This is plain & simple bad management of finances

Not really they could have wrote the vehicle off and done without, or repair it and have that resource.

In these times it was prudent to repair it.

When budgets are as tight as they are now, you behave like a householder you make do with paycheck to paycheck, you don't invest.

the culture of deference

well they bought 700 new veH iC les a few years ago, paid full list price on each one,

An Garda Siochana rushed to buy the cars after getting a late allocation of €17m from the Exchequer, but there was no provision for a discount for such a bulk purchase in the contract with the supplier, the Ford Motor Company.


Around 300 of the 726 Ford Mondeo squad cars bought in the last two months of 2006 were left sitting in the compounds of the supplier and the fitting-out subcontractor for up to a year-and-a-half before they were put into service.


http://www.independent.ie/national-news/300-garda-cars-left-idle-for-over-a-year-2216669.html

micropig

44leto wrote: »

Not really they could have wrote the vehicle off and done without, or repair it and have that resource.

In these times it was prudent to repair it.

When budgets are as tight as they are now, you behave like a householder you make do with paycheck to paycheck, you don't invest.

Sometimes it is prudent to repair, and the cheapest option should always be looked for, but not when the repairs cost more than the vehicle is worth, that's false economy

im invisible

'BBC website donkey crash Garda car'

I understand those words, but that makes no sense

44leto

micropig wrote: »

Sometimes it is prudent to repair, and the cheapest option should always be looked for, but not when the repairs cost more than the vehicle is worth, that's false economy

Not when you haven't the funds to replace, that's realistic economy.

Terrontress

The crotch wore away in a pair of Levi's jeans I have. I bought them to a tailor in London who put new material in there for £4. You couldn't tell unless you went looking for the repair. They have been great this past year. Regular use

A pair of jeans with no crotch is not worth the amount I spent on them but £4 saved me the price of a new pair, maybe €80.

Should I have just bought the new ones like the Gardai should have scrapped this car?

€4k for a working squad car when the alternative is no squad car is a good investment in my eyes.

I think this story just sounds bad because a Garda drove in to a donkey. If it had had €4k worth of bullet holes it might not get the same exposure. It just underlines the backward and rural stereotype which exists of Ireland's law enforcement.

MickySticks

Terrontress wrote: »

The crotch wore away in a pair of Levi's jeans I have. I bought them to a tailor in London who put new material in there for £4. You couldn't tell unless you went looking for the repair. They have been great this past year. Regular use

A pair of jeans with no crotch is not worth the amount I spent on them but £4 saved me the price of a new pair, maybe €80.

Stingy thread

---

>>>>

Terrontress

MickySticks wrote: »

Terrontress wrote: »

The crotch wore away in a pair of Levi's jeans I have. I bought them to a tailor in London who put new material in there for £4. You couldn't tell unless you went looking for the repair. They have been great this past year. Regular use

A pair of jeans with no crotch is not worth the amount I spent on them but £4 saved me the price of a new pair, maybe €80.

Stingy thread

---

>>>>

If I had the €€€, I'd wear a new pair of jeans every day. There are so many other things I can do with 80 bucks.

I'm proud of myself for being so moneysavingexpert.com

Owen_S

Terrontress wrote: »

The crotch wore away in a pair of Levi's jeans I have. I bought them to a tailor in London who put new material in there for £4. You couldn't tell unless you went looking for the repair. They have been great this past year. Regular use

A pair of jeans with no crotch is not worth the amount I spent on them but £4 saved me the price of a new pair, maybe €80.

Should I have just bought the new ones like the Gardai should have scrapped this car?

€4k for a working squad car when the alternative is no squad car is a good investment in my eyes.

I think this story just sounds bad because a Garda drove in to a donkey. If it had had €4k worth of bullet holes it might not get the same exposure. It just underlines the backward and rural stereotype which exists of Ireland's law enforcement.

£4? You could get a whole new pair of jeans for that in Penny's.

galwayrush

Donkey, cost 100 euro
Garda Car cost 2,000 euro
They met, cost 4,000 euro
Priceless.......

Dostoevsky

An entire BBC article without referring to this state as the "Irish Republic".


Congratulations, BBC.

Chuck Stone

What interest has the BBC in this non-story?

Is this really a news story of international importance from the BBC's perspective?

I smell an ulterior motive.

Cuddlesworth

Every large scale private rental company and car lease company use three to four year stock rotations. They do this because the cost of maintaining the stock becomes more then the cost of buying new vehicles with a warranty and all the other safety and fuel economy perks.

The majority of our gardai vehicles would do crazy mileage every year, a 4k repair on one car would be nothing in comparison to other repair bills. This is short term spending ignoring the long term cost. Stupid on so many levels but so very Irish.

micropig

Was the donkey ok?

Run_to_da_hills

When it comes to wastage in this country nothing surprises me.

Iarnrod Eireann has just spent thousands of Euro blocking off the pass throughs on their CAF 2700 series DMU sets and finished them in intercity colours and now they are about to be scrapped.

http://irnirishrailwaynews.yuku.com/topic/2452/End-of-2700s?page=1#.T38-jJmmiQw

Nodin

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

When it comes to wastage in this country nothing surprises me.

Iarnrod Eireann has just spent thousands of Euro blocking off the pass throughs on their CAF 2700 series DMU sets and finished them in intercity colours and now they are about to be scrapped.

http://irnirishrailwaynews.yuku.com/topic/2452/End-of-2700s?page=1#.T38-jJmmiQw

You'd have to run that through the DeGeeker if you want feedback, tbh.

