Garage disaster - who is liable?

fred246

I had a car that was a bit of a rust bucket. The small independent garage that does my MOT has one mechanic who did welding. If it ever needed welding he did it. Never charged more than £200. Looking at MOT history it lasted 7 years after it first needed welding. I wouldn't say he did a great job but I was happy with a certificate each time.

Oursoul

Thanks for the panda knowledge Goudy, my first ever car was a b reg panda which lasted a year due to parking it on a seafront, never checking the oil/water and generally thrashing it to death.  The doors were literally held together with gaffa tape due to rust, but it had 2 sunroofs and got me and my mates to raves every week 😎

Jack_Cork

fred246 said:

I had a car that was a bit of a rust bucket. The small independent garage that does my MOT has one mechanic who did welding. If it ever needed welding he did it. Never charged more than £200. Looking at MOT history it lasted 7 years after it first needed welding. I wouldn't say he did a great job but I was happy with a certificate each time.

Cool story 

Ditzy_Mitzy

Oursoul said:

Thanks for the panda knowledge Goudy, my first ever car was a b reg panda which lasted a year due to parking it on a seafront, never checking the oil/water and generally thrashing it to death.  The doors were literally held together with gaffa tape due to rust, but it had 2 sunroofs and got me and my mates to raves every week 😎

Actual cool story    The back seats in those old Pandas were horrid, as I recall.  My Mum's friend had one and it was always a bitter battle, between the passengers, as to who got to sit in the front!  

Jackmydad

"I had a car once. . ."
Fill in details as appropriate.

Oursoul

So the end to this story is the welder has given us the panda, it's got 2 months MOT left but he's said to bring it back when it runs out and he'll get it through for another year.  Plus he gave us £100 to replace the car seats that got destroyed - there might even be enough left over to replace our Rick Astley discography.

Oh and the person who didn't follow instructions has been sacked.

All in all a pretty good result - still not impressed with the garage's slopey shoulders though.

mattyprice4004

I'm glad you got a speedy resolution - not having someone actually inside the car with a fire extinguisher is incredibly negligent, and this is entirely of their own doing. 

452

Oursoul said:

So the end to this story is the welder has given us the panda, it's got 2 months MOT left but he's said to bring it back when it runs out and he'll get it through for another year.  Plus he gave us £100 to replace the car seats that got destroyed - there might even be enough left over to replace our Rick Astley discography.

Oh and the person who didn't follow instructions has been sacked.

All in all a pretty good result - still not impressed with the garage's slopey shoulders though.

Lets hope the panda doesn't need welding. 

Jumblebumble

Oursoul said:

So the end to this story is the welder has given us the panda, it's got 2 months MOT left but he's said to bring it back when it runs out and he'll get it through for another year.  Plus he gave us £100 to replace the car seats that got destroyed - there might even be enough left over to replace our Rick Astley discography.

Oh and the person who didn't follow instructions has been sacked.

All in all a pretty good result - still not impressed with the garage's slopey shoulders though.

No No No
You must get the welder to MOT it right Now
You are possibly driving a death trap and you have no clue what will happen at an MOT in a couple of months
As pointed out by other posters who have a measure of common sense the Panda is also worth £100 mixed metals at the crusher until it is MOTed
PS you should ignore anyone telling you your Jazz  could have lasted for years. It is about as stupid as telling you an eccentric millionaire might see  your car, might want to buy it and might offer you £20k on the spot.
I do quite enjoy the deliberate trolling.

Ditzy_Mitzy

Oursoul said:

So the end to this story is the welder has given us the panda, it's got 2 months MOT left but he's said to bring it back when it runs out and he'll get it through for another year.  Plus he gave us £100 to replace the car seats that got destroyed - there might even be enough left over to replace our Rick Astley discography.

Oh and the person who didn't follow instructions has been sacked.

All in all a pretty good result - still not impressed with the garage's slopey shoulders though.

All's well that ends well.  Or sort of well - glad that you've now got a working car, at least, and hope that it gets you through the next little while.  If the worst comes to the worst you can use the money you didn't spend on repairing the Honda Jazz to buy another car!