Can a garage use my car personally?

AdrianC

Hawkins123 said:
Hi, they must have put more fuel in to cover all those miles, it was purely the odometer.

So no financial loss there.

She owns the car outright but if she exceeds her allocated mileage on her insurance she’ll incur a charge, I don’t know at what price.

But this isn't mileage covered at the insurer's risk, so it should be disregarded. Anyway, will it make a difference? Will she cover 9,800-9,999 miles herself during the term of her policy?

When she was buying the car we asked whether the timing belt had been done (as advised by our mechanic) and the guy we were dealing with assured her it didn’t need doing yet. Our mechanic later looked into this for us and it was a year overdue, so he’d mis sold her the car. They begrudgingly agreed to rectify this and do the work, and this is where they’ve added all those miles.

Or, perhaps, a genuine error was made in the information - which they are now rectifying for free...?

She’s wanting to know what she can do if the tracker shows they’ve been using it without consent.

Her most direct and effective action is to swear never to use them again.

She gave them the keys with consent to complete the work, and at no point did they contact her to explain if and when they’d need to use the car to collect parts for the work doing etc

That's probably the least likely use.
Garages rarely go and collect parts. They phone their factor, and the factor sends them out on their van within an hour or two.

Another thought... Is it a DPF-equipped diesel? Is it mostly used for short runs? 
I wonder if they'll claim that - having done diagnostics - they gave it a good run to force a regeneration, and help prevent future issues...?

Hawkins123

“Was the use in line with normal garage purposes for testing a car that was in for the job? The work escalated - the job took a week instead of two days. Perhaps it needed to be taken elsewhere for some specialist work, and that mileage was in line with that?”

We’ve written to them multiple times, at no point have they responded via a letter. They’ve had the opportunity to explain this, yet they have ignored us. So if they had used it like you’re questioning then surely they just say that?


“"Allocated" by whom? The financier? Her insurer?
Will that 200 miles actually make any practicable difference?”
It’s her insurance, and regardless to whether or not it would make a practicable difference that doesn’t make it right or acceptable?

“One other question... What car are we talking about here?
It's massively unlikely that a garage would even be vaguely bothered about "joy-riding" in something fairly prosaic, such as is likely to be being used by somebody requiring a black box on their insurance.
So is the suggestion that they loaned it to another customer for use?
One of the staff commuting in it?
What purpose would them covering 200 miles in it actually serve?”

She drives a lovely Range Rover Evoque, so making presumptions about things like that really don’t help. 

I appreciate someone will try and play devils advocate, and I appreciate you’re trying to help but quizzing and belittling me really isn’t helping. This is the first time I’ve used this website and I’ve come here to try and find out what her options are and where she stands.

This is my first time using this on my phone so I don’t know how to quote things in sections and annotate it, so I’ve just answered your questions above. 

KimJongUn88

The insurance issue is a red herring then. Whilst the vehicle is under the control of the garage and whilst it was being used by one of their employees, the garage’s insurance would be on cover,  not your partner’s.

So you haven’t paid for the timing belt work either? I’d just forget it and get on with your life. 

Mistral001

This was done on me by a garage owner.   I was furious.   It is not the money or the wear and tear on the car. It is the  breach of trust.  I expect that this happens a lot and people just do not challenge it.  When they do challenge it, I suspect they get fobbed off by something like "we had to use it to get parts as there was no delivery of parts today".  or some other such well known excuse they use inside the business.  I had been going to the garage for years.  Now I never use them.  They did me a favour in fact because found a better garage.  No such problem with them and better and more economical service.

Alter_ego

AdrianC said:

Alter_ego said:

Report to police, this could be TWOC (taking without consent) 

That would be a stretch, and very hard to prove.


Section 12(1) of the 1968 Act defines the offence as taking any conveyance (apart from a pedal cycle) to use it without having the consent of the owner

Where permission has been given by the owner for some limited purpose, keeping the car after completing that purpose and continuing to drive it will be an offence of TWOC if there is no belief that the owner would consent to the continued use.

You don't have to prove anything to report a crime. But if you did tracker evidence would be a good start

AdrianC

Hawkins123 said:

Was the use in line with normal garage purposes for testing a car that was in for the job? The work escalated - the job took a week instead of two days. Perhaps it needed to be taken elsewhere for some specialist work, and that mileage was in line with that?

We’ve written to them multiple times, at no point have they responded via a letter. They’ve had the opportunity to explain this, yet they have ignored us. So if they had used it like you’re questioning then surely they just say that?

All that proves is that they're lousy at communicating with you, whether by accident or design.

"Allocated" by whom? The financier? Her insurer?
Will that 200 miles actually make any practicable difference?

It’s her insurance, and regardless to whether or not it would make a practicable difference that doesn’t make it right or acceptable?

