Faulty Car part - Claim for hire car missed holiday

zharp

I had a new car part fitted 4 weeks ago, 2 weeks after on our way on holiday the car part broke and we were left stranded. After RAC and towed back home I had to get a hire car so we could get to our holiday. It was bank holiday and the garage was shut where I had the part done. In the end we lost a days holiday and it cost me £200 for the car hire. Are the garage liable for the car hire costs???


Thanks,

marcarm

I wouldn't say so, anything could have happened to make the part break, have you established what it was that broke and what caused it to break?

It was ok for 2 weeks so without proof you are on to a hiding to nothing, and even with proof I'm sure they wouldn't be liable for consequential losses.

Did you mitigate your losses? Would a taxi have been cheaper than a hire car?

They may have guaranteed the part, but I'm sure that would be it, otherwise where would their liability end? 2 weeks? 2 months? 2 years? etc etc

What part was it and in what way did it fail?

[Deleted User]

zharp wrote: »

In the end we lost a days holiday and it cost me £200 for the car hire. Are the garage liable for the car hire costs?

No. Neither is the garage liable for your lost day's holiday.

zharp

It was the compressor for the air conditioning. RAC said that it had broken and would have caused more damage if we carried on. Had to hire a car as we had lots of luggage and bikes and kids going to Nottingham.

marcarm

My compressor on my car went, drove round for months without it and all it meant was I had no aircon.

Not sure what other problems it would have caused as it certainly caused me no issues.

In fact, my focus has a suspected faulty compressor now, my local garage have not told me it would cause more damage.

Fosterdog

Surely you would just turn off the air con and open the windows if needed?

My current car has working air con but the last two didn't as it wasn't worth the cost on second hand cars of their age to get the work done. It didn't affect the rest of the car at all though.

Also if you have travel insurance they may cover the cost of the hire car but probably not if it was an unnecessary cost due to the car still being perfectly drivable just one of the comfort features not working.

NotRichAtAll

As above my pug 406 had a kaput aircon compressor drove it like that for four years, compressors can be upwards of £500 to replace, personally found it easier to open the window

what make car is it and how old is it?

shaun_from_Africa

marcarm wrote: »

Not sure what other problems it would have caused as it certainly caused me no issues

Fosterdog wrote: »

Surely you would just turn off the air con and open the windows if needed?

If the aircon compressor was leaking then I agree, it's unlikely to cause other problems but if it was a mechanical fault such as a bearing breaking up or running roughly, this could cause major problem if it failed completely.

This is because the airconditioner compressor doesn't normally have its own dedicated drive belt and if the compressor was to seize up then the accessory belt could well fail as it would be running over a non moving pulley.
If this happened, you would lose drive to everything else that the accessory belt powers and these things are normally the alternator, power steering pump and water pump.
The following is just a quick example of the systems that may be affected:

marcarm

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

If the aircon compressor was leaking then I agree, it's unlikely to cause other problems but if it was a mechanical fault such as a bearing breaking up or running roughly, this could cause major problem if it failed completely.

This is because the airconditioner compressor doesn't normally have its own dedicated drive belt and if the compressor was to seize up then the accessory belt could well fail as it would be running over a non moving pulley.
If this happened, you would lose drive to everything else that the accessory belt powers and these things are normally the alternator, power steering pump and water pump.
The following is just a quick example of the systems that may be affected:

Fair enough, I don't know a huge amount about cars so was only relaying my own experiences.

I had a compressor fail in a Saab 9-3, and also in my Focus now the aircon doesn't work after a regass, the garage can't see any leaks so think it's the compressor but haven't booked it in for them to check properly.

Not sure what I do to compressors to have 2 fail on me :rotfl:

shaun_from_Africa

marcarm wrote: »

Not sure what I do to compressors to have 2 fail on me :rotfl:

When the aircon was working, how often did you have it turned on?

marcarm

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

When the aircon was working, how often did you have it turned on?

Permanently :rotfl:

Maybe that was the problem!!