ford focus st - garage wont release car until storage charges also

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Fri 29 Jul 2011 11:33
ford focus st - garage wont release car until storage charges also - gnash15

I was driving my mums ford focus st when engine cut out. I was driving normally not racing or anything. Took it to local ford garage with RAC and booked it in for her. Turned out £700 bill for looking at it changing timing belt but still broke. Said will need new engine approx £5k. Being only two half years old they said wasnt covered by warranty as 60145 miles so just over 60k.

She took it to court under fit for purpose as advised by solicitor. i advised garage what was happening by letter and said werent paying £700 when car wasnt fixed until we hear outcome of case. They wrote to me saying unless i paid were going to charge daily storage charges. I again wrote said wasnt my car and informed them again of ongoing court case.

Eventually court asks for independant inspection of car but ford garage said could not carry one out unless £700 paid plus £3500 storage fees charged at £20 per day and ongoing.

Case was lost due to being unable to get inspection carried out and she is having to pay £200 month on a balance of £12000 plus £2000 court costs.

Ford will stil not release the car even when i offered to settle the £700 and pay £100 per mnth off the storage charges and to avoid further costs. If get the car back im going to get second hand engine installed but hands are tied as neither my mum or me has £4200 plus daily charges to pull out at once.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

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Fri 29 Jul 2011 12:17
ford focus st - garage wont release car until storage charges also - unthrottled

What exactly were you claiming was not 'fit for purpose'? I thought the timing belt change was the Volvo sourced engine was about 100k, not 60k.

Ford have been pretty miserable but threatening to sue them simply aggravated matters. The sad thing is that that you probably could have got an indie to the belt, install new valves, seals and guides and be back on the road for under a grand.

You need to see if CAB will do anything to open negotiations with Ford.

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Fri 29 Jul 2011 18:02
ford focus st - garage wont release car until storage charges also - zango

Sorry to hear about your problem.

I agree that £700 is a bit steep for a simple timing belt failure. However, for them to even consider putting a new one on and trying it, I doubt that it was a simple failure. In which case the bill may well be justified.

In these circumstances you would expect Ford to make some sort of goodwill payment against the cost of repairs. This will normally be at a main / authorised dealer so getting say 50% of a £5K bill paid might not such good value compared to getting it repaired at an independent.

I can't understand why you left the car with them for 175 days (3500/20) when they told you that they would apply storage charges. You would have been better to push it out and leave it on the street - assuming of course it was taxed and insured.

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Fri 29 Jul 2011 23:13
ford focus st - garage wont release car until storage charges also - gnash15
Asked for it to be released but said 700 to he paid first and solicitor told us not to pay it until court case finalised (solicitor was useless). Said bill was for timing belt and labour yo see what was wrong but still didn't know.
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