I was recently involved in an accident. I guess I should start by explaining what happened. I was following a car, a fair distance from me at night. It went round a sharp corner. What I did not know was that when it went round the corner, it clipped a vehicle coming the other way. I came to the corner unaware of what was round the bend, entered the bend, passed the oncoming vehicle and was then immediately blinded by a big dust storm, hit the brakes but then there was a bang. I saw for a very brief moment the car that was in front of me and hit the side of it. It turns out that they had lost control, rolled the car and stopped in the middle of the road after clipping the on coming car. I suspect the on coming car was not completely on their side of the road when the car in front of me hit it. When I passed the oncoming car I moved to the left a little because they seemed close. I don't feel that I could have done anything to prevent the accident and did everything I could to avoid it. But my insurance company say that I was at fault, even though the other car lost control, reduced any visibility and ultimately could have been caused by the on coming car being on the wrong side. Could anyone give any advice? I've never been in a proper accident and it does not feel right that I'm the party that's being blamed.

Hiya, Mine is a mk2 1.2 16v.

Well I have an update... I thought they were going to drag this as far as they could but I randomly got a letter and cheque from them asking me to stop proceeding and they wish to settle the full amount of my claim. I don't know what made them do a U turn but I've recently being made redundant so I'm glad they did. Anyway, I'd like to thank everyone for their advice and support on this. Ta muchly.

Yes I have an address for them. But everything they have sent was "shop4parts". I even checked them out on google street view and even their building is signed "shop4parts" too. Unfortunately I didnt submit any correspondence with the court application . There was no option to on the moneyclaim website to do that and was wondering when I get the chance to do so. I'll get hold of the court on monday and see if/how I can do that. Along with getting the case transfered to the correct title. I think the expert witness will probably make a charge for an affidavit. Can I add the cost to the claim though? In terms of correspondence, I have the shop4parts invoice, a letter from the expert witness to the garage saying that he has photographic evidence, they "should not incur the expense of a civil procedure report or any other works", that he has informed trading standards of his evidential findings and that there is no evidence to support the view that liability rests with the garage plus a letter from the garage saying that the belt was fitted correctly and that the belt failed. I have another letter from FIAT saying that shop4parts are who i should deal with and that shop4parts can then progress the claim with FIAT. I do have another letter somewhere from shop4parts that says they will refund the belt kit only, if I return the belt but nothing more. Although I can't as FIAT refuse to acknowlege they received it. Anyway, thank you to both of you for your help . This is turning into a fairly steep learning curve for me lol.

They have not been forthcoming with their name, until now. So I could only go on it being shop4parts . The expert witness has lots of letters after his name. "LLB, Cert Ed., CAE, MIMI". I don't have a clue what any of those are lol. But he apparently does quite a bit of work for trading standards. Anyone know what any of them are? I submitted all recepts and letters to Wilcox/shop4parts originally. But having never been through this process before, there was just a text box with a limited number of characters and seems to be no way to submit any evidence. Or am I missing something? Am I able to go to the courts with the evidence they are asking for and explain that they are not forthcoming with their name (as above)? Or am I going to have to start out again and fork out for another small claim because of the name? If so, I may see if I can go through a no win no fee solicitor this time so they can talk in legal terms instead of my poor and probably slightly amusing attempts to lol.

Cool. I've not been in touch with trading standards - yet. This is what I entered on the mcol site to start my claim. It's fustrating how little space you get and the inability to attach any evidence. This is their rather lengthy reply...

Well... I have an update. I didnt get anywhere with them with resolving the matter out of court so it was submitted. I hoped they would offer something once they got news of court action but instead they got their solicitor to put in a defence. I have their defence here now. Can I legally post up what I submitted and what they entered as their defence?

Yes it came with a tensioner and can get pics of the belt and engine too. They've missed the deadline so I think I'll email them today and let them know I'm submitting the court documents today at 5pm. Just in case they want to come back with "oooh, hang on I'll just send you the money now". Thanks for all your help

I went with the Fiat belt thinking that it would be a good quality, original part, many people on the fiat forums use them and the belt the garage wanted to use doesnt have a good reputation. Well their deadline is up and I've heard nothing other than "we have forwarded the matter to our insurer". Why are they doing that though? Is there some product insurance policy available to cover faulty parts that will pay out? If there is, hopefully that will make life easier.

Hopefully I'm getting somewhere. Fiat, the idiots, in all of the messing about wanted to inspect the belt originally so I sent it to them a while ago (shop4parts told me to contact them to be reimbursed originally). Now Fiat convieniently deny ever receiving it which threw a spanner in the works with shop4parts saying they cannot proceed with out it. However as (I think) under Soga its the suppliers responsibility to collect it I've told shop4parts that if they want it, its up to them to get it back off Fiat, I have already had an independent automotive forensics expert verify the manufacturing fault so there's no reason why I cannot be reimbursed and if they do not then I'm going to submit the county court claim forms I've prepared to initiate legal proceedings. They have just replied saying that they have forwarded the matter to their insurer . Is this a good sign? Why is an insurer is getting involved too? :?

Thanks, that puts my mind at rest because so far I've just been bounced between the supplier and Fiat, but now I can just contentrate on the one. I'd doubt it was a fake part if it was that long ago. Probably just one of the few belts that got out of the door with a fault which was not picked up on.

