Garage damaged my car

bajangal

Help!! I took my car in for its first MOT and a service this morning to my local garage.
I have just taken a call from the manager to say that my car has been damaged. Apparently it fell off the ramp and there is damage to the headlight and the bumper.
He has reassured me that these will be replaced and I can collect a courtesy car at 3 pm today.
Before I go down there, is there anything I should be looking for, ie should I take a photo of the damage.
I am really at a lost as this was the last thing I expected. I thought he was phoning to stun me with a hefty repair bill!!

mrscb

I would be wanting it checked out fully by someone independent not at your expense,you dont know what unseen damage there could be,depending on how far it fell.

Inactive

I would be on my way down there now, camera in hand.

bajangal

mrscb wrote: »

I would be wanting it checked out fully by someone independent not at your expense,you dont know what unseen damage there could be,depending on how far it fell.

Thanks. That's what I wondered as well. I will find out when I go down.

bajangal

Inactive wrote: »

I would be on my way down there now, camera in hand.

I've got the camera ready. Courtesy car won't be there till 3pm so thought pointless going to hang around until then.

Mark_Hewitt

If it fell of the ramp it depends where it fell, you might have suspension damage etc. The suspension is supposed to take knocks, but only if the shock is delivered through the wheels!

bajangal

Thank you for all your replies - I took them all on board - took camera and asked about suspension.
The garage will do all the repairs (bumper and 2 front lights on a 56 plate Ford Fiesta) and have given me a courtesy car.
My dad said that at this stage there is nothing for me to do until the repairs have been done.
Thanks for all the prompt replies.

Inactive

If you do have any problems, you can take the matter up with VOSA, they control all MOT Stations.

pistunbroke

i work on crashed cars + if i was you first chance to take photos of damage, you dont know how far car fell ask them to put back on ramp + take photos from beneath car as you might have chassis damage, it does not take much to bend a chassis also i would get it tested by aa/rac at there cost to make certain car is not damaged more than there are telling you,

petrolhead69

If it was me I wouldn`t be letting them fix it, as the temptation to only fix the visible damage would be strong, you could well have unseen damage, or at least go rusty far quicker due to damaged underseal. The garage must have public liability insuranc which you can claim to have the car properly to OEM standard by an independant bodyshop with a decent reputation and no incentive to bodge the repair. If they give you any grief my first port of call would be threatening to report them to the HSE as a car falling off the ramps means impportant safety procedures were disregarded at some point leading up to the incident.
First MOT means it`s only 3 so probably still under the manufacturers bodywork warrenty and you dont want to be throwing that away with a bodged repair carried out by halfbakes.

Anihilator

Did it fall off? Or did a mechanic accidentally drive it off the front as he put it on the ramp?

The latter sounds more likely in which case it shouldnt have been a big drop or such, more a front end collision

Either way it sounds ridicolously incompetent.

Insist on them paying for an inspection afterwards to confirm its roadworthy at a garage of your choice.

Did it pass the mot