Hi Dragon Dennis First, thanks for your precious help. Let's say that this time the job is satisfactory: can I sue the garage for keeping my car 90 days? About the painting, I was told by both an independent garage and from VW that the factory paint finish cannot be achieved on the field. An extremely good result - as you say - can be achieved but the quality of the factory, where they use million-pound worth equipment, cannot. Anyway, I am not so fussy, I would be happy with "just" an accurate job that - as you say - is achievable with some skill, time and money. But since they have been playing and practising with my Golf for 12 months, I think you understand my position. Thanks for your help! Tony

Hello Anybody can help?

Tonight update from the bodyshop. They tell me they found some swirls on the paint and they called the paint manufacturer to learn how to remove them. So the car is back to the bodyshop. It's unacceptable. I know how to polish a car better than them - and it's in fact true, I learnt how to polish a car a couple of years ago after extensive researches and buying the proper tools. This is an excuse to keep the car even longer. What can I do?? It's my property, I want it back.

Hello all First of all: Thanks for your time. I'll try to summarise a very long story. It all started in December 2009. I trusted my 2 years old car (perfectly maintained) to a Volkswagen retailer to replace the noisy seatbelt. 2 hours later, they told me there had been an accident and one of my doors had been damaged because of their fault. I was assured that they would have repaired it, I added that I would have not accepted any compromises on the repairing job. They agreed. After 10 days I inspected the repaired car and I rejected the job. It was poorly made and the paint was not looking the same of the rest of the car. After other 15 days (please note they were not rushing for delivering the car back in decent time) I inspected the car again and I rejected the job again: it was worse than before. At that time I collected the car anyway but I asked to put in writing that I was collecting the car but I was unhappy. In the meantime I got in touch with VW UK customer service. Maybe that was my mistake, I thought that VW would be very unhappy with the service I was receiving. Eventually, I was wrong. They asked me to send some pictures, and I did. After a number of phone calls and recorded letters, VW UK managed to organise a meeting with the new service manager and bodyshop manager of the dealer. I attended the meeting, they acknowledged the rubbish job and gave me only one option: give the car another try in the same bodyshop. I rejected the offer because the very same bodyshop already tried two times and I couldn't see any points in trusting them again. I thought Volkswagen UK would have offered some alternatives, and agreed with me that I had already given them two chances and they failed to accomplish the standards VW require. I was mistaken. After a lot of calls VW UK eventually told me that they couldn't do anything more for me and that the dealer damaged my car, not VW, and that I should talk directly with the dealer for further actions. I got in touch with Consumer Direct, they advised to send a recorder letter summarizing what had happened, and stating my requests. I sent it (13 pages - including all the previous communications - and 10ish photos) asking £1850 for the repairing job (this is the quote I had from an independent bodyshop), £1000 for the depreciation of my car and £350 for my lost time and money. [Depreciation: a factory painting quality cannot be achieved by any bodyshop. It's just a fact. If I sold my car today and the potential buyer had my car inspected, they would realize that the car had been damaged and repainted on the whole right hand side. This would lower the value of the car a little bit.] VW dealer answered acknowledging the poor job, but that they wouldn't entertain any third part quote and they offered me to have my car repainted - for the third time - in a different bodyshop of the same group. Reluctantly I had to accept. They inspected my car on the 22nd of September - acknowledging the poor job and promising to put it right. Today, 25th of November, the car is STILL in their bodyshop. I will save you the bad excuses I was given. Now, I managed to have my bonnet repainted and my right wing repaired by a stone chips. But this has been dragging for 12 months (some of the delay was my fault, so let's say 8 months to be fair) and I haven't been able to drive my car for 80 days so far. Consumer Direct and a solicitor told me that "if there is no loss, there's no claim". This is because during this time I have been driving a replacement car. Does this mean that they can keep my car forever if I have a replacement car? That car was very expensive for me and I feel powerless against a big company that is clearly ignoring me. What would you advice? Do you think I should be happy with a repainted bonnet (I reckon it's a 2-300£ worth job)? I've counted the miles I had to drive to chase this issue: approx 400 miles. Then there are the recorded letters, photos, phone calls... I must admit that when I was told of the accident (they were trying to hide it, but I was waiting in the waiting room and eventually they came back and told me the truth) I was disappointed but assured by the "VW" brand. "They will put it right with a top knock job, and in no time" I thought. When I realized they were not even try to do a decent job, I got angry. This is why now I think I am entitled to some kind of compensation: I am not talking about a week of delays, I am talking of MONTHS. Thanks again for your time and for your help. And please excuse me for grammatical mistakes! As you may have spotted, I am not British, I moved here 15 months ago and I brought my car over because it was just 2 years old, I didn't want to sell it. Thanks Antonio