Compensation for delays caused by garages shoddy work?

BigMark

I have a project car that I've been working on for a number of years and it went in to a mappers late 2017 to primarily have new custom engine loom, sensors, ECU and transmission wired in and base mapped.  Unfortunately the car was there for 9 months, the last 5 of which they spent scratching their heads about some issues and making no progress at all.  So I took the car back in the 2nd half of 2018, and in early 2019 sent it to an expert that fixed several issues and found more issues.  I've sent a letter earlier this year to the garage listing the faults and compensation I feel I am due, but I have not had a reply so looking at options including to start a small claims court action against them.  Unfortunately the cost of the repairs has meant I've not yet been able to afford to finish the car still.

If the work wasn't shoddy then the project would of been OK to drive on the road a few months after the base mapping as it would of just needed running in for 500 miles and full mapping, instead the money has been spent on repairs with more still to be done.

My question is that if I go for court action, as well as almost £4500 in repairs costs (includes completed and estimated) can I also claim damages for the delays to the project caused by the poor work?  If so how would I calculate it? 

AdrianC

Late 2017 - car goes in.
Four months work, five months not much work.
Late 2018 - car comes back... (so what about the other ~3mo?)
Early 2019 - car goes elsewhere (again, we've got a big gap there)
...and here we are, a year and a half later, and you're complaining about your "damages" for "losses" due to delays?

Go on, what have you lost? Put a number to it, and justify it.

Grumpy_chap

It is very hard to see that delays to a "project car" result in any losses, as this is not the every-day motor used for getting to work or such like and there is no need to make alternative arrangements while the "project car" is not available for use.
Unless the OP has more and can prepare a detailed substantiation, any court action will result in disappointment for the OP.

Mercdriver

I don't think loss of enjoyment acts as damages in the UK.  

MinuteNoodles

You've got little chance in court.

You took it to a place that modified the vehicle from the manufacturer's standard. Unfortunately when doing the kinds of modifications you wanted doing things can and do go wrong, especially on newer cars when trying to get around the security systems of the vehicle which often means that when you start using non-standard ECUs etc that they just will not run. You then enter a whole rabbit hole in which it is possible to spend months and many £100s trying to resolve to ultimately get nowhere.

You then took it to somewhere to have it rectified. That again is going to lead you down another rabbit hole and it comes as no surprise they found issues, I'd be surprised if they didn't as you've got two different people doing custom one off work with each having their own idea about how things should be done.

How do you know the original work was shoddy? Have you done this yourself? Is there a well used, verified and documented modification or one that some people have done putting together information from various sources on various forums and written about usually missing out slightly important steps?

There is no calculation for losses because of delays because you've not had any. It's not like it was your main vehicle where you had to hire one whilst it was being done.

Unfortunately what you've experienced is just part and parcel of having custom work done on a vehicle and usually successful claims are limited to dodgy bodywork. That doesn't mean you can't put in a claim though but be prepared to shell out a lot of money to do so, especially if the place that got it working refuse to get involved. And be prepared that if you lose that you'll be paying the other party's costs. Whilst you can claim for yours if you win there's no guarantee they have the money to pay it.