My Courtesy Car 'near lethal' experience ....

HAVEFAITH

My Courtesy Car 'near lethal' experience .... I am fuming ...

My car has been taken in for insurance repairs after being vandalised. Whilst the car is in, under the terms of my policy i'm entitled to a courtesy car. I was escorted around my car by staff pointing out scratches and previous dents etc. I asked is this car safe for purpose etc. I was told yes fine. The car was an 07 plate. So off I drove .... Well there began the beginning of my problems. I went to a local supermarket, parked the car and popped in for some shopping. Whilst walking to the car i noticed the front passenger side was flat. So i thought ok fine i'll just pump it up. That did not work .... so I contacted my RAC membership who duly arrived within 20 mins. He removed the tyre to discover a puncture - but it was a repair of a previous puncture! He then replaced it with the spare and to his amazement also discovered exactly the same and puncture repair with a split in the wall !! ... then he walked around the car to discover the rear tyre (drivers side) also has a tear in the wall.

So that's 3 of the 5 five tyres defective!! ... The RAC chap was appalled and wrote a scathing report of his findings. Upon my return to the repair centre I asked to see the manager who upon realising the situation and lack of any apparent safety check proceeded to offer me free petrol fill up and valet. I have requsted to know their complaints procedure and would really like to make an example of this company at some point. My immediate concern is the safety of others at this stage and would like make sure that the procedure is in place for others ... Any thoughts from bloggers out there please?

dacouch

were you recommeded to the garage by your insurer?

HAVEFAITH

dacouch wrote: »

were you recommeded to the garage by your insurer?

Yes i was indeed ...

HAVEFAITH

dacouch wrote: »

were you recommeded to the garage by your insurer?

Hi, Yes it was indeed my insurers suggestion. The RAC has also asked me to keep them posted after I written to the Repair Centre ... good of them to follow through and show interest in my experience. I really feel that this is a serious matter considering potentially what could have happened if I was driving on a motorway and the tyres blew ...

dacouch

Your Insurers is jointly liable then, you should be writing to them and they should sort it out.

Nilrem

Report the company to the insurance company - if the insurance are telling people to use a particular company it'll be for a reason (probably cost/previous experience), and they will not be overly amused at such a state of affairs, as besides any legal implications it makes them look bad.

I would also suggest contacting trading standards, as there is zero way a courtesy car should be in that sort of state (if you want to be really nasty and it's a repair center that also does MOT's contact the DVLA*), as they have a duty of care to ensure that any car they offer is safe - damaged/illegal tyres are not considered safe.
Although strictly speaking it's something every driver should check on a regular basis (and when using a new/different car) anyway, but when you get a car from a garage you should be able to expect them to have done the checks

Given there were multiple tyres that are/were unsafe it's not something that they could have missed after it'd been returned by a previous user in my opinion (and anyway they should be doing a check after every loan out for damage etc).

I'm generally easy going, but when a company that should be responsible, and has a duty of care in it's work puts my life (and possibly that of family) at risk I tend to become rather less easy going

*If it does MOT's, I suspect the DVLA will be very unimpressed to find they are letting people drive off with unsafe cars, and may well wish to investigate what other short cuts are being taken with the safety of the public.

Hintza

The manager seems to have been appalled by the situation? Has he not done enough?

Maybe you feel he was paying lip service to the problem but if he was concerened then it might be worth considering leaving it at that?

Pssst

OK OK,so no harm was done and you got some kind of compensation. I'm sure /hope the company will have smartened their procedures up. Perhaps you should simply write to express your disappointment at their service and suggest that they tighten procedures?

Other peoples safety is not really your concern. That is between them and the hire co.

Keith

I always thought it was the responsibility of the driver to check that the tyres were in legal condition and not defective?

laurz121

Me too Keith. Surely the original poster was responsible for conducting the standard safety checks on a vehicle before driving away.

The hire company checked the OP's car before they accepted it, I would have thought this would be a big enough clue to anyone that they should at least look at the car they are getting as well, especially considering ALL hire companies get you to sign a form saying what condition the car was in when they took it. Presumably the OP signed to say that the car had no visible defects (visible like dodgy tyres that Should have been spotted had they conducted a basic safety check)

dacouch

It is, however in this instance the Police would have probably proscuted the driver with CU offences and also the Garage for CU offences for aiding and abetting.

The police or courts may have taken the circumstances into account and gjust given a notice for the tyres to be corrected etc.