General Ducato 180 - my trip to holland

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General Ducato 180 - my trip to holland

Pasty007

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Hi All, I thought this may be of interest to any of you that will travel abroad in a new Ducato. I purchased my new 180 at the end of Jan this year. I had to go over to Holland last Thursday to be part of an exhibition in Apeldoorn. Whilst at the venue setting up some towrag decided to pinch my jacket with my van keys in the pocket. I did have the spare hidden in the cab but it was locked. As the van now comes with 3 years european recovery I gave the number a ring only to find that my registration number and chassis number did not come up on the system and they just did not want to know. I spent ages going round in circles. I ended up having to smash the drivers quarter glass to get in the van to retrive the spare key. Then had to find some plastic and gaffer tape for the window. Set off back last night at 6pm in the pouring rain and had to stop about 20 times to put more tape on the plastic. Finally got back at 10am this morning freezing cold. Told by insurance that they will not cover the glass as I had broke it myself? They will cover the huge cost of new remote key, re-programming etc but I will lose 2 yrs no claims and will have to pay £275 excess if I go down that route. Fiat have quoted £325 which does not include labour and VAT. So if you do have a new van make sure it is properly registered. I have this morning made a complaint to Fiat customer service, and I will let you know what they will come up with.:mad::cry:
 
Sounds like you had a bad time of it! Taking heed of your experience, my spare key will be wrapped up in black plastic and tie wrapped securely in a place under the van that's not visible from the outside! Maybe that's a good thing to do with your spare key .
 
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Use a solid key,not chipped when you put it under the van.
Leave the chipped key inside,somewhere safe.
If someone finds the key,they can't steal the van.
Only get in.
I'm a surfer,and we hide our keys under the vehicles,I've seen some cars/vans get pinched.
 
Use a solid key,not chipped when you put it under the van.
Leave the chipped key inside,somewhere safe.
If someone finds the key,they can't steal the van.
Only get in.
I'm a surfer,and we hide our keys under the vehicles,I've seen some cars/vans get pinched.
Great idea - I'll do that. :)
 
I'm going to delete parts of this thread in 7 days...reason being is that everyone will now be looking under camper vans for the keys:(
patsy....ref key, yes you do as you need the codes, you could also PM Possetti (think thats his name) on this forum.
 
Just to update. Got side glass fitted by autoglass for a cost of £141.00. Ordered and paid for new remote keys £213.00. Dealer asked for key codes which they say came with the vehicle (News to me). Checked with the dealer where I purchased and they told me that new vehicles no longer come with key codes written down anywhere with a new van as insurance companies were not happy. Anyway dealer want £25 to retrieve codes and another £60 to re-programme when the new keys arrive. Expensive trip.
 
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