I feel like I'm between a rock and hard place with this.
On Tuesday morning my car broke down and I had the telephone number of a local garage who offer recovery. As I was not with RAC or AA, I called them and asked them for a price to recover my car, 35.00 + VAT, I agree this and they come out and take my car to the garage dropping me off at home on the way. They tell me without opening the bonnet that it sounds like the head gasket, and it is a common problem for my car. This is at 11am.
I call them at 2pm, they have not had a chance to have a look at it yet, but they think it is the head gasket. I call them back at 4.30, still not looked at it.
I call the next morning Wednesday at 11am, not looked at it yet, but will call me back. They did call back at 2 and I missed the call. I called them back but the person who needed to speak to me was in the workshop and would call back before going home. He calls me back about 5.30 and says it is the head gasket, it is split between cylinders 1 and 2, he reels off what needs to be done and gives me a price of 470.00, but tells me the sump needs changing as well and the total will be 604.00. I tell him the car is not worth that to me. I only paid 1000.00 for it, and I have just paid 300.00 to have a new steering column, I will bring it home and probably scrap it. The garage say, well, we'll see if we can do anything with the price and call you back tomorrow.
I had to go to college yesterday, but was finishing at 11. During my break, I call another garage (further away, but seem more trustworthy) that I have used and ask for a ball park figure and they tell me it might be as much as £300. I can live with that and tell them I will tow the car down.
I get a lift from college to the first garage, (buying a tow rope on the way), when I get there they tell me that my car is in bits the guy looking at it is going to lunch and can I go back for it at 2pm or they can do a bare fix it job, by changing the gasket only if I am just scrapping it and that will be 270.00, they also tell me it is illegal to tow a car with a rope and that I won?t get much for it if I scrap it. I call them at 2, to be told "the guy working on it has gone to lunch" it still isn?t ready and can I call back at 2.45. The person who was going to give me a tow has to go to work and I don?t call the garage back as I can't pick it up.
I call them at 9am this morning asking if I can come for it now. They say, we didn't get time to put it back together yesterday, we've got your number and will call you when it?s ready, the guy working on it has had to go out for parts, and inform me that there are labour costs to pay, yes, I appreciate you had to diagnose the fault, how much is it. They tell me it is 2 hours labour. I argue that as they thought it was the head gasket when they picked it up, I expected 1 hour would be enough to diagnose the fault and I am unhappy at having to pay for 2 hours labour, I am told that they could not see what was wrong with it without taking it apart.
Is there anything I can do, is it possible to hire a frame or van to take my car to the other garage, or do I just have to wait until they do put it back together? I realise I am going to have to pay what they ask just to get it out of the garage, but is there any arument for the amount of work they have done?
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Without knowing precisely what you said, you haven't authorised to do any work on the car other than whatever is necessary to diagnose the fault. In my view, they should not have needed to strip anything down to diagnose the head gasket - they could analyse the cooling water, and run a compression test, which would as you say take no more than an hour. Perhaps you could ask your other garage what they would do, and how long they would take, to make the diagnosis, and armed with proper evidence you can then dispute (or otherwise!) the 2 hours diagnostic costs. As a long shot, you could possibly get your garage may even speak to the one that has your car to help you.
I can't help you with the legality of towing by rope, other than raise my eyebrows at their claim that it is illegal - since tow ropes are freely on sale throughout the country. There may be restrictions on length, colour, visual indications (e.g. perhaps they need a high-vis marker on the rope) and the provison of an "on tow" sign. I certainly bought one 18 months ago to tow my old car to a garage. Why don't you do an online search or ask the local police?
It's always a difficult thing arguing with burly mechanics when your car is in pieces - good luck!
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Am I understanding it that you are now wanting to tow the car away still in bits and take it to the second garage to finish... and the first garage have agreed to charge just two hours labour for investigation (plus the tow in charge??). If so that is quite fair. They may have suspected a head hasket fault but it wasn't 100% proven until it was stripped and two hours is OK.
However if garage one have now reduced their price to £270 aren't they cheaper anyway?
