Our legal people's response as follows: "If the dealer caused the damage then they are ultimately liable whether the reader was paying for the repair or not. I suppose it would be possible to take action against Citroen as the repairer would be acting as their agent but it comes down to the terms and conditions for the repair. These normally exclude any liability for a third party so it is likely that The reader’s recourse is directly with the repairing garage - although if it ever got to litigation I would normally join both the dealer and Citroen to the case. I have some sympathy for the repairer in that work such as this is almost always underestimated and there is very little profit in the job - and none at all if anything goes wrong. If the dealer is resolute about not paying then the recourse would be Small Claims Court. However it is almost never cost effective (in terms of time, trouble and stress - which are not recoverable) for such a small amount. Personally I would buy the part myself and ask the dealer to fit it free of charge but the reader may feel otherwise."