Car Damaged by MOT Station.... recourse ?

[FlashmanChop]

Took the Jewish racing gold beast for its M.O.T, dropped off at 08:00 on a Monday morning, and took the train to work, on the pretence of using a colleges car. Garage rang at 09:30 same day, saying it had failed on a bulb, a wiper and a sticky handbrake. Nothing major, and nothing that should take too long.

Fast forward to the Tuesday when I enquired about the car, which came a reply of they were short staffed, but it should be done by that evening. No phone call came, so I assumed been held up.. Wednesday came, Thursday came, on Friday a lady from the garage phoned to say it was all done, but…. They had taken it on a test drive, and the bonnet had flown up and… well, you guessed it. But it would be ready for Monday.

That was last Monday, so another week has elapsed. I have phoned a few times….. but they were awaiting parts…

Anyway, a total of two weeks and a day and it is now ready….

Up until this point I have been polite and amicable, as no mention of a bill has been mentioned.

I am hopefully going to insect the car tonight, to see what’s been done etc, and to maybe receive a bill for the MOT..

How much discount shall I start my haggling on ?

Over to the PH Massiv’

[Famous Graham]

If they only present you with a bill for the MOT, bulb, wiper and sticky handbrake remedial work, then that'd be fine, imo.

If they start including costs relating to parts or labour after the bonnet incident...well, that gets complicated. Do you know what caused it?

(ETA - assuming, of course, that any damage was repaired)

[unclegrouch]

I would be asking why it was test driven to start with ??

wiper - no need

bulb - no need

handbrake - they have an mot bay which will show handbrake performance and if there's any binding

Whichever way, if they damaged it doing a test drive that wasn't really needed, I would at least expect a banger courtesy car from them.

.... no I'm not "anti garage", I am in the motor trade.

[NoVetec]

Please forgive my ignorance, but what's a Jewish racing gold beast?

[FlashmanChop]

NoVetec said:

Please forgive my ignorance, but what's a Jewish racing gold beast?

Its what I call my Rental collection device... aka the daily stter. That happens to be a shade of Gold.

Edited by FlashmanChop on Wednesday 24th August 08:28

[davido140]

Present them with receipts for any travel costs incurred since you havent had the car (train tickets, hire car if you had one) and deduct them from the cost of the MOT and bulb/wiper/handbrake work.

Any repairs due to the bonnet incident need to be done to an absolutely top notch standard and are entirely not your fault, some gorm didnt close the thing properly.

If you had no additional costs and they have fixed it properly just pay the bill for the work done. It should be well under £100 for that lot anyway.

[payner2008]

unclegrouch said:

I would be asking why it was test driven to start with ??

wiper - no need

bulb - no need

handbrake - they have an mot bay which will show handbrake performance and if there's any binding

Whichever way, if they damaged it doing a test drive that wasn't really needed, I would at least expect a banger courtesy car from them.

.... no I'm not "anti garage", I am in the motor trade.

Exactly this

[Cotty]

unclegrouch said:

I would be asking why it was test driven to start with ??

wiper - no need

bulb - no need

handbrake - they have an mot bay which will show handbrake performance and if there's any binding

Whichever way, if they damaged it doing a test drive that wasn't really needed, I would at least expect a banger courtesy car from them.

.... no I'm not "anti garage", I am in the motor trade.

Sounds like another company having a joy ride in a customers car. See the Audi thread for the other latest incidence

[JonnyFive]

Here we go again..

Ask for the cost of the MOT, ask for all the repairs, ask for free MOTs for the next 10 years plus free repairs, then ask for a whole new set of tyres due to them being driven on, and ask for a full valet, then ask for a go on the garage owners wife and daughter too.

[Frankeh]

Your car should never have been driven fast enough for the bonnet to fly up. How fast do you need to drive a car to park it in a parking space outside the garage? I'd be looking at paying nothing, tbh.

[Jimmyarm]

Frankeh said:

Your car should never have been driven fast enough for the bonnet to fly up. How fast do you need to drive a car to park it in a parking space outside the garage? I'd be looking at paying nothing, tbh.

Any car I do work on involving the brakes gets a road test.

The speeds the rollers operate at do not simulate road driving and are only a test of efficiency.

[unclegrouch]

Jimmyarm said:

Any car I do work on involving the brakes gets a road test.

The speeds the rollers operate at do not simulate road driving and are only a test of efficiency.

Quite agree if work has been done on brakes yes, but to RT for a sticky handbrake fix ?? I really can't think of any instance where the rollers wouldn't show a problem on a parking brake. I had one this week that drove perfectly but the rollers showed a VERY slight bind on one brake, nobody would have picked this up on a roadtest.

what exactly was the mechanic going to check on a roadtest ?? Yank the handbrake & put a pair of lines down the tarmac to check it ??

FWIW - I stick to my original opinion, it didn't need to be road tested. However, even if it did, unless it was an oddball car, they would have lifted the bonnet to check the VIN plate, look at brake master cyl & more. If they failed to shut it properly, it's still down to them.

Edited by unclegrouch on Tuesday 23 August 19:03

[JonnyFive]

OP has said though it was just his daily, so not something they'd want to go for a hoon in (I'd imagine..).

[unclegrouch]

JonnyFive said:

OP has said though it was just his daily, so not something they'd want to go for a hoon in (I'd imagine..).

Ah! but we all have differnet version's of "daily" don't we Mine happens to be a 10 yr old mondeo oil burner, one of my customers uses a RR sport (yes black with tints & dealer wheels)

[Cotty]

FlashmanChop said:

I am hopefully going to insect the car tonight, to see what’s been done etc, and to maybe receive a bill for the MOT..

How much discount shall I start my haggling on ?

Give them an opportunity to rectify the problem. As long as they have repaired any damage caused to a decent standard I would leave it at that and see if they offer anything in the way of compensation.

A garage I took my BMW to, crushed my jacking points, they repaired them to better than they were before and offered me a free service. I now have perfect jacking points on a 20 year old car

[Cotty]

JonnyFive said:

OP has said though it was just his daily, so not something they'd want to go for a hoon in (I'd imagine..).

People rag hire cars and they don't tend to be anything special.

[The Moose]

unclegrouch said:

yes black

Sorry, the owner or the car?!

[vit4]

JonnyFive said:

Here we go again..

Ask for the cost of the MOT, ask for all the repairs, ask for free MOTs for the next 10 years plus free repairs, then ask for a whole new set of tyres due to them being driven on, and ask for a full valet, then ask for a go on the garage owners wife and daughter too.

Depends on the circumstances it was driven under, but I'd expect all repairs relating to the bonnet incident (assuming that what they've told you is correct) to be paid for in full as the bare minimum alongside an explanation. I guess the other repairs or the MOT for a discount or free would be a nice touch as well. Wouldn't accept anything less than the above though.

[busta]

Did you give them permission to repair it after the bonnet incident? If not, it doesn't seem right that they started to fix it again without at least consulting you. If a garage damaged my car in such a circumstance the last thing I'd want is them repairing it.

[unclegrouch]

The Moose said:

Sorry, the owner or the car?!

be fair, I was talking about the RR, not slating anybody ;-) As it happens, I *might* be black, does that make a difference ?