When my 99 Mazda seriously overheated, I was advised by a Mazda main dealer to write it off. Took it to a smaller (recommended) garage for a second opinion. He too wrote in a report "uneconomical to repair". I suggested he look for a used engine. He claimed he couldn't find one. Finally he inspected it again, said all would be fine with a new head gasket, though becuase of the delay sitting on his forecourt, everything else would need to be done. But then, he said, it would be "like new". I agreed. Hefty bill of £3,042. But I had a "new" car. Less than 2000 miles (6 months and 2 days) later the engine was in meltdown on the M5. AA said take it to the tip. Molten bits of metal falling out of it. The AA man was staggered, said he'd assumed I'd run out of petrol. "MX-5 engines never go wrong," he said... Towed to a main dealer (different one) who agreed to take it in part exchange for another MX5. (I needed a car desperately.) They gave me only £500 for it...
Before this I had obviously spoken (initially via email) to the offending garage but the Main Man, said Tough. Everything we did was fine. It must have been something else wrong.
Do I have any claim against the garage. It may be that everything they did was "right". But surely, if you're going to ask your customer to spend over £3,000 on a car which you had already said was unecomical to repair, then you have a duty of care to check that you've diagnosed the original fault correctly and are not putting icing on a rotten cake?
Anyone any ideas or advice as to where I stand on this? They obviously have negligence insurance -- should this be my route?
I'd be very grateful for any help anyone can give me. I'm not someone who tinkers around with cars. I get my car serviced regularly, fill it with petrol, and keep an eye on the dials and so on. Basically I need to be able to trust a garage to tell me what's wrong and then put it right.
|
The AA man was right. The MX-5 engine is bulletproof. It is derived from a turbo'd engine.
However, lack of maintenance or a burst hose will not stop overheating damage.
Whoever claimed that used engines were not available was also telling porkies. Because they are bulletproof, there are plenty available from accidents or scrapped cars. A quick check on ebay shows loads of them around £200-ish. I reckon you could change one over in an afternoon.
Sorry, can't advise on the legal aspects though.
Martin
|
|
|
Everyone told you to write the car off, but you wouldnt have it. Why an earth did you pay 3 grand for it to be fixed?
He wrote a report saying it was scrap - thats his get out clause.
|
Sorry OP, but I think you've been had!
Whatever happened to the rebuilt engine will be almost impossible to prove, I'm afraid. Without this proof you have no case against the garage.
Not a good investment of £3K, but you know that already. As others have said, I don't believe the garage couldn't get hold of a decent MX5 engine, I shouldn't think they even tried.
I think you're going to have to put this one down to experience.
|
If you had really wanted to pursue this it would have needed a proper engineers report which may have needed a partial strip down for examination. Possible cost of £500+ and even then after a period of 6mths when (I assume) it ran OK the lines of responsibility would be quite blurred.
You've already got rid of the car so as said above put it to experience and move on.
BTW the most profitable thing for this garage to have done would have been to source a used engine for a few hundred, pressure wash and spray it then charge you the recon costs. You wouldn't be the first!
|
cars are washing machines things break
its the law
|
|
I know you don't want to hear this again but paying £3000 to fix a ten year old car worth about a grand is lunacy of the highest order. To make you feel slightly better, I didn't change the oil in my lorry for a year and it cost me ten grand to fix when it blew up so I'm a nutter as well.
|
|
|
|
BTW the most profitable thing for this garage to have done would have been to source a used engine for a few hundred pressure wash and spray it then charge you the recon costs. You wouldn't be the first!
The OP wouldn't be the first to have the engine pressure washed and a couple of cans of barrs leaks poured into the rad either!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sympathies, seems you had the same trouble as I did, duff re-con engine and theres little you can do. In future I am going to stick to the cost of repairs exceeds value of car = get rid.
|
|
|
![2024 Mazda MX-5 2.0 [184] Exclusive-Line 2dr](http://images.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/url/crop/90x60/https/cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/cas/c299f22a1d57601bfd56cff51fcac565/889a667607a0e04c43d0d96960bcbb19.jpg)
![2020 Mazda MX-5 1.5 [132] Sport 2dr](http://images.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/url/crop/90x60/https/cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/fallback/coming-soon.jpg)
![2021 Mazda MX-5 2.0 [184] Sport Tech 2dr](http://images.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/url/crop/90x60/https/cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/cas/39689827810cc0be04d244281b27f184/3e527c724e5656f63b5b7af422d1498b.jpg)
![2021 Mazda MX-5 1.5 [132] Sport Venture 2dr](http://images.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/url/crop/90x60/https/cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/cas/20f7b84610016208c436d4eb97859202/2910ac84e3f02848376aa76cd11e619e.jpg)
