garage withholding vehicle

[skatefreak]

Afternoon all...
Just a quick Q.
I have a friend who took his car to a garage.
BMW twin turbo diesel thing. Apparently making a *quacking* noise...
Long story short they said something about a glow plug/relay and a bill of £200 which included labor (he was told in more detail of course).
He got a call to say a specialist needed to *look* at it (as it later transpires this is because they thought one of their mechanics may have snapped the end of a glow plug off in the cylinder) however no further cost (or the concern about them messing up a glow plug) was mentioned (he has the phone call recorded).

He gets a call a day or so ago saying the car is good to go and he just needs to pop down and pay > £600 bill.
They did replace a glow plug and the relay as first discussed but then proceeded to change an injector and some of the wiring loom as it was *advised* by the specialist that it needed doing?
He was not informed of any of this further work and did not consent to it.

After going to speak to them in person they refuse to acknowledge that consent was not given and simply demand full payment as they refuse to make a loss of the job they have done.
To further accentuate their point they moved the vehicle to another garage on the premises and locked it up in front of him there and then, he was then told to return with the money or they would not let the vehicle go....?

The fella who owns the car has hit hard times and is staying with his parents during the week because he cannot afford to drive all the way home and his parents are closer and there is no way he could, would or did agreed to paying any more than the £200 quoted (and has the recorded phone calls of them mentioning the specialist but nothing about extra work or money being involved) and would have declined any further work.

To me it sounds like an error on the garage's part for not explaining that they would *hire* and bill him for the specialist to have a look or explain why and then to go on further to do more work to the vehicle without gaining full consent and getting permission.

He needs this car for work and has few options.

Police say its a civil matter.
Small claims court apparently take an age (or so we've been told).

Is a no win no fee lawyer an option?

A bit up a creek here, any thoughts would be very much appreciated.

TLDR:
Car goes into garage. Lots more work done than agreed. They are now angry/aggressive and have kidnapped the car until he pays for all the work he did not agree to. Car is worth lots

Best regards

-Jvr

[mentalboy]

Pepipoo...
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[DrSnoosnoo]

How can police say it's civil? It's theft, surely!

If he has it recorded he should march into the rozzer station and tell them. Or March to the garage with a big tub of battery acid and burn the bastards
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[covent.gardens]

[Jewlio Iglesias]

Did he agree to the work done?

If yes, bad times.

If not, sort of good times.

My personal way of dealing with it would be (I've not read it all) pay the bill via credit card, get car back, initiate chargeback. Let them drag him to court, and argue that he didn't agree to whichever parts of the work they carried out.

It isn't theft, case law which I can't remember at the moment on the very subject of garage withholding vehicle until payment made. Guy took his car from the garage using spare key, tl;dr he was dragged up for theft (or somesuch).
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[Ste]

Having previously discussed and agreed a price of £200 for something about a glow plug /relay, when he was told that it needed to go to a specialist he thought there would be no further costs as it would be included in the £200 he was paying for the glow plug / relay?

[MattEMulsion]

You can't really cut the "long story short" - the devil is in the detail. But regardless of who is in the right/wrong, if you a running a big twin turbo BMW you've got to expect some large repair bills. As for the garage holding the car until payment is made, that is their right or law of lien.
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[Rogerborg]

This again?

[iooi]

[EazyDuz]

Haha thats what you get when you buy a diesel BMW, or a diesel anything really.
Also, strapped for cash but drives a BMW? Tell him to get a 1.2 Clio...

If he told them to stop after doing £200's worth of repairs, then what? The car would still be fucked.
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[Ted]

I seriously doubt you'd find a 'no win, no fee' solicitor for a case like this, they usually only do accident claims.

The recorded phone call sounds too suspect. You just wouldn't record it unless there was already an issue.


Personally I think there would be little chance of getting anywhere. Best option would be to scrape together the cash, possibly fo with £500 and plead with them. Get the BMW back, give it a wash, put it on eBay. Buy a car that's cheaper to run and insure, an old diesel banger.
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[Copycat73]

[Andy_Pagin]

Main dealer or not?
If main dealer then a phone call to the CEO might get results.
Years ago a friend of mine tried this with Vovlo, end result was a 'sting' where the garage manager unexpectedly received a call from the CEO of Volvo UK whilst my friend was discussing the issues with him in his office. CEO was NOT nice to him. Problems suddenly went away.
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[bamt]

The problem is modern diesels. I ran diesel Peugeots for many years from the early 90s to early 200s, clocking up massive mileages and only routing maintenance. Rock solid machines, normally aspirated and mechanical injectors.
Come the new emissions regulations, and people wanting a more petrol-like driving experience, you get huge amounts of computer control, very high pressure fuel lines, electronic injectors, particulate filters etc. The first diesel of that generation we bought (a Peugeot 807) never worked right from new. It had almost all the electronics replaced at one time or another, loads of engine work, and still was a heap of unreliable junk.

A good modern diesel is very good - start on the button even on freezing mornings, give good fuel economy etc. (although the eco variants are normally underpowered horrible things to drive). But once they start going wrong, they cost a huge amount of money very quickly as no job ever appears to be straightforward. I moved off diesels a decade ago, and wouldn't go back again.

[EazyDuz]

An older, well looked after petrol 3 series would be a much more reliable machine.
Either way i'm not sure what the OP expects.

Car doesnt work, pay what it takes to get it road worthy
or

Car doesnt work, pay a fixed amount (£200) and get car back and it still isnt road worthy. Then what?
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[andym]

Just out of curiosity.... did he actually inform them at the beginning of the call that he would be recording it?

Anyway a good few years ago I had an old scrap heap which I sent to a garage for repair, I'd asked them to do a full service and replace the timing belt etc, to begin with I got a call to say it would cost around £250 for all the work, a few calls later and the cost had gone up to well over £1,000 (car was only worth £750). Eventually I told them to put it back to the way it was when I took it in there I'd have the work done elesewhere....

£250 later I got the car back.... 100 yards out of the garage and the timing belt snapped, I ended up contacting trading standards etc and was told that they wouldn't do anything because there wasn't enough complaints made about the garage

[Jewlio Iglesias]

[skatefreak]

Good afternoon all,

I have been further informed, and i believe this would answer your above, the only mention of the specalist was "we have a specalist looking at the car". That was it no authorisation requested for further work and no mention of further work that needed to be done on the car. It was just done. And more so the manager has admitted to having the specalist look at the car because he thought his mechanic had done something to make it run like "a bag of spanners"......

One has to remember that this is the second time that the car has been returned to the same garage as they said that they had initaly fixed the "duck noise" but Had not.


-JvR-
Hopes this clears things up.

[kramdra]

torch garage, claim on insurance

buy new car

[Nick24k]

Haven't read all of this, but, If the garage have not documented the time and date of the call and who authorised the additional costs, then they cannot charge him any extra at all.

The dealer has a responsibility to be transparant throughout the entire visit, and the customer should have been told there is likely to be additional costs, even if bloody obvious, Even if the figure is not yet established then the dealer are the ones who's experience should know to advise of possible additional charges.

With this sort of job there is always a risk of a broken glow plug however the technician should advise the service advisor if he comes across one that's tight. But being a BMW tech he probrably thought "not my problem".

Look, most customers try to take the piss when it comes to garages but even IF the customer is a total twat it's the dealers own fault and my money says if they haven't crossed their T's and dotted thier I's, Then in the eyes of the law they may as well just take the £200 and give him the keys.

It's a shit trade to be in
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[iooi]

[Ste]

[Nick24k]

[iooi]

[Ste]