January...

A few days after collecting the car Fylde Coast Accident Repair Centre called to tell me what was wrong. Apparently the oil pump had failed and in the words of the engineer at Fylde Coast Accident Repair Centre the engine had eaten itself from the inside and I needed a new engine.

The engineer tried to suggest that this could be a coincidence but they accepted that it was more likely to be accident damage. Considering that the previous visit to them was blamed on an oil starvation issue then a failed oil pump might have been the problem there too.

Whenever I spoke to Tesco (later) they thought that the engine was replaced as a good will gesture. I find it highly unlikely that a garage would replace the engine of the car and the oil pump at vast expense as a good will gesture when they're bothered about limiting the courtesy car to 200 miles a week.