Can a garage use my car personally?

JustAnotherSaver

Biggus_Dickus said:

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.

Brilliant.

Before i send my car in anywhere i always photograph around it and also the mileage. I expect the mileage to go up a bit if they need to run it to test anything but if it shot up 200 miles i'd want to know why.

Also, who knows whether the individual will max out their mileage. Probably not as sense would dictate you'd have an allowance beyond what you need but you never know. Easier to get it sorted out now than finding out in 11 months time that oh damn i've gone over my allowance by 200 miles.

Can't something be obtained from the garage to say - we put x-miles on this car and had possession between x-date and y-date so that the relevant companies/insurance don't hold it against the owner?

Or does that sort of thing not happen?

Were_Doomed

I think the key problem here (the increased mileage is really just noise) is that the insurer has contacted their customer to query the degraded driving performance during the period the garage has had the car, and threatened to increase the premium per the policy. The customer needs to inform their insurer (in writing, with a copy of the invoice/other paperwork as evidence) that the change was due to the vehicle being at the garage - it was not caused by their customer.

Grumpy_chap

Hawkins123 said:

It's massively unlikely that a garage would even be vaguely bothered about "joy-riding" in something fairly prosaic, 

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. 

I do not see that anyone has been belittling you in any way, and questions are only to try to get more information to assist full responses and advice.

It may be your pride-and-joy, but to most garages a slightly older Evoque is not an "exceptional" car that they would consider any more than "every day".

The really main thing is to get the tracker information and then take next steps once you are armed with the full facts.  What those "next steps" might be will depend on the resolution you would like to achieve.  In all likelihood, pursuing anything (even an apology) might well be fruitless and your best "next steps" might be to resolve not to use that garage again.  

Jack_Cork

Biggus_Dickus said:

Somewhat red-faced he paid up immediately.

 

 

 

 

He must have got a bit of a tan at the beach

Dr_Crypto

No chance at all of the police being interested in this. It may well technically be TWOC (I think it is) but given how under-resourced they are and how little interest they have in most minor crimes do you