I guess the sump is leaking oil a bit?? That can easily be stopped up for ages with an "instant metal" of "tank sealant" product for £5.
David
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The first garage want 2 hours labour for diagnosing the fault, plus their recovery charge. I thought 2 hours was excessive and I am getting conflicting advise that one hour would be enough or that it would be 2. That being the case I don't think I have an argument and will have to pay the 2 hours charge, but I am angry that the garage have me over a barrel with my car in bits and I can't remove it until they put it back together, when all I wanted was a price for the repair.
I want to tow it to another garage for the repair, but the engine could drop out unless they put it back together.
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jordylass I know this sort of thing is annoying but garage one could have had good intentions in making absolutely sure they knew the head gasket was the fault before quoting and in stripping it to check... and of course the investigation time was actually going towards getting the job started. I accept that Mike's post had a slightly different opinion to mine but it is true to say if thay had quoted on the basis of a non-dismantling check they could have found other problems once the head was off and been phoning you with something like "we've found it needs a new head as well as gasket and that will be an extra £300".
As they have quoted £270 to do the job it does seem daft to pay them to temp assemble just for a tow elsewhere.
On the towing issue without a running engine you will have no brake servo or power steering (if you have that) so while not illegal rope towing is always risky.
Out of interest what were the breakdown symptoms?
David
Edited by M.M on 12/12/2008 at 10:46
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£270 was just to put a new gasket on, not skim the head or anything else, they said it's not the proper way to do it, but will get by until it's sold.
Breakdown symtoms, the car started to make a ticking noise, (like cards in a bicycle wheel) and I lost all power. I drove it to a layby, but didn?t feel it was up to driving much further.
They showed me the gasket in the garage, I could see the split in it.
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Of course I meant to say this...
...making absolutely sure they knew the head gasket was the fault before quoting.... and in stripping it to check the investigation time was actually going towards getting the job started.
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Ok including a head skim should only take their charge up to around the £300 quote of the second garage so I'd twist their arm to do that.... be nice to them and claim student poverty and it should all work out OK and save you a lot of hassle.
David
Edited by M.M on 12/12/2008 at 11:01
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I don't want them to do the work, if their costs had been reasonable in the first place it would not have been too bad, but I stopped using this garage a few years ago when their costs escalated and my car always had to go back within a week of repair for something that had been forgotten or overlooked.
I had them pick it up as they are local and paying a little extra would have been worth it for the convenience. But my regular little family run garage can do everything they were going to do for 2/3rds of the price and I don?t feel I'm being shafted by them, so even though it?s going to be hassle I'm going to move it. If they haven't put it back together so that it can be towed hiring recovery is only £30-£50 so that is an option.
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Sorry if this sounds a bit harsh but your decisions seem to lack a bit of logic.
If you are now saying garage one has messed up before then you should never have been towed there in the first place.
However if you are saying had their costs been reasonable in the first place you would actually have been happy with them..... then if they agree to match costs now this is still your easiest option.
My interest in this stems from many years on both side of the garage counter so I have no axe to grind either way!
I would say though they don't sound the best communicators and this is probably at the route cause of where you find yourself now.
David
Edited by M.M on 12/12/2008 at 11:41
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It sounds like it turned into a shambles from the word go. The garage that you had the car towed to sounds very disorganised and it seems like communication has been a major problem area too. I don't think that it is fair to apportion all of the blame on the garage either.
I am sure that they were probably acting in their best faith (although naively) by doing as much work to your car as they did. Look at the facts, you have used them in the past, you rung them up and asked them to tow your broken down car into their workshop where they are to assume that they are going to be fixing it. Maybe by your actions they took that to mean that they could do a proper diagnosis and basically get on with the job? I think that two hours is a fair price to pay for what they have already done with your car if they have already got it to the stage where the head is off.
As for towing it away on a rope, then whilst I don't believe it is technically illegal it is certainly no longer an accepted or recommended way of moving a vehicle. If you really want to go down this route then you should be at least using a proper solid towbar. If you do use the rope and you are spotted by a police officer they could easily deem that you are not in proper control of your vehicle and book you for an offence along those lines.
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