Pranged vehicle

[Numptysnumnuts]

The title isn't entirely accurate yes my vehicle is pranged but not by me or another vehicle.

Took my car to the local MOT centre today knowing that it would probably fail due to mirrors missing and worn tires but I did it because I wanted to know if it was mechanically sound. Well about 2 hours later I get a call saying its ready and there is a whole list of faults. When arrived I was shown the list and apart from the steering wheel bush and some welding above the rear suspension that was about as major as it got. There were electrical faults which I couldn't understand as I checked them last night and all worked fine. So I paid my money and went to find my car. The car was parked up by the side of their garage with little space to get round the front but I could notice that the front grill was sticking out on the drivers side. So I got the owner and asked him to roll it back. Not only was the grill hanging off but the indicator lense was pushed back and when I looked down the drivers side the headlight had been pushed in and the wing bowed out and my front bumper skirt split. The garage owner denied being responsible for the damage, I argued that it was not delivered to him like that and he agreed that if I can get to back to him for retest he will sort out the wing. Not impressed at all by his offer as I will need a new bumper, indicator and how to figure out making my headlight straight as this was one of the faults but amazingly how he checked alignment if it failed on no headlight working I don't know.

Mechanics feel free to enlighten me and rub salt further into my wounds.

Depressed and upset

Russ

[dangerous dave]

low speen bump or do you think he took it out for a burn?? a few rtoc members cars have been taken for mot testdrives before...

[dangerous dave]

id simply call your insurance/police etc and take action..

[James5]

id simply call your insurance/police etc and take action..

:agree: or go back to the garage and say you want to make a formal claim he will have public liability policy that should cover you. If you go through your motor you will have to pay xs although it should get paid back via his policy.

[Tony Walker]

take a look if theres cctv cameras.

[Haz]

Check your mileage to see if it's been taken for a spin too.

[JonM]

burn his garage down to the ground!!!! every garage ive been to have done summut wrong!! its either a scratch, dent oil stain, curbed wheels or an exta 20 miles on the milage !!! to be fair the last garage i used and have done for last 3 years have never driven my car or did any of the above!! but if u own an r5 every bloke is tempted to have a cheeky spin to raise that grin!!! hope you get it sorted pal!!

[andybond]

raise a complaint with VOSA ?

info here (http://www.dft.gov.uk/vosa/contactus/sharingintelligence/raisinganobjectionagainstanoperator.htm#P46_8671)

[Tony Walker]

imo id always wait with my car(5... sod the picasso take it where they want) while it was mot'd, most places have a viewing area to watch it being tested. main dealers offer pretty cheap Mot's too to get the work after for ££££££££££££££££

[Tony Walker]

for an mot it shouldnt really of moved more than 100yrds in the test centre then parked back up, it can use a fair bit of petrol idling but this is worse for cars with cats to get them hot enough to pass(especially cheap cats)

[markg]

A mate of mine took his 5 into a London Renault main dealer many years ago. Went to pick the car up a couple of days later and they were repairing the front. Turns out they had all been taking it out for a blast and crashed it. Strange thing is speaking to Mike (GT Turbo Spares) many many years later he happened to be in the dealers at the same time and remembers when my friend went to pick it up. I suspect the air was blue.

What annoys me is that very rarely does anyone admit their at fault. I had a wishbone changed on a 206. Drove it home and gearbox oil everywhere as they split the gaiter. Took the car straight back and the guy tried to palm me off with it must have been a coincidence the gaiter was split. Stupid thing is for a £5 quid boot and an hour of his time he could have resolved it. He's never seen my money since so in the long run should have just come clean.

I agree with Tony though, I always hang about at MOT time just to make sure they don't take liberties.

[Tony Walker]

From my point of view, my garage is mine and my dads, its our duty to look after the customers car and to make sure its safe, if theres anything wrong then its going to affect the money and the image of our business. At alot of garages the mechanic is getting paid a set hourly rate for a job, if he does a 3 hour job in 2 hours he gets an extra hours pay........he also rarely sees the customer, not saying that they dont care but i cant see how they can care like we have to.

[Numptysnumnuts]

Check your mileage to see if it's been taken for a spin too.

Would have done had it not been broken at time of MOT garage said it didn't matter. Anyhow the thing that annoys me most is that some of the minor mechanical defects such as over worn brakes and track rod having too much play have all occurred since I bought the vehicle with a 12 month MOT. Now most of you will say 'well what do expect on a car of this age' well I too would agree except the car has travelled 60 miles since its last MOT in one journey as it developed a strange sound in the gearbox which I posted about in my first post and hadn't moved since except to turn it around on the drive.

Going to do the bits I can with the help of a friend and then once they are done take it back with a new bumper and indicator and tell them they can MOT it and whilst they have it fix the bumper to the car and sort the wing and indicator out. First off though I will be writing a letter to them to inform them of the damage and the fact that I spoke to the owner about the damage.

Does a wife count as a witness as she followed me to the garage to drop it off and to pick it up. When I told her what had happened she said well it wasn't like that when you dropped it off because she was in front of me and could see the headlights working and pointing in the right direction.

Will keep you updated but will definitely be sitting and waiting next time or I might be crafty and drop the keys off and go and wait outside close by.

[Haz]

i wouldn't even entertain taking it back. if they wont admit to that, assuming it was their fault, then whats to say they'll even fix the car porperly, or even worse do it again! would have thought taking a car out that wasn't road legal, and by the sounds of it not roadworthy would have been worth it worth in this day in age but all it could have took was an out of control wheel spin while parking it up! any pics of the damage? to push the wing out unless right on the edge would need a wack, poss not bad parking.

[Bunje]

like haz says how do you knwo what they are going to do once you take it back. i feel for you mate its proper annoying when someone messes with your stuff. i always try and wait when i leave my car for anything.

[jamie_clioGTT]

to be honest pal i agree with haz, i wouldnt entertain taking it back, id ring them and tell them your taking legal action, he mite then get scared and offer to fix or he will tell you to carry on and take legal action, in that instance take legal action..

[Chris Holt]

Contact your insurance, yes there is an excess but you will probably have legal cover.. you need to do it asap.

[JonM]

Contact your insurance, yes there is an excess but you will probably have legal cover.. you need to do it asap.


id also call the police, even tho they wouldnt be interested you would still get an incident number which all helps with your claim and would **** the garage owner up a bit and poss get on to trading standards that mite help abit too!! good luck matey

[Ian S]

I recall from the distant past that this happened to a local pal and he ascertained that some garages state they are not responsible for customers cars parked in their yard. Customers agree to these terms when leaving their vehicle.

He might genuinely not have known and another customer hit it. But the damage described does sound too big to just be a forecourt nudge. I does sound more like they took it for a drive and had a collision.

So an independent vehicle inspection would confirm this? Then you may have to use your insurance company to recover uninsured losses or use the small claim courts?

It's in his interest to do the repair but he wants to not supply the parts? Sounds like you should get it done in a proper body shop who are not trying to save money / cheat you.

[philg]

It's a ****ter, I would also threaten that and ring your insurance.

I had one of my old Evos being ragged around whilst in for service and my pulsar was written off while in for a paint job :(

[Numptysnumnuts]

Well all weekend spent on vehicle and thankfully damage to car not as bad as first thought.

Front bumper completely shot. Snapped in middle and fixing post drivers side snapped. Drivers front wing thankfully not damaged or twisted. Wing had bolt taken out of it and epoxy glued into bumper fixing point. Strange. New bolt put in and wing sits flush yeah.

Vehicle now at GT Turbos having a thorough medical and should have news during the week.