Car has been in to be fixed on 3 occasions, fault still there!

[sequenci]

Hi there,

Over the last 6 weeks my car has had a fault with the electronic accelerator. The car has had various work carried out at a cost of about £200 in total, yesterday the fault came back with a vengance.

Could anyone tell me where I stand with regard to this as I begrudge paying out even more money to no avail.

The garage is actually a main dealer so I would have expected them to on the ball, I took it there as I thought that the fault was pretty complicated and felt more confident that they could sort it out!

Any help with this would be gratefully received.

[gbjadyy]

this a laguna by any chance????????

[robbo666]

or a vauxhall astra?? lol

[sequenci]

wrong on both counts.

the car in question is an '03 fiesta.

i took it back in today so any assistance before i have to pick it up at 5.30 would be very gratefully received!

[rosiecotton]

Bear in mind that I am in no way a mechanic or mechanically minded, so I can only advise on the legislation and have no way of knowing about the actual fault.

However if you have taken the car in to them to be repaired, they have an obligation under the Supply of Goods and Services Act to act with reasonable care and skill (effectively to a professional standard), and any parts they supply must be of satisfactory quality and fit for all normal purposes.

If it is reasonable to expect a professional mechanic to have properly diagnosed the fault and repaired it correctly, then if they have not done so they have not acted with reasonable care and skill and they should carry out the actual repair to a satisfactory standard at no extra cost.

I've had problems in the past with a car which had an intermittent fault, the garage at the time said that as it was coming to them without the fault present (it would break down, get towed, then by the time it got to the garage it would start again), it was hard to make a confident diagnosis. They said there was about 3 things that they could try but they could not guarantee each alone would fix the problem. I decided to cut my losses with the car anyway as I had lost faith, but if I had gone ahead with a job and it hadn't worked I wouldn't have had any comeback as I had been warned the fault was hard to diagnose, even for a professional mechanic, and therefore I could not have claimed they did not use reasonable care and skill.

This is a separate example, just to illustrate that it is not always straightforward with mechanical issues and that I cannot be 100% confident without any mechanical knowledge of the fault. However the above advice is the line I would take based solely on the info I have and my knowledge of the legislation.

[sequenci]

Originally Posted by rosiecotton

I've had problems in the past with a car which had an intermittent fault, the garage at the time said that as it was coming to them without the fault present (it would break down, get towed, then by the time it got to the garage it would start again), it was hard to make a confident diagnosis. They said there was about 3 things that they could try but they could not guarantee each alone would fix the problem.

This is EXACTLY the case with mine.

I'm not an unreasonable person, so much so that i'll happily pay more money to get the car resolved (as long as it is not OTT). I'm just looking for a valid argument in case they sting me with a stupidly high figure. So far they have been pretty decent with me although i'm always keen to learn the legal perspective.

I appreciate your time taken to reply, thanks

[gbjadyy]

simple really take it back,
intermitant problems are one of the worst problems out there
any reputable garage would advise what they think may be wrong but make it clear it could be wrong diagnosis but also give you a very reasonable labour cost if things start to add up!!!
sometimes intermittant faults are better left untill they are more prodomanent (as long as the car is safe to drive), this way diagnosis becomes easier

talk to the manager (not in an argumentative manner but sensibly) you should find they will help out a little on labour costs as long as you agree on full cost of parts needed!!!

[sequenci]

the car went back and they sorted it with no charge, service was excellent. i'm really happy