Disastrous Car Servicing... anyone legally minded?

HI All

Now for a little tale to outline our disastrous 10 days away to wind down and see old friends and the wife had a few business meetings. Having 2 kiddies, a 2yo and an 8 month old, you can imagine all the essentials we have to take with us. So we borrowed my Dad's VW Bora.

Quick Summary
We left last Thursday, stayed with friends in Chester for 2 nights, then made our way down the M6 to Cambridge. In the middle lane of the M6, the car DIED, NO POWER at all!! I struggled to get the car onto the hard shoulder with its own momentum with traffic whizzing past.

The car was towed to friends' outside Cambridge as our rescue service thought it was our alternator.
A small garage had a look at it, said the Cam Belt was in shreds, and it looked old and tatty. So we called Dad, he said the car had only been serviced a couple of months before, and a new belt kit was on the list of items changed.

DETAILS
SATURDAY
Car dies on middle lane of M6, I wrestle it onto the hard shoulder dodging other traffic on the way. Rescue service suspects alternator, car dropped off as small garage in village outside Cambridge.

MONDAY
Ask small garage to fix/replace alternator. The small garage in a village outside Cambridge had a look at the car, problem is not alternator but the Cam Belt, and it looks old and tatty, totally shredded.
My wife had to reschedule a business appointment as she had no transport. Called Dad, informed him of Village Garage's diagnosis. Dad says belts were replaced a few months ago.
We called the Lanarkshire VW dealership to inform them of the Village Garage's assessment and enquire into any assistance they could offer, they said we'd have to get the car back to them. Getting the car to them and any alternative transport was OUR problem and NOTHING to do with them, despite the Village Garage's assessment. So we had to hire a car to be mobile. This was OUR problem and up to us to sort it out! They suggested that we could have the car towed to a VW garage in Cambridge, which we did costing us £70. But they couldn't manage to do it until the Tuesday morning.

TUESDAY
Car dropped off in Cambridge Dealership first thing. Their assessment was the CAM BELT was INCORRECTLY FITTED, a HUMAN error. We asked Cambridge VW to inform Lanarkshire VW. Cambridge VW garage told the Lanarkshire VW garage of their findings, the Cambridge garage was told to fit another belt and send the damaged one to VW and claim for any work under Warranty; we were present during the calls. The Cambridge VW garage was very annoyed at this and reminded them that this had been a HUMAN ERROR and NOT a parts problem and as such any work would NOT be reimbursed by VW. But the Lanarkshire VW garage kept insisting, the chap in the Cambridge garage took the call to the Cambridge VW Service Manager.
After their discussions the Cambridge garage would try to assess the engine damage. This part of the escapade took up ALL Tuesday afternoon.

WEDNESDAY
Cambridge dealership assessed damage (we were not informed of the result), INTERESTINGLY we received a phone call from the Lanarkshire VW garage to say they would now send a truck to collect the car at THEIR EXPENSE, with a courtesy car.... they were sending a Polo despite having been told that we had borrowed the Bora for the luggage space, and we needed the space. We had to ask for a car large enough for all our luggage, they said they would try but we'd have to wait.

THURSDAY
They delivered a car but we had to agree to an insurance excess of £750 - preposterous for something which was probably of their making; if the car should be damaged in some way we would have to pay when under normal circumstances if the service of the Bora had been done correctly we would have been covered by Fully Comp Insurance with a £50 excess. We managed to put the car onto Dad's insurance instead, but at present costing £25 per week! The fuel was in the RED and there was no windscreen wash, petty I know but aggravating after all the calls we had been involved in and with a 2 year old who wanted to play in the Showroom.

On Thursday when we asked the Cambridge garage the result of the test, we were told that there was NO COMPRESSION, so a new engine is most probably needed!! Apart from the fact that we could all have been KILLED on the M6, and the Lanarkshire VW garage held responsible subsequent to any investigation, their lack of concern and civility throughout the whole issue has been terrible!!!

When the car was about to be taken back to Lanarkshire, I had retrieved the damaged belt saying I want to keep hold of it. I then received a call from the Lanarkshire VW garage from someone who said they would NOT DO ANY WORK on the car unless I sent the belt with the Bora. So I had to give it up, very, very reluctantly.

We were stranded in Cambridge. We needed to hire a car to be mobile as the Lanarkshire garage refused outright on the Monday to offer any assistance (despite the report from an independent garage), to visit friends, for my wife to attend a few important client meetings and also refused assitance to tow the car to Lanarkshire or to Cambridge.
Does anyone know where I stand legally to try and get our expenses back? We wasted 6 days of our week away trying to sort out the car issue, and did NOT have a relaxing time at all.
Added to this, all the additional expense does of course hit our Christmas spending on the kids, and they really should not have to suffer at this time of year (or any time).

Cheers
Andrew