AA lied! WWYD?

[misstrot]

I am FUMING! Lies! OMG-please read-sorry it's long-I need advice!
DD (20) hit a small piece of debris on motorway on the way home from uni on the motorway. Car seemed ok but next time she took it out it overheated so we called AA. Patrolman said everything was fine-it just needed oil and water (he filled water but we had to go get the oil) Now DD is a bit nervy driving so she asked was he sure it was ok to drive back to uni (2 hr drive) and he assured her-yes. Then I asked him and he said he 'wouldn't send a young girl onto the motorway in the car if he didn't believe the car was perfectly safe and roadworthy' Enter DH who asks him is he sure ok-doesn't need to be checked at the garage as his DD is very precious and he wants her to be safe etc-again AA reiterates 'all safe-all roadworthy-doesn't need anything doing"- I follow him to the van to input my email/sign attendance from and he tells me no need.
You guessed it-she goes back to uni and breaks down on the M4 in bad weather (it takes 5+ hours for them to send a recovery truck and she is traumatised!)
We get the car delivered back here and ask a local garage to come and look. The garage owner states the car had a severe water leak (the AA didn't pressure test the system) which has caused car to overheat and blown the head gasket-so dead. Bearing in mind DD worked and saved up all summer and only bought the car in August- from a reputable National chain and paid £4000 (it's a little mini) she is devastated.
Ok, so we send report to AA and ask for compensation/new (2nd hand) engine for car. They send an 'Independant Assessor' (paid for by AA and does most of his work for AA so not really independent!?) who literally spends 4 mins taking photos -opens the bonnet and says the head gasket has gone and leaves. His report states that it was our fault for driving it as the head gasket had gone (for clarity it was fine before-no smoke from exhaust and only had a full service and 120 point check in August etc)
The AA then state the patrolman informed us that the car was not roadworthy and should be taken to a garage so they don't hold liability!!!!!! WTF! A complete LIE and 360 on what he said to us. Sadly too late to download Ring doorbell footage to support us -as its gone and he never sent us an emailed report stating what he did or advised-normal protocol. Help! What can I do?

The AA aren't a diagnostic service, they're a recovery service.

If your car breaks down, you take it to a garage to be checked over by a mechanic.

Thanks for sharing.

So they should have said that. Rather than saying it was ok.

And taken the car to a garage

Haha love people with lack of reading comprehension coming on to Mumsnet just for comments like this! Why are there so many of them?

It's not a male poster. 🙄

Are you seriously saying the AA should have taken the car to the garage from OP’s drive?

YABU. He only gave an opinion. Sounds like she needs a new car. Thats not the AA's fault.

Christ, have I stumbled onto ARRSE?

If your DD can’t cope with being stuck at the side of a motorway then she shouldn’t be going on motorways.

The AA don't collect working cars and take them to a garage for you.

They try to fix broken down vehicles and if they can't, they recover them to your home or a garage.

They do breakdown and recovery. They're not a concierge service for drivers.

But it's not the AA's job to take a driveable car to the garage for you. They're there to come and assist you (at home or at the roadside) if your car won't start or can't be driven for some reason.

Yes?

From their website:

Will the AA come to my house?If you add At Home to your policy, we'll come to you if your car breaks down at home.
When you need us, we'll usually get to you in under an hour, or at a time that suits you.
We fix 9 out of 10 breakdowns at home, and if we can't fix your vehicle, we'll sort out the recovery of your vehicle as usual.

If it’s not drivable

She did! And called the AA! That’s what the thread is about.. he then said it just needed oil and water???

Would you believe the words of a bloke who just vaguely looked at the car or a garage who had done full diagnostic testing? Regardless of what the AA man said at the time, NO ONE could have guaranteed the car was roadworthy and wasn't going to break down. Even if the overheating problem had been fixed, it could have broken down with another issue.

Considering the whole family were so concerned about the daughter travelling back to uni (Mum checked with AA, daughter checked and DH checked) don't you think it would have been prudent of them to get the car properly checked over by the relevant specialists rather than ring a roadside assistance company?

Or, and hear me out, people are trying to establish the facts so that they can advise correctly ...

If the car overheated in the driveway then the AA weren't the right people to call - home starts are intended for dead batteries etc. Overheating, and being as concerned as OP and DH were, should have meant a trip to the garage for an actual mechanic to look at the car. The AA are a recovery service not mechanics, they fix it if they can (change a tire, fill up the water/oil, jump start etc) or else recover you to a garage or home.

If the light was on for a while and DD ignored it then she should have responded sooner, been recovered from there by the AA and possibly not have had such big damages to pay.

As DD knew the car had been hit by some debris, the fact the car then overheated should have triggered alarm bells straight away to get checked out.

I would perhaps be querying the national chain you purchased the vehicle from. Your daughter has only had the vehicle 8 months. That's not on. Did they sell any kind of extended warranty with the car? I know some garages have a thing where within the first year, any faults that aren't caused by driver, etc. Will be covered by them.

They’re supposed to email a report but never did!

We did trust him-that’s the point! We just all happened to ask him same question separately!!

The AA were told the car was overheating. When they checked the oil and water both needed topping up. So a reasonable diagnosis was made and a solution given. For any other diagnosis a mechanic would have needed to have the car in a garage to look at what was happening underneath. I don’t think AA drivers routinely crawl under cars parked on peoples drives.

I would have believed him tbf. That’s what I pay for.
They are after all the 4th emergency service..

She didn’t ‘ignore it’ she was told it was fine-but pulled over when it overheated…

She’s 20 with anxiety and broke down on a busy motorway in the cold and rain and by the time they got to her it was also dark… maybe ‘traumatised’ isn’t the right word but I know plenty of adults who would be pretty upset by 5 hrs on the side of a motorway- which had they pressure tested the system and found the leak could have been avoided!

It didn't sound like you trusted him since you said you'd asked so many times. And you knew debris had hit the car so getting a proper check up when a problem presented itself seems reasonable.

I'm still confused - was the car on the drive when it overheated or on the side of the road both times? How did the Ring doorbell come in to play?

She was 2 hrs away and I did say I would go but the recovery kept saying they’d be there in 45 mins!