Sounds like a return to the 80's soon, where you get booked for having a broken exhaust by a Garda driving a car with bald tyres.

Pottler

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Every large scale private rental company and car lease company use three to four year stock rotations. They do this because the cost of maintaining the stock becomes more then the cost of buying new vehicles with a warranty and all the other safety and fuel economy perks.

The majority of our gardai vehicles would do crazy mileage every year, a 4k repair on one car would be nothing in comparison to other repair bills. This is short term spending ignoring the long term cost. Stupid on so many levels but so very Irish.

I disagree with this on a few levels. The ESB replace vehicles on a regular basis at huge cost but a neighbour is an ESB worker and fought tooth and nail to keep his 01 Transit and was allowed. He is still driving it and it has had no major work - he does the same work as his colleagues driving 10,11 and 12 reg vans. Difference is his is long paid for and into profit. The others are balls of finance/lease payments. So, he has had 1 van in 11 years, the others have had 3 or four. Who earns the ESB more/saves them more?
I use older vans for my business, 05, 03 etc. They are paid for. When they break(rarely) I fix them or get them fixed. My accountant keeps lecturing me about how much better off I would be if I leased my vans but having listened to him and leased one in 08(I still have it) I think it is a total feckin moneypit liability. Fix the Garda cars and drive them till they can't be fixed anymore, there is a reason why car finance and leasing companies are hugely wealthy. If any accountants come on sh1ting about tax breaks/leases being tax deductible- feck off. I know. And bought and paid for assets can be written down over time as well, but cost a lot, lot less. So feck back to your bookkeeping.

Cuddlesworth

Pottler wrote: »

I disagree with this on a few levels. The ESB replace vehicles on a regular basis at huge cost but a neighbour is an ESB worker and fought tooth and nail to keep his 01 Transit and was allowed. He is still driving it and it has had no major work - he does the same work as his colleagues driving 10,11 and 12 reg vans. Difference is his is long paid for and into profit. The others are balls of finance/lease payments. So, he has had 1 van in 11 years, the others have had 3 or four. Who earns the ESB more/saves them more?
I use older vans for my business, 05, 03 etc. They are paid for. When they break(rarely) I fix them or get them fixed. My accountant keeps lecturing me about how much better off I would be if I leased my vans but having listened to him and leased one in 08(I still have it) I think it is a total feckin moneypit liability. Fix the Garda cars and drive them till they can't be fixed anymore, there is a reason why car finance and leasing companies are hugely wealthy. If any accountants come on sh1ting about tax breaks/leases being tax deductible- feck off. I know. And bought and paid for assets can be written down over time as well, but cost a lot, lot less. So feck back to your bookkeeping.

Your argument in summary.

I know of one example against the grain, therefore on a larger scale it must apply.

My own accountant tells me I'm wasting money but him and his fancy numbers don't make sense to me.

Large corporations/company's are evil and like profit and leasing is pointless because I don't understand it.


Gardai cars do stupid mileage, have a number of active drivers and get treated badly over their life. And I'm sure like every other large scale operation they figured out long ago when replacing them makes sense.

Run_to_da_hills

Nodin wrote: »

You'd have to run that through the DeGeeker if you want feedback, tbh.

From This to This.

44leto

Chuck Stone wrote: »

What interest has the BBC in this non-story?

Is this really a news story of international importance from the BBC's perspective?

I smell an ulterior motive.

No ulterior motive, you have to fill your website with something, its a news filler, its a non story that was picked up by boards ie.

AboutTwoFiddy

As 44leto has pointed out it makes better sense to spend €4k on repairs and have a road worthy car than spend €30k on a brand new car that wasn't in the budget.

Lets not forget that as soon as you drive a new car out of the garage the car depreciates by 20%. There'd be bigger outrage if the Gardai were buying new cars instead of getting them repaired.

It's really a non-story.

44leto

Did anyone ask how much was it to repair the donkey.

I bet the owners claimed it was a prize internationally renowned thoroughbred donkey which earned 100 grand a year for stud. Well I would have anyway, the Peelers would have had to compensate me.

Pottler

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Your argument in summary.

I know of one example against the grain, therefore on a larger scale it must apply.

My own accountant tells me I'm wasting money but him and his fancy numbers don't make sense to me.

Large corporations/company's are evil and like profit and leasing is pointless because I don't understand it.


Gardai cars do stupid mileage, have a number of active drivers and get treated badly over their life. And I'm sure like every other large scale operation they figured out long ago when replacing them makes sense.

No Cuddlesworth, my arguement is not summary. I work for exclusively large/multinational companies and they p1ss money down the "we must have the latest vehicles" hole as well. Oh, a €250.00 euro egr valve is gone - it's costing us money, sell it/surrender the lease and get a new one.Which costs hundreds a week to lease. Ah, feck it, I can't be ar5ed argeing this one, good man, you are right, I'm wrong. BTW, I always watch the profits, spend half my life analysing costs and balance sheets and I'm a damn sight richer than my accountant. But, whatever.:)

44leto

There is also another angle to this. It is extremely dangerous to hit a donkey. People in Nordic countries die all the time with collisions with moose's. You hit a donkey the legs get chopped and the body of the donkey comes right through your windscreen with enough force to easily kill you and your passenger as demonstrated by the mythbusters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYkheZfjEUk