My sister had an overheating problem with her car. She called the AA out and they got her going again. She assumed that the repair would last long enough to get her home, but within a few miles the engine began making odd noises. The car had to be towed to a local garage. The garage say that severe overheating has wrecked the engine, and that the AA repair was inadequate.
Does she have a claim against the AA for the cost of repairs that might not have been needed if they hadn't got her going again.
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Steve,
Its worth a try but I imagine in the AAs small print they have a disclaimer somewhere hidden away.
I think its worth pursuing and I certainly would travel down this road as far as I could before giving up,
regards
Alvin
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Alvin, I thought about the small print and the AA legal Dept. Formidable !
To my mind the repairman had two options, repair the car properly or make other arrangements. He did neither.
Steve
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steve paterson wrote:
>
> My sister had an overheating problem with her car. She called
> the AA out and they got her going again. She assumed that the
> repair would last long enough to get her home, but within a
> few miles the engine began making odd noises. The car had to
> be towed to a local garage. The garage say that severe
> overheating has wrecked the engine, and that the AA repair
> was inadequate.
> Does she have a claim against the AA for the cost of repairs
> that might not have been needed if they hadn't got her going
> again.
IMHO no - The damage may have already been done before Mr AA
Man appeared, and you'd be hard pushed to prove otherwise.
/john
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Exactly John! You got there before I did!
Proving something can be extremely difficult, if not impossible.
Rgds
David
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Just a thought !
Now that the AA owns Halfords, I wonder if the patrolperson's standard line will turn from "sorry Sir, we can't fix this at the roadside, we will have to recover you to the nearest dealer" to "........... to the nearest Halfords"!!
Could be good for business, methinks !
Adam
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I'm sure the AA Patrolmen are targeted (by monetary reward) to repair cars by the roadside, which could lead them to carry out unsuitable roadside repairs.
Just a thought
David
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You might just have a point here
when one morning I turned the ignition on my old vectra 2.0l DI and nothing happened other than an interesting plume of smoke arose from under the bonnet I called Vauxhall Assist who in turn sent the AA.
The culprit was a purple relay at the back right hand side of the bonnet (it had happened before).
By the time he arrived I had the towing hook in place awaiting the tow (3 miles) to the Vauxhall dealers.
I explained what had happened and that it had happened before but low and behold first of all the engine cover came off, "to check the fuel pipes" second various of the fuse boxes were opened (40 mins gone) and finally the relay was taken out (signs of charring round the edge).
Despite the fact it is sealed he carefully prised it open and proceded to solder the two parts of the contact together.
Of course the car started but still had to go to the Vauhall Garage with him following (just in case) to have a new relay fitted.
Always wondered why he put so much time into it when just towing it in took 15 minutes tops.
as ever
Mark
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I had a similer problem with the AA, My ford orion heater matrix failed losing my water, the AA came and filled the water system back up and before setting me on my way decided to short out my cooling fan to test its operation, but he picked the wrong sensor and blew the ecu!!!! (must have been the water temp feed back to the ecu), Then to make things worse I had only just joined the evening before so they refused to tow me away because they had a 24hr joining period (which they didnt explain on the phone to me).
This resulted in a knackered ecu, heater matrix, warped head, and £140 independent recovary!!!!!
Great service!!, I complained to the AA but failed to get anywhere at all in the end they refunded my joining fee!!!!!!!
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Indeed
I was surprised at his effort hence my agreement with DL that he might be on a bonus for getting me mobile.
In all this fault occured 3 times on Vectra and twice it was towed in. The second time it happened the patrol man seemed very cagey about anything to do with electrics as he "didnt want to damage the ECU", which had been damaged the very first time this relay went. Which had in turn been damaged by a Vauxhall Trained Monkey, sorry, mechanic at a main dealers whilst in for a service.
as ever
Mark
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