Yes the part was genuine and shop4parts is a known Fiat parts supplier. I've filled in the small claims forms already, but I'm not sure, should I be specifying shop4parts or Fiat as the defendant? It's a manufacturing fault so I keep thinking it should be Fiat. Or should it be shop4parts who would then claim from Fiat? The belt has been changed on the replacement engine by the garage using their own supplier. I originally thought it would be best to use genuine fiat parts rather than go for any unknown manufacturer or copy parts hence why I went for the Fiat belt originally. Lesson learnt I suppose.

Hello, I'm in a bit of a pickle. I'll try and keep this short lol. I purchased a genuine Fiat cam belt from shop4parts.co.uk. It was fitted by my local garage. 2 days later the car died due to cam belt failure. The garage investigated the belt failure and concluded that the new belt was faulty. They then hired in an automotive forensic expert (who typically does court work for trading standards) to investigate and he too came to the conclusion that the belt was faulty. The engine was declared as beyond economical repair and a replacement engine was fitted costing a total inc fitting of £768 I've since contacted shop4parts and they have offered to refund the belt but the refund of the replacement engine would have to come from Fiat. I've contacted Fiat and after two weeks of waiting & chasing they have finally told me they are unwilling to offer anything, it has nothing to do with them and I need to contact shop4parts. I dont see why I should swallow the cost of a manufacturing fault. But should I be chasing Fiat or Shop4parts.co.uk for reimbursement of the cost of a replacement engine? Thanks.

Thanks, yes it is a propper company - http://www.shop4parts.co.uk/ many people on the Fiat forums use them and swear by them it seems. I had heard some belt makers tend to just refund the cost of the belt only. But I'm guessing most people this would happen to can't be bothered to try to recover their costs. I have checked out who the expert independant is and they are not related to the garage. The garage owner went to trading standards for advice and they passed on the details for an automotive forensic services company to them. If it is definately a genuine belt, sounds like the small claims court is going to be the place to go then. I'm presuming its the manufacturer of the belt that I should be going after rather than shop4parts though? I'm not sure :-S

I've had a month of having no car so far... Rewinding a month - the head gasket on my car went. Took the car to the garage and asked them to repair it. As they were doing the work, I asked them to change the cambelt, water pump and tensioner. I purchased a genuine Fiat belt kit from an online reseller using my credit card because I didnt want the garage to use any cheap copy parts. Unfortunately 3 days after getting the car back, the car stopped running. Got the car recovered and it turned the cam belt had come apart. I initially thought that the belt had got caught and cut somewhere but the garage say its a faulty belt. They have called in an automotive forensic expert who has told me that in his opinion too its definately a faulty belt. I'm not sure where I go next though. I face a bill that is steadily amounting to near a thousand pounds now . I hear its common place for belt manufacturers to just try passing the blame back to the garage which will make recovering the costs of having to have a new engine a nightmare. I paid for the belt kit using a credit card (Egg money card). So could I try to recover the costs from the card company, who would in turn recover the costs from the belt manufacturer? Or is my only option to go directly to the belt manufacturer?

Hello, I would like a little help to know where I stand please. I think its probably best to explain the whole story so far... I purchased a nice little 2000 (W reg) Fiat Punto Sporting with 56k miles 7 weeks ago from a trader who advertised the car in the autotrader for £1450. I went to look at the car and was pleased with it. It did have a noisy wheel bearing and a minor issue so the trader and myself agreed on the price of £1300 and I would pay for the repairs. Since getting the wheel bearing repaired, it has some strange noises which were not audible due to a very noisy wheel bearing. The garage say that the differential is on its way out so its new gearbox time. I've gathered quotes for a second hand gearbox (in the region of £400 + £180 fitting). I wrote a letter giving the trader three options to resolve this matter. 1) The car is fully refunded along with the cost of repairs to the exhaust and wheel bearing and also he arranges to pick up the vehicle. 2) The trader can arrange the purchase and fitment of a new gearbox by a garage local to me and make payment to the garage and gearbox supplier directly. 3) I will arrange for the purchase and fitment of a new gearbox at my convenience. Invoices for both the gearbox and fitting are sent to the trader with the expectation that a cheque be returned in the post for the full amount. The dealer replied with a letter saying that I knocked him down on the price due to the problems I had found, the car had only came in the day before I purchased it and that he will not be covering the repairs as I paid £1300 - below the "CAP clean" price of £1700 apparently, what ever that is. He did however enclose a cheque for £100 as an offer of good will and full and final dealings with the matter. What has thrown me off just getting the car repaired and chase the dealer for the costs is this "CAP clean" price. I'm not sure what this "CAP clean" price is, it sounds like a recomended retail price. In which case I'm not sure of my rights now as SOGA says "in a condition which reflects its age and price". What do you think? Thanks.

I had suspicions it was a private ticket but having never had one before wasn't sure. But thanks to all of you for confirming it. I shall wait and see what comes through the post and take it from there. Thanks.

Hello everyone. I managed to get my first ticket in 13 years of driving on sunday. Pretty unlucky when I did buy a ticket for parking. But anyway, the car park was right outside a council office and I cant tell if it's a coporate part of the council (if there is such a thing), a company acting on behalf of the council or just some private company handing out mickey mouse fines. Could someone take a look at this and tell me if it's a propper council fine or a mickey mouse fine please? Thanks. img160.imageshack.us/img160/9242/scan0001ls6.jpg