Squirrel almost writes off £5k car

A hungry squirrel almost destroyed a man’s £5,000 car after deciding it was a suitable place to store hundreds of nuts.

When John Gold, 59, took his 03-plate Vauxhall Astra into his local Bosch Car Service garage in Warwick, he was not prepared for what he was told.

When mechanics opened the bonnet of Mr. Gold’s car to fix a leaking radiator, they were quick to discover that the vehicle’s air intake system was completely crammed full of peanuts.

“I couldn’t quite believe what the garage was telling me”, said Mr. Gold, who runs a machine components company, WGS, in Leamington Spa. “There were literally hundreds of them stashed in there!

My mother-in-law regularly puts seeds out for the birds next to where I park the car, so the squirrel must have taken them from there and hidden them in the airbox. My car must be a haven for rodents, as last time I took it in for a service, I faced a £1,400 bill because rats had chewed through the HT leads in its engine!”

Jason Perry, the manager of Bosch Car Service garage, Warrington’s of Warwick, said: “In 42 years of working in this business, we have never seen anything quite like this! When we lifted up the bonnet to investigate the problem, we certainly weren’t expecting to find a hoard of nuts. We were very surprised the car was still running, as the nuts were completely blocking the filter. Rodents can sometimes find their way into car bonnets and can cause quite considerable damage. Right next to the air intake is the Engine Control Unit if the squirrel had started to chew the wires – like Mr. Gold’s last experience with rats – it could have caused very serious damage to the vehicle.”

“Unfortunately, there’s not a lot people can do to prevent rodents setting up home under their car bonnets, especially if they live in rural areas like Mr. Gold”, Jason continued. “However, it does help to check your car regularly, as it is those vehicles left unattended for long periods of time that it tends to happen to.”