Good afternoon

I need some advice on who is responsible for getting my car repaired please.

I have a Skoda Yeti on personal contract hire.

My car suffered some minor damage to the o/s/r door at the beginning of May and at the time there was no other apparent damage.

The car was collected by DLG Autos Orpington on Tue 22 May and returned on the morning of Sat 26 May.

The next time I drove the car was on Tue 29 May when I drove to work when I noticed that that, apart from a small deep scratch on the driver's door that there was a knocking noise coming from the front of the car, I was about 2 miles from my house at this time. The knocking noise become louder and faster as the car got faster but abated when I took my foot off the accelerator

I turned around as soon as possible and took the car to the Skoda dealership.

I told them the issue and history of the RTA.

The dealership believe that the problem lies within the gearbox where 'something' has been forced or bent and has come loose, maybe chassis misalignment but so far are unwilling to carry out any further tests if the fault is due to the RTA, also I believe trying to shift emphasis/cause on to the n/s/f tyre that I had changed at the beginning of the month.

DLG Autos are unwilling to accept that the fault was caused by them as there is no other apparent damage to the car.

Well it came back with it and another scratch and a broken door guard so what else did they do to it?

My insurers Direct Line have upheld DLG Autos explanation and have closed the complaint (less the scratch that they will sort).

I need to know please who has responsibility for diagnosing the fault and repairing it?

The car had a full service, carried out by Skoda, in back end of April and was running as smooth as anything before DLG got hold of it.

Thank you very much

I suppose we need to ask a lot of questions about how the contract works. Who paid for the repairs? Who chose DLG Autos?

As it is a rental car then normally speaking it would be the rental company who would be responsible for everything and they would then recover at least an excess from you.

You need to tell us a lot more

Hi Bank Fodder. I far as as I know my hire agreement with Skoda covers normal wear and tear/planned maintenance. DLG Autos was allocated by Direct Line as their approved repairer. Direct line also insured the third party so I think they are trying to brush me off to limit their costs as they are picking up the bill for all of it?

I'm not sure what else to tell you?

Thank you very much

DLG - direct line group...

I'm finding it very difficult to put this problem in perspective and so I'm at a bit of a loss to give any solid and directed advice.

There are two issues here – one of them is the damage to the car.

The second is the failure/damage to the gearbox.

I think it may be difficult to understand what further action to take until you get an independent diagnosis of the fault. It seems very strange that there could be a chassis misalignment with comparatively little damage on the exterior of the vehicle.

I think the only way to take control of this may be to find out exactly what is wrong and then you can start work out what chain of events may have caused it. To get an independent assessment, it may cost you some money. I'm not sure what else to advise at this point.

Agreed, OP you're in a bit of a bind with neither garage preparing to investigate substantially.

But without that investigation you can't begin to know how the problem with the gearbox was caused.

So maybe ask Skoda how much they would charge to investigate the fault fully and produce a report.

Hi there,

Thanks I will do just that. I also have the details now for the claims manager at DLG and will be logging a complaint with them too.

Good afternoon,

After logging a complaint with both DLG and Skoda UK my car is now repaired! Had a call from a lovely man in Scotland working for Direct Line complaints, who had their engineers talk shop with Skoda engineers and all was completed yesterday. All that now needs to be actioned is the small scratch to the door and that is being rectified on Friday. Cost to me so far £00.00. DLG say I should get the car back on 11 Jun, I may take it for a test drive before signing for it! Thank you all very much for your advice, it is very much appreciated.

Was it the gearbox?

I doubt it would go wrong for a little bump.

Something loose underneath on the prop shaft at the rear rubbing against the bodywork and causing the noise somehow to appear as if it was coming from the front.