mechanic took car home without permission?

proactive

notbritishgas wrote: »

I may be wrong but I think as long as you have an internal mirror you do not need an external one.

you need a door mirror or wing mirror on the drivers side as well

RichGold

johanne wrote: »

bit trivial this but wondered if someone could advise me?

Its not trivial, its a liberty. I've had plenty on problems with local garages over the last couple of years and only use The Merc main dealers these days. If you aren't happy with this garage, tell them so, as there are plenty of other garages that would gladly have your business.

Badger_Lady

I once dropped my BMW convertible off to be valeted on a sunny day. When I collected it the petrol was almost out :doh:

oldagetraveller

proactive wrote: »

you need a door mirror or wing mirror on the drivers side as well

No you don't! From MOT testers manual, note OR.

"Obligatory mirrors
Obligatory mirrors are
a. an exterior mirror fitted to the offside (right-hand side when seated in the
drivers seat), or

b, an exterior mirror fitted to the
nearside left hand side when seated In the drivers seat), or

c. an interior mirror."

colino

Unless it's a new, crappy, back-street garage that really doesn't have a secure pound somewhere, I'd be surprised if anyone took your car for a ride. Apart from with owners consent when they say they have a funny fault that you can only hear when the cars cold and John Humphrey coughs, the costs of insurance are already astronomical for a proper garage, and it isn't worth the risk.

Hammyman

BAA1 wrote: »

If it is only a small garage, what are the chances that they can afford the insurance to cover them for driving any car ?

Quite high. My friends trader policy is only £500 a year and also includes Social use as well.

Hammyman

oldagetraveller wrote: »

No you don't! From MOT testers manual, note OR.

"Obligatory mirrors
Obligatory mirrors are
a. an exterior mirror fitted to the offside (right-hand side when seated in the
drivers seat), or

b, an exterior mirror fitted to the
nearside left hand side when seated In the drivers seat), or

c. an interior mirror."

The or at the end of a) should be an "and". Under Construction and Use regulations alone, DEPENDING ON THE AGE OF THE VEHICLE, you are required to have two mirrors, one of which MUST be a drivers door mirror. Remember the MOT does not cover all legal requirements under C&U. Come on !!!!!!, common sense tells you that only having one single rear view mirror attached to the passenger door is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard.

The legal combinations are:

Drivers side, passenger side.
Drivers side, internal.

Some vehicles do not require any external mirrors at all, just an internal one. This is due to the C&U regs in force at the time of manufacture and would include vehicles first registered prior to 1972.

fivetide

Did you note the miles when you left it?

Remember someone in the FTO club dropping his car off at a garage in the morning only to see it mid-morning in a layby with a mechanic scoffing a bacon roll.

chap was livid, never did anything like that in his car so asked his mate to pull over, kicked the guy out and told the garage they better come and collect him because there was no way he was bringing them his car back.

As it happened I don't think they'd done any work and claimed to be doing a test drive to see what the issues might be. Strange test that includes eating bacon rolls in the car!

5t.

System

Hammyman wrote: »

Quite high. My friends trader policy is only £500 a year and also includes Social use as well.

Sorry, I cannot believe a Motor Trader Policy that only costs £500 per annum would cover the trader to drive any car and also cover damage to all those cars, it sounds far too cheap to me.

There are online sites for motor trader car insurance, having just done a quick dummy quote, one such site came back at just over £2,500 which sounds much closer to the mark, and even that is cheap, I did not bother to look at the detail of what was covered, but it was Fully Comp for car values upto £50K

Badger_Lady

I'm guessing BAA1 that traders are a low risk. Bit like classic cars - I'm normally about £1,000 to cover on a modern car, but only £100 on my antique camper because the assumption is I'll look after it better.