Car damaged in car wash

danlojo

Hi

Not sure this is the right place but here goes:

I put my car through a large petrol companies car wash and as the title says had damaged caused to it.

I have an S Max which is on the large side to say the least. I put in the code and drove forward between the rails and stopped when the red light came on.

As the machine came forward the metal vertical part of the machine caught the left side wing mirror (these mirrors have an extra clear indicator nodule which sticks out further) It knocked it and then passed over. On the way back over the car the metal structure again caught the mirror but dislodged the indictor and casing of the mirror.

As I couldnt do anything as the machine was in full flow and about to end I allowed it to finish. Once finished I drove forward out of the car wash and immediately went and checked the damage. Fortunately I was able to click in the indicator but had to retrieve the casing from under the car wash machine. This has severe scratches and was cracked.

A guy was waiting behind me and tried to stop the machine but couldnt.

I went into the garage and informed the manager what had occurred and she took the details and said that Head Office would contact me. She also told me that 2 weeks prior the car wash bars on the floor had been widened to allow larger vans to use the car wash.

Head Office have now contacted me and told me that their engineer had been and put 3 cars through the machine and no damage was made and therefore they are not accepting responsibility for the damage. I asked if they had put an S Max through and he stated they hadnt.

Now my downfall is that I didnt get the details of the guy behind me to confirm I was not on top of the floor bars or over the bar as they are assuming I was. I can say that as the bars are wider it does cause you to not be centrally located between them as there is no 'snug' fit If you get what I mean?

I have contacted Ford and the new casing will be £53 which to be fair isnt a great amount but it's the principle of the matter that they have not put an S Max through which is much wider than most cars.

The manager of the garage as a goodwill gesture has offered 50% of the cost of repair but with no acceptance of responsibility.

Should I just take the hit and accept the 50% or push for more?

I have asked if I can take the car back and place it in the same place, flush to the bar on the left side and allow the machine to move towards the car but with the manager ready on the stop button.

No comments on being a lazy !!!! and should be washing it myself as I am disabled and wouldnt be able to.

Not happy at all :mad:

pcombo

You should have taken the extra modules off or pushed the wing mirrors in like your suppose to do.
It does say before entering a car wash they will not take responsibility if something breaks.

I would accept what you got offered.

danlojo

The extra nodules are built into the mirrors and the machine should have detected the mirrors. There was nothing on the safety board about putting the mirrors in just taking aerials off and covering rear wiper blades.

The manager at the time said that the machine should not have caught the mirrors.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FORD-S-MAX-06-ELECTRIC-PRIMED-DOOR-WING-MIRROR-O-S-/220561590381

Darksun

To be honest, I'd accept their offer, it's not really worth your time and effort to pursue the £26

hollydays

I think if they have offered money,this is not goodwill.Tell them to pay up or they will be receiving a letter from your solicitor.

mum2one

You reminded me of an incident, bout 10 yrs ago..... I had a little Ford Escort, and unfortunately we got stuck in the car wash..... 20 mins I was in there...... I was perping the horn, the annoying thing was there was a car waiting behind me and they thought I was getting a damm good wash!! The rollers were stuck in mid flow on top of the car so I had no way of escaping...... I was just in the process of ringing the fire bridgage to get me out, ironic as they were the building to the left.

Eventually a manager came out and manually stopped it, drove the car out it was soap suddded up, he then had the cheek to ask me to pay for the jet wash to get rid of the soap.

Once the soap was off there was damage to the car, the sunroof was scratched, the side window at the back was all scratched as well as the car. being a red car - the marks were obvious.

I wrote to the garagem they did try to wriggle out that your responsibility, but after getting quotes for replacement windows and a respray - at the time the estimates were between £600 and £800 pound. Once this letter went to the garage - with the quotes and a court the next step..... 7 days later I recieved a cheque for the £600.

In all honesty for the sake of £53, any court action would cost you a lot more, I'd write back and accept the £25, and next time - try somewhere else. If the damage ran into £100s etc then yes I would say fight, but for that amount, accept the £25, and don't go back.

sarahg1969

pcombo wrote: »

You should have taken the extra modules off or pushed the wing mirrors in like your suppose to do.
It does say before entering a car wash they will not take responsibility if something breaks.

I would accept what you got offered.

If the OP followed the instructions and the damage was caused by the negligence of the car wash owners, then they can't just wash their hands of it.

The very fact that they'd made modifications to the car wash shows that they were aware that there may have been a problem.

The OP could pursue this further if they wished. However, you've got to decide if it's worth it for the sake of £26.

clever_username

As others have said OP I'd suggest you take the money that has been offered and maybe use one of the many 'hand wash' places in future.

The mechanical ones do unfortunately damage people's cars all the time, maybe less than 1% but still no help if yours is one of them.

I don't think you'll get far with the 'have you put an S-Max through' argument since it's simply not feasible to test thousands of different cars through every car wash to check.

Yes an S-Max is big but it's smaller than the vans that have apparently been using the car wash without incident.

danlojo

Thanks for your replies and to be honest it's not the money side that annoys me.

I'll give Head Office one ,ore try again today and put my case across again and see what they say.

If they are still adamant I'll go to the garage today to accept the managers offer and never go near the place again:mad:

Torby

just curious as to why it was only one mirror that got damaged...makes me think that the car was too much to one side than the other...I have seen this happen even with smaller cars when the driver was too far to one side.

Lirin

Took my old car through one. My partner's a detailer, we were dating at the time, and he was horrified....

The roof of the car was covered in scratches. It was a car I was getting rid of anyway, so wasn't terribly worried. If the brushes pick up any dirt, they will score it into the paintwork.

Have heard a few issues with various cars/vans though, where they've lifted spoilers, damaged mirrors- or the one on youtube where a soft-top was driven through....