Car repairs where do we stand?

tibbers

Hi,
2 weeks ago our car (citreon picasso) broke down, the handbrake is faulty signal kept coming up on the dashboard, and the car would cut out and stop.
We got it booked in to our local reputable garage, who specialize in these cars, (aswell as others). Booked it in for week last Tuesday.
Hubby rang wednesday to see how it was going, and they said they hadnt had chance to look at it yet but it would be looked at in the afternoon. They rang Thursday to say they had found a couple of faults, so were looking into it, they changed the fuse box (or something) and something else, then took the car for 48mile round trip. It broke down on them as they were pulling back into the garage, so they werent the issue. Friday, hubby was told not to ring again, said they would phone him when it was fixed. Hubby explained to them, that he has a very sick elderly father, and he requires us to get his meds etc. They just said the same. will phone you when its fixed so please dont ring again.
Monday this week, hubby did ring, he told them we needed the car as we have no transport and we are going on holiday on Saturday. They said , we told you not to ring again.. Anyway, they rang back in the afternoon and said they had spoken to the technicians at citreon, and they said it sounded like the fuel pump(or something), and did we have permision for them to order the part on Tuesday morning, we said yes, just get the car done please.
Wednesday, again, hubby rang late afternoon (he works near the garage, so instead of coming all the way home,if the car is ready, he can pop round and get it), and they hadnt ordered the part as one of the mechanics at the garage suggested something else, so they said they would try that. At this point hubby lost it abit, as we have no transport, he asked them if they supplied courtesy car, yes he said , we do! Hubby said , so can we have one please? reply, no, we dont have any at the moment. ... sigh... Anyway. as of today, the car is no where nearer being fixed than it was 2 weeks ago, hubby has told them, he needs to know tomorrow if they can fix it or not, as we holiday saturday. We have provisionally booked a hire car now so we can go on holiday. How do we stand if we ask for our car back? im guessing we will still have to pay what i expect to be a huge bill? even tough they havent fixed it?

s_b

Electronic handbrake on these connected into the can-bus system, it therefore follows that garage is using due diligence in assessing fault. You seem to insist they can fix it pronto,this always ends in parts being fitted at random that were not needed but cannot be returned once fitted to the car, thus giving customers large bills,you say they fitted a new fuse box but i think they fitted a bsi and these are not cheap and are coded to the car thus meaning lots of work with something like lexia to make your car keys be able to work.
The garage have every right to charge you for all the work done because you asked them to do it .
If you are challenging their abilities its really a bit late in the day and remember the local agent might not have got you a solution any quicker

AdrianC

It's one thing booking a service, requesting a courtesy car, and scheduling the service for when one's available for the day.

It's another entirely getting a car with a fault in at short notice, and expecting a car to be available for what may be a longer duration.

But, yes, you've asked them to investigate the fault. Time has been spent, and parts have been ordered and fitted. This kind of trouble-shooting in what is basically a massively complex computer network is not always straightforward. The fact that they delayed ordering a part until another option had been tried shows that they are trying to keep your costs down by applying logic to it, at the possible cost of the total elapsed time the car is with them.