"Sorry, we can't give your car back, it's not drivable."
Discussion
I have recently given my Corsa to my mum as she's fallen on some rough ground. She's had to sell her car, and she has some age-related health issues. In addition, their Internet has gone down, and as I'm at home for the time being I have to use my phone to write this.
As I was giving the Corsa to her, we agreed that the car should be fixed. The handbrake wasn't as strong as it should have been, so she took it to the garage I bought it from to get it fixed. I also bought a (transferable) warranty with the car so the first step was to check if the handbrake was under warranty.
The car went in yesterday morning. We were told to expect a call later that day to discuss whether the car was under warranty or not. The call came, and the garage said the warranty company was shut and they needed to hang on to the car until monday at least. We asked if we could have the car back as mum needed it to get to work, and we were told that the car is "undrivable" and she had driven it there "at her own peril". They would have to keep it there. We asked about a courtesy car, which they refused.
My question is; is this to be expected of a dealer? We haven't agreed for any works to be carried out yet, but they're refusing to release the car or supply an alternative means of transport. I only bought the car from them at the end of July last year, so in 5/6 months a car can't be expected to be classed undrivable by the garage who sold it, can it?
I'd like to go down to the garage today to have a chat with them - however I'd like to know where I stand right now. Without a car my mum's got a massive inconvenience going to work, not to mention delivering my sister to/from school. Am I being too expectant of the garage, or can I pop in later and politely inform someone senior that this isn't supposed to be going on?
Car is a 52-reg 1.2 Corsa (yes, I know). Bought it at 60k miles, it's on 66-67k now.
TIA for any advice.
As I was giving the Corsa to her, we agreed that the car should be fixed. The handbrake wasn't as strong as it should have been, so she took it to the garage I bought it from to get it fixed. I also bought a (transferable) warranty with the car so the first step was to check if the handbrake was under warranty.
The car went in yesterday morning. We were told to expect a call later that day to discuss whether the car was under warranty or not. The call came, and the garage said the warranty company was shut and they needed to hang on to the car until monday at least. We asked if we could have the car back as mum needed it to get to work, and we were told that the car is "undrivable" and she had driven it there "at her own peril". They would have to keep it there. We asked about a courtesy car, which they refused.
My question is; is this to be expected of a dealer? We haven't agreed for any works to be carried out yet, but they're refusing to release the car or supply an alternative means of transport. I only bought the car from them at the end of July last year, so in 5/6 months a car can't be expected to be classed undrivable by the garage who sold it, can it?
I'd like to go down to the garage today to have a chat with them - however I'd like to know where I stand right now. Without a car my mum's got a massive inconvenience going to work, not to mention delivering my sister to/from school. Am I being too expectant of the garage, or can I pop in later and politely inform someone senior that this isn't supposed to be going on?
Car is a 52-reg 1.2 Corsa (yes, I know). Bought it at 60k miles, it's on 66-67k now.
TIA for any advice.
t, they cant do that.There is conflicting information about this. Trading standards have been telling us (workshops) that we should not let unroadworthy cars leave our premises and if we do the world will explode and everyone will die.
Obviously this is not very appealing to the customer who wants his car back. This has been discussed here before in relation to cars which fail their MOT.
It is tricky in the claim driven society we live in. The scenario the garages are trying to avoid is letting the customer have their car back only for the customer to mow down 15 children waiting for a bus and then the garage being blamed since they knew the car had defective brakes when they gave it back to the customer.
I don't know the solution, only the problem.
Obviously this is not very appealing to the customer who wants his car back. This has been discussed here before in relation to cars which fail their MOT.
It is tricky in the claim driven society we live in. The scenario the garages are trying to avoid is letting the customer have their car back only for the customer to mow down 15 children waiting for a bus and then the garage being blamed since they knew the car had defective brakes when they gave it back to the customer.
I don't know the solution, only the problem.
edo said:
Simple.
Just get the customer to sign a simple waiver saying they understand the faults with the car, and that they are not taking the advice of the garage which is to not drive it.
Apparently this is not good enough because the customer is thick (normal person) and the garage is clever (expert Just get the customer to sign a simple waiver saying they understand the faults with the car, and that they are not taking the advice of the garage which is to not drive it.
). (trading standards opinion not mine...obviously)edo said:
Sigh, the world has lost all common sense and responsibility!
Surely though if the car is genuinely unsafe to drive, the garage are being responsible by stopping the driver who is obviously unaware of the unsafeness from driving it. If the driver was aware of the degree of unsafeness then they wouldn't want to be driving it anyway.plfrench said:
Surely though if the car is genuinely unsafe to drive, the garage are being responsible by stopping the driver who is obviously unaware of the unsafeness from driving it. If the driver was aware of the degree of unsafeness then they wouldn't want to be driving it anyway.
Agreed, but just to be clear - the OP's car has an issue where the handbrake isnt working as well as it could be.......Could it be that the handbrake isn't working because of something more serious though, such as some rear suspension component rusting through, causing the assembly to move and providing slack in the handbrake cable hence the reason why it's not working too effectively? We don't have enough detail.
Could you get VOSA to offer an independant inspection in a case of this type as a regulatory authority? If so, I would have thought a garage should be cautious of offering this sort of guidance unless correct through fear of licensing repercussions.
Could you get VOSA to offer an independant inspection in a case of this type as a regulatory authority? If so, I would have thought a garage should be cautious of offering this sort of guidance unless correct through fear of licensing repercussions.
hornetrider said:
They've borrowed it for the weekend.
My immediate thoughts.I'm very unlikely to ever be in this OP's situation. I'm so very glad I learned to pick up a spanner many moons ago and fix my cars myself. Saved countless ££££s since then and safe knowing the job has not only been done, but, done well which is never guaranteed in even the best run pro-workshops.
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