Complaining that her insurance is max 10k/year and they've covered 200 makes no difference whatsoever if she's only going to cover 8k herself... or if she's going to cover 12k herself.

Also, they would not have been using the vehicle under her policy's cover anyway - it would have been covered under their insurance. So the policyholder simply tells her insurer "This 200 miles was not me, so please exclude it from being counted towards my cap".

One other question... What car are we talking about here?
It's massively unlikely that a garage would even be vaguely bothered about "joy-riding" in something fairly prosaic, such as is likely to be being used by somebody requiring a black box on their insurance.
So is the suggestion that they loaned it to another customer for use?
One of the staff commuting in it?
What purpose would them covering 200 miles in it actually serve?

She drives a lovely Range Rover Evoque, so making presumptions about things like that really don’t help. 

I appreciate someone will try and play devils advocate, and I appreciate you’re trying to help but quizzing and belittling me really isn’t helping.

I haven't made any assumptions, nor have I belittled you. My apologies if you took my comments that way.

I am simply trying to understand the likely scenario, since we simply do not know the full facts - only what you are telling us gradually.

People working in a garage, who drive different cars every single day of the week, are not going to get excited about driving an older Evoque. It may be your partner's pride and joy, and please do not take my comments as meaning to diminish that in any way - but, in the grand scheme of things - it is simply not a car that a mechanic is going to risk their employment to sneak 200 miles in through the back door. That's what I mean by "fairly prosaic" - not something exotic and high-performance.

Assuming her Evoque is the 2.2 diesel fitted to early cars, then I believe the cambelt interval is 108 months - 9 years - or 144k miles, whichever comes first. The Evoque was launched in 2011, nine years ago. What age and engine is in her car, and what mileage?

KimJongUn88

Mistral001 said:

This was done on me by a garage owner.   I was furious.   It is not the money or the wear and tear on the car. It is the  breach of trust.  I expect that this happens a lot and people just do not challenge it.  When they do challenge it, I suspect they get fobbed off by something like "we had to use it to get parts as there was no delivery of parts today".  or some other such well known excuse they use inside the business.  I had been going to the garage for years.  Now I never use them.  They did me a favour in fact because found a better garage.  No such problem with them and better and more economical service.

Good for you.  
End of thread.

Herzlos

Have you spoken to the garage, or just written them a letter? What was in the letter?

Your only issue is with the driving black box, so phone the insurance company and explain that from ____ date and time to _____ date and time the car with at _________ garage to get this_______ done, and you can send them a copy of the invoice if required.

200 miles if they've replaced the fuel is going to have negligible impact on the value or mileage overages.

AdrianC

Alter_ego said:

AdrianC said:

Alter_ego said:

Report to police, this could be TWOC (taking without consent) 

That would be a stretch, and very hard to prove.


Section 12(1) of the 1968 Act defines the offence as taking any conveyance (apart from a pedal cycle) to use it without having the consent of the owner

Where permission has been given by the owner for some limited purpose, keeping the car after completing that purpose and continuing to drive it will be an offence of TWOC if there is no belief that the owner would consent to the continued use.

You don't have to prove anything to report a crime. But if you did tracker evidence would be a good start

No, you don't have to prove anything, but the chances of the police taking it even remotely seriously are roughly zero if you can't.
Without the police and CPS thinking there's a realistic chance of success, there is no likelihood of any outcome from reporting it.

What does the tracker show? That it covered that mileage in that time. Yes, the OP knows that from the odometer. Will it include actual destination coordinates? Unlikely. Given that the car was not in the OP's custody at the time, but was in the custody of somebody who had her permission to keep the car for the duration, releasing them would likely be a breach of GDPR even if the tracker company have retained them.

There is no evidence of any intent to permanently deprive the OP of the vehicle, so the tracker data is not required for the primary anti-theft/post-theft-recovery purpose.

Perhaps the OP could clarify - is this "tracker" an actual anti-theft/post-theft-recovery location tracker or, as I was assuming from the comments about "driving score", simply an insurance telematics box?

Another thought... Does the vehicle have built-in satnav...? Does that contain any journey data?

Biggus_Dickus

Some of them are cheeky barstewards.

Many moons ago I dropped my car off for a full service on Friday morning. The service went ahead ok but due to commitments I told the garage (Main Vauxhall dealer!) I’d only be able to collect the car Monday a.m....which I duly did.

It was immediately apparent to me that there was a 100+ mile discrepancy on the odometer;...I spoke to the Dealership manager and demanded payment for the petrol used.

The exchange got quite heated,...he reckoned I’d made a mistake  and he was adamant that the none of his ‘highly professional’ staff had used the car;...however, I had an ace up my sleeve.

I lifted the boot lid and asked him to explain the only contents;....a small pair of childs ‘jelly sandals’ and a seaside bucket& spade,...plus a fair sprinkling of sand;...I kid you not!

Somewhat red-faced he paid up immediately.