Hi

I'm hoping someone can help me

My car a citroen grand Picasso 2010 was in the citroen garage a month ago to fix the boot whilst in they advised it had an oil leak and diesel leak and a belt needed changing they did the work at a cost of 1700 ive split the payments so payed 425 so far the next payment is due in two days.

Less than three weeks after this work was done I was driving back from a day out for my son's birthday the first time the car had been driven over 60mph for longer than 10 mins. The car had done less than 300 miles since being in the garage. Anyway the car started making a funny noise and about 30 seconds later it came up stop oil pressure and I pulled straight into a layby and switched off the engine. The engine fan was still going and white smoke coming from it. I phoned RACand they towed it back to citroen. The car wouldnt switch on at this point even after he tried to jump it. After they looked at the engine they said it was nothing to do with the work they did however it may have contributed as now the top engine was fixed it would put pressure on the bottom. They offered Labour at half price to put in a brand new engine for 6500. The car is worth 4000 tops really.

So now I'm stuck with a car that won't work on my drive and a 1700 bill.

Is there anything I can do?

I think that you will probably need to get an engineer's report which will tie the damage into the work which was done.

I'm afraid that this will cost you money – which you will be able to reclaim if you can make the connection – and also it will take some time.

You say the car is a 2010 model. It is that when you bought it or have you bought it more recently?

Hi

Thankyou for your reply.

We bought the car September 2016.

Where would I get an engineer's report? Are they expencive?

Thankyou

I suppose that you could get a report from the AA or from the RAC. You need the report to be as official as possible and if you could get it from an authorised Citroen garage that would be a good idea as well – although you shouldn't tell them the story so that they won't favour another Citroen garage. Tell them that the work had been carried out by some other garage.

If you only bought the car in September 2016, then there are certainly issues in terms of your consumer rights under the CRA. Did you buy the car from the garage which did the repair work?