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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Car in a garage for 6 weeks, it is ridiculous - what are my options?

37 replies

BigLooser · 15/05/2025 09:42

Morning everyone. I am at the end of my tether.
My car was recovered after it failed to start on the road and the recovery company offered to look into the repair at their own garage. They first thought it was a problem with a connection and spent about a week testing it. Then they said that it was actually an engine failure and offered to replace it (or scrap the car). We opted to replace the engine - much cheaper than getting a new car as our was running with no problem although obviously was getting old.
They said 7-9 days for the engine replacement. Then they said that some other parts are not working either. Cue another two weeks sourcing them and replacing. Then they said that actually that there is a problem with the connection and they are testing it. A week later - actually, it is a problem with ECU and they have to book an appointment to reprogram it, "please give us a few days".
It's been ten days again and after contacting them they messaged that they would be in touch with an update.
I need the car back, not yet another update.
I have paid so far £1300 so far (they haven't requested payment yet for any further work) and at this point I am very tempted to just stop with the palaver. What are my options?
They have been very professional in their communication throughout, sending me videos of the work they are doing and assuring me that my case is a priority, and they have multiple 5 star reviews on Google.

OP posts:
Original poster
BigLooser · 15/05/2025 09:43

Checked the dates and it has actually been over 2 months

OP posts:
Icanttakethisanymore · 15/05/2025 09:49

Why did they say the engine needed replacing?

eta as in what was the failure?

Original poster
BigLooser · 15/05/2025 09:55

The car started losing speed while being driven and then won't start. They said that the engine is not working anymore (don't remember if they specified the actual fault).

OP posts:
Original poster
BigLooser · 15/05/2025 10:08

Can I just leave the car there and walk away? Do I try to recover the money I have paid?
Would be really grateful for advice from knowing people

OP posts:
Latenightreader · 15/05/2025 10:08

A friend had a very similar issue with their car a couple of years ago - I know it yook a very long time to get it fixed.

InMySpareTime · 15/05/2025 11:15

When our car was in the garage for months they paid most of the cost for a rental car. Not sure if they were required to, we have a good rapport with the garage (part of the dealership we bought the car from). They practically had to dismantle and rebuild the car to get to the electrical fault, and that took months but we were only without a car for a few weeks.

faerietales · 15/05/2025 11:27

I’m surprised they haven’t supplied you with a courtesy car.

Original poster
BigLooser · 15/05/2025 12:00

They are not a big garage and not supplying a courtesy car. They do keep the costs down.
We have a second car, it's not that. The big problem is that the car which is being repaired has been used by DD for her driving lessons (it is manual) and she had a test booked and then rebooked as the car was not available.
Booking driving tests is in absolute shambles right now. So not having that car caused a lot of distress and lost money, especially since the garage kept moving the goalposts and we were expecting to have it back.

OP posts:
MintChocCat · 15/05/2025 12:10

Can you get a courtesy car or hire car until your car is fixed?

Gustavo77 · 15/05/2025 14:39

Why wouldn't you just ask for a courtesy car or just hire one, they're cheap as chips to rent.

faerietales · 15/05/2025 14:59

Surely your DD’s instructor has a car she can use for her test? Why does she need to cancel? Confused

BangFlash · 15/05/2025 15:02

I waited 2 weeks to get my car into local garage who found the fault but couldn’t do the work then 4 weeks to get it into a garage where they could.

I think we may be under supplied by garages.

im afraid you need to hire a car.

faerietales · 15/05/2025 15:06

There are lots of supply/parts issues at the moment.

Augustus40 · 15/05/2025 15:15

Ds's car broke down Monday when he was nearly home. It started again but he had the same issue a month ago. He took it to our local garage and they cannot look at it until Wed 21st so a whole 8 days before even assessing it!

ruffler45 · 15/05/2025 15:22

Pay for an RAC or similar engineer inspection as a second opinion.

What make and model is it?

TiswasPhantomFlanFlinger · 15/05/2025 15:52

Gustavo77 · 15/05/2025 14:39

Why wouldn't you just ask for a courtesy car or just hire one, they're cheap as chips to rent.

Car hire is most certainly not as cheap as chips.
A Vauxhall Corsa is £95 a day in outer London. It’s £54 in Norfolk.

Original poster
BigLooser · 22/07/2025 12:37

Hi, so an update.
They still have the car.
They say it is a connection issue and it needs to be seen by a specialist electrical engineer who is very difficult to schedule an appointment with. But it's been two more months. I am really not sure if they are lying. They are saying that they WANT to give me the car back, that it's occupying space in their garage. So they gave me two options:

  • They can give me the car back now, not charge me anymore and I can sell it as a scrap car for £200. I will have lost £1300 which I paid back in April
  • They can keep trying to get it fixed, and if they succeed, I will have to pay for whatever work they had done since (I understand about another £1000) and the car will be in working order with a new engine and other new parts.
OP posts:
Original poster
BigLooser · 22/07/2025 12:41

I am at the stage when I just want rid of it because this is stressing me out. This is just ridiculous. Can I try to reclaim the cost of the engine (which I paid for) via the small claims court? I think if I scrap the car they will just it out and resell it. But then they can say that they had spent all this other money and try to claim it from me?
The reason why I decided to persevere with it is because I really don't want to spend £8K+ on a new second-hand car and hoped that I could sort this one out - like the garage said they would.
If I go away, I am £1300 out of pocket and still need to get a new car.

OP posts:
GasPanic · 22/07/2025 12:45

This is the problem with modern cars. I assume this is not a dealer of the car type.

The problem is, modern cars esp some of the luxury ones are so complex that only the dealers (and sometimes not even them) know how to fix them.

And of course dealer prices are horribly expensive.

This is why more and more people are moving to high reliability cars from the Far East with long warranties such as Kia and Hyundai, and away from low reliability super expensive to repair German cars like VW and Mercs.

Original poster
BigLooser · 22/07/2025 12:48

@GasPanic My car is Hyundai, it is not 2015 reg so not new or modern at all.
The garage actually said that they will not accept Hyundai requests anymore as they keep getting problems with this brand

OP posts:
Original poster
BigLooser · 22/07/2025 12:48

*it IS 2015 reg

OP posts:
GasPanic · 22/07/2025 12:48

BigLooser · 22/07/2025 12:48

@GasPanic My car is Hyundai, it is not 2015 reg so not new or modern at all.
The garage actually said that they will not accept Hyundai requests anymore as they keep getting problems with this brand

How old actually is it ?

GasPanic · 22/07/2025 12:51

Ah right. 2015.

Well, cars of that age are always a lottery IMO. Always one step away from having horrible repair charges. Sometimes you just have to know when to ditch.

I am probably looking at a 2-3k repair on a 35000 mile 4 year old VW group car. Not hugely impressed.

Original poster
BigLooser · 22/07/2025 12:56

GasPanic · 22/07/2025 12:48

How old actually is it ?

Show quote history

10

OP posts:
CointreauVersial · 22/07/2025 13:00

I'm a fleet manager, and it is not unusual for complex/major repairs like engine replacement to take months. Even when under warranty.

Personally I'd hold on and hope they get the repair completed.