Have I been done over?

Miss_J

Spurred on by the costly replacement car I currently have I'm wondering if the garage treated me fairly a few months back and wondered what peoples opinions are on this:

I had a Toyota Yaris for 6 years, fabulous car, never really had to pay much out for it other than the standard servicing and MOT costs.

Last summer the car started making an almighty racket from the engine when I tried to drive it, so thinking it wise I pulled the car over and left it for the night. The next day my husband tried to start it up and nothing happened. We called out the breakdown recovery people and they towed the car to a local small garage that we had been using for about a year.

The garage checked the car over and told us that the engine had gone, and when asked how much it would cost to replace the engine we were told it wasn't really worth it and that replacement engines were very hard to get a hold of.

I was really gutted about it, the Toyota Yaris holds it's trade in value well and I had been hoping to part ex it for a newer model this year sometime. Now the car was stranded at the garage and we had no way of getting it moved. After about a week the garage called to say that the car needed moving. We mentioned about not having means to remove it and they recommened a Scrap dealer to sell the car to. We were given £200 for the car, we were then called by the garage to ask for the tax disc back that was in the car (had just been retaxed, therefore 6 months of tax was on the disc) as they said that the £200 included them having the disc also. We weren't too happy, as far as we were concerned the tax disc had never been mentioned.

The rest of the money was put towards getting a replacement runaround car (one that is costing me an absolute fortune to keep on the road) and we put the matter behind us, until 4 months later.

One day we suddenly got a letter from a man asking us about the service history of my old Yaris and asking if there was an additional key for the car. According to the letter this man had bought the car for his daughter and gotten my details from the log book. I was astounded to receive this letter and also annoyed as I thought that the car had been scrapped. I never got back in touch with this man (although on hindsight maybe I should). Since them I have mentioned to a couple of people what happened with my car and a few people had said that what the garage did was underhanded and I should pursue the matter further.

Part of me thinks that I should put the matter behind me and forget about it but another part of me feels that the garage misled me, leading me to scrap my car when I could have tried to get it repaired.

Do you think that this garage was underhanded in dealing with this?

anewman

Engines can often be got from scrap yards/breakers quite easily/relatively cheaply. I suspect that's what has been done to sell the car on. Even with a knackered engine a 6 year old Yaris would have been worth quite a bit more than £200.

If the car was scrapped you should have filled in the appropriate part of the V5 (the yellow bit) and also part 6 ticking the part which says it is being scrapped. You should also have obtained a certificate of destruction, and obtained a letter from the DVLA confirming this.

The garage was definitely underhanded. I am not 100% certain if any action can be brought against them though as any evidence you have of these exchanges would seem to be verbal only.

I'm really sorry, I hate to be the bearer of bad news.

colino

The garage didn't twist your arm, they offered you cash and you accepted it. What they then did with their goods was up to them. Bear in mind all garages have slack periods and buy their parts trade so the cost of repairing the car to them is nothing like what they would have charged you.
Perhaps you were a bit naive in not looking for other quotes to repair or cutting your losses and ebaying the dead car but don't go by what Dave down the pub said. You were happy with the deal then and move on from there.

Kurtis_Blue

I'm amazed you sent them the Tax disc, just amazed.

But there is no way of knowing now whether the engine had gone or not, and you were not forced to sell for £200.

You should have completed the V5 when you sold it stating the car had been scrapped and sent this back to the DVLA.

viktory

There is nothing illegal in what the garage have done. Having said that, the garage should have told you how much it would have cost to repair so you could make an informed decision.

Once you signed the car over to them though, they can do what they like with it. You have little comeback now - the garage could simply state that you were told how much it would cost to repair the car.

It is unfortunate, but you need to let it go. Be more assertive and less naive next time.

anewman

colino wrote: »

The garage didn't twist your arm, they offered you cash and you accepted it.

Thanked accidentally when trying to hit quote.

They did twist the OP's arm. They mislead them as to the value of the car and it's repair-ability. I hope you get ripped off one day.

Miss_J

That's pretty much what I thought. Just annoyed I didn't take more time over thinking out the options at the time. At the time I knew I needed to get a replacement car ASAP so that I could commute to work and back. Also stupidly I just signed the log book and gave it to them, which I now know is wrong because when the DVLA contacted me with my tax reminder for the car and I rang them to tell them I had sold the car, I was informed then that what I had done at the time was the wrong thing. Pretty much looks like I cocked it up all the way through and if I'd taken more time over thinking over the options I could maybe still have a reliable car.

Kurtis_Blue

anewman wrote: »

Thanked accidentally when trying to hit quote.

They did twist the OP's arm. They mislead them as to the value of the car and it's repair-ability. I hope you get ripped off one day.

When did they? there is no evidence of that at all.
They stated the engine was gone and it wasn't financially viable to repair, now the majority of that cost is labour, if some one, be it a third party or the garage themselves, have repaired the car nor needing to pay the labour that is a separate issue.

KonkyWonky

I think whether you have been done or not is dependant on the relationship between the garage and the scrappage company.

If you ask a garage to source, remove an engine and refit the replacement your talking big bucks. They will add a mark up to what they pay for the engine and there is a lot of labour involved. You could be talking from anything to £500-£800 in labour costs alone.

It may well be that someone has bought the car and done the work themselves thus saving the majority of the costs. From the evidence you have supplied its hard to assess whether you have actualy been had or not.

anewman

Miss_J wrote: »

That's pretty much what I thought.

If you're not going to take action against them (which I don't think is likely to achieve anything anyway) you might want to name and shame the garage (name, address) so this post is available for anyone searching for it on Google and they know to avoid that garage.

anewman

KonkyWonky wrote: »

If you ask a garage to source, remove an engine and refit the replacement your talking big bucks. They will add a mark up to what they pay for the engine and there is a lot of labour involved. You could be talking from anything to £500-£800 in labour costs alone.

It's a day's work to replace an engine, if that (assuming you have a decent engine lift)! I'd like £800 for one day's work not including profit on the engine itself.