Argh, Mitsubishi!!!!

Hawthorn

Hokay.

We have an old mitsubishi Shogun, which we bought second hand last year, with full MOT etc, etc.
We got it checked out by the AA before buying. Apart from a small hole in the radiator......tiny, and we fixed that, it was in unbelievably good nick for it's age (it's an N reg)
So, we've had it a year. We thought it would be a good time to get it serviced by a main dealer, namely, mitsubishi.
All told, by the time they had finished replacing parts ( :mad: ) It cost us in the region of £1600.
It passed it's MOT.
When we got it back, it had a side light out (that was out when we sent it in), and rear windscreen wiper was malfunctioning. It also had an extra 400 miles on the clock. My hub checked it before taking it in.
Anyway,it's now a month later. Hub was driving down the street, and his brakes failed.
We got them to pick it up, and they have just come back to us, the problem is a leak in the brake distrubution part, or something or other (I don't understand cars much), and guess what??? It's going to cost us another £600 for them to sort that out. Bear in mind, that we had to replace all of the brake lines because apparently they were badly damaged.
I feel, seriously, that they are ripping us off left right and center here, and I am not happy.
Thing is, what can I do about it? Hub needs the car for work - there is no public transport to where he works, early in a morning, or late on a night.
At the minute, I'm thinking newspapers, ombudsmen, trading standards...whatever.
I don't know the procedure to go through though, or how to find these people.
Could anyone give me some advice please?

TiTheRev

£1600? Surely that's more than the car's worth?

I used to own a Mitsi Shogun (it only cost me £850 when it was 8yrs old), it was an electrical lemon with lights on the dash, it would cut out when driving, lights stopped working and had a ticking fuel pump relay that all turned out to be a problem with the engine ECU! (Dont ask why that effected the lights?!) It was all fixed with a 60p resister soldered in by my very clever father. Got shot of it fast though.

I'd scrap it and buy something easier to fix and maintain. N reg is long past its best before and would think that the longer you keep it, the more is liable to go wrong...

As for the dealer, they are only doing the work that you are allowing them to. If you dont trust them, dont take it there?! Vote with your feet, and buy a new car!

Hawthorn

Aye, probably. It was my husband who insisted we use the mitsi garage in the first place....and then we took it back there because it's so soon after the last incident. We need the car back in action by wednesday, and it's undrivable so we'd have to get recovery to move it to another garage. We can't afford a new car right now.
They told us that the car would be good for another few years, as the parts they were replacing, were at the end of their life and should last another ten years if we paid out for them. Apparently everything else was in very good nick (a mechanic had it before us)

markelock

does the garage not have a duty of care though? if the cost of repairing the car is more than the value of the car (and bearing in mind everything else that has not been fixed that could very well go wrong), they should have been advised that the cost was prohibitive?

no good having £1600 of parts and labour on a car worth naff all, that has another £600 of parts and labour needed on it?

will that be the last repair? no one would guarantee that. I think as the Rev points out, the best thing (after moaning and trying to get your money back or a percentage of it) is getting something else.

TiTheRev

Ask them for a part-ex and claim the £1600 and car value as part of the exchange value

Hawthorn

markelock wrote: »

does the garage not have a duty of care though? if the cost of repairing the car is more than the value of the car (and bearing in mind everything else that has not been fixed that could very well go wrong), they should have been advised that the cost was prohibitive?

no good having £1600 of parts and labour on a car worth naff all, that has another £600 of parts and labour needed on it?

will that be the last repair? no one would guarantee that. I think as the Rev points out, the best thing (after moaning and trying to get your money back or a percentage of it) is getting something else.

I'm rapidly coming to that conclusion. It's going to need four new tyres soon - that will cost us a couple of hundred, at least, and they did say that in a few months max the brake shoes would need replacing.
As to the duty of care, quite the opposite happened. They raved on about what a cracking car it was and once we got these bits fixed, it would run for another ten years or so.
We bought that car outright, with a little windfall we got last year. Yes, we could part ex it, but that would mean probably taking a car loan out. I really don't want to do that. We need a bigger car ideally as we have a large family.

anewman

It is highly unlikely *all* brake lines were corroded and needed replacing at the same time.

Does "brake distribution" mean the servo or the master cylinder or both? Either way for both £600 at a main dealers is very expensive compared with what I'd expect to pay for other brands of cars. I would also be wondering if they !!!!!!ed it when they did the brake pipe work by not bleeding it properly (but that would be impossible to prove). A lack of changing brake fluid can contribute to master cylinder leaks (old brake fluid goes dark) so if it looked black when you bought it this could be why.

Shouldn't have passed MOT with a sidelight not working.

Hawthorn

anewman wrote: »

It is highly unlikely *all* brake lines were corroded and needed replacing at the same time.

Does "brake distribution" mean the servo or the master cylinder or both? Either way for both £600 at a main dealers is very expensive compared with what I'd expect to pay for other brands of cars. I would also be wondering if they !!!!!!ed it when they did the brake pipe work by not bleeding it properly (but that would be impossible to prove). A lack of changing brake fluid can contribute to master cylinder leaks (old brake fluid goes dark) so if it looked black when you bought it this could be why.

Shouldn't have passed MOT with a sidelight not working.

Correct term for what's gone wrong with the car is the brake compensator valve.
I'm wondering if they !!!!ed it too, but as you say, it can't be proved :mad: Helluva coincidence, though.

I know it shouldn't have passed the MOT, as does my hub (he's a copper ) but how do you prove it wasn't working before it went in *shrugs*
Apparently the brake lines, well, literally exploded fluid everywhere during testing (hard braking I think) My husband did see this.
Trouble is, we don't know a great deal about cars, or how they work, so people like that can get away with stuff like this.

We've talked and we are looking for another car. We will make a loss on it no doubt, after having all of this work done, but I'm just wondering what else can go wrong with it now, and we'd have to replace it anyway.

On a lighter note, at least my hub wasn't bombing along doing 60 down a country road, or approaching a roundabout when the brakes failed completely. It COULD have been a whole lot worse.

steveo3002

have you agreed to the £ 600 job

a decent local independant garage maybe way cheaper , you could shop around for the parts online to save a bit too

i cant imagine a compensatoe valve being a huge amount of labour to fit

i wouldnt take any older car to a main dealer..they do tend to be very exp

Hawthorn

No not yet. It seems we have little choice though, as we will need it back by wednesday, and probably won't save jack by taking it to another garage due to recovery fees.

It's a two hour job, so the guy said at the garage, due to having to drain the system or something.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Brake lines are not part of the same problem. Brake lines often get rusty and need replacement. They are an MOT failure.

Sounds like the brake master cylinder has gone, or similar.

If you go to a main dealer, you can hardly be shocked when you're charged a small fortune.