Jan 20 2009
Czech people are not helpful? You must be joking!
Hubby and I had a day off yesterday, so we packed the backpacks with guides and photo equipment and went down to the car for a day out. Only one problem-the car didn’t start! We tried everything, including a bump start whilst rolling down the hill, nothing. So here we were, not speaking more then few polite words in Czech, in need of getting the car to a garage, preferably one that speaks one of the languages we speak and not only Czech 
Calling somebody was out of question as most of our multi-lingual friends where either abroad or at work, sigh!
So what to do? Cutting a long story short:
At the end of the road was a car dealer, so we walked over in the hope to pursue somebody more knowledgeable then us to have a look under the bonnet and to figure out what the problem was. That didn’t work out, they would only look at their “makes” but not at our strange, right-hand-drive Renault! Instead they made contact for us with the local Renault dealer and a “rescue company” to get us there, not charging anything, nor for the phone calls, nor the time two people spend with us to sort our car out.
The tow truck arrived, loaded us and our car and drove us to the Renault garage for approximately ½-1/3 of the price it would have been in the UK. At the Renault dealer we got assigned to a young man that spoke very good English and after some investigation and waiting he brought us to our, repaired and ready to go car. Apparently the immobiliser had had a hiccup and shut the car down. But now all was ok and we could go, *wave, wave*.
Moment, stop, don’t we have to pay? Nops, little present for you, car repaired for free, nada, gratis, zdarma!
Czech people are not helpful? You must be joking!
PS The people at the car dealer are now enjoying a box of pralines, the tow truck driver got a good tip and the Renault dealer can be sure to get our business when it comes to servicing the car next fall/ autumn…
Thats a nice story! Immobilisers are sary - they even put them on 4WDs which may be taken into the bush- scary when something won’t start 100’s km from anywhere
I’m always glad to read of experiences like yours here - where simple kindness and generosity triumph
Glad that your car wasn’t suffering from something more serious, but even if it had, it sounds like you would have been in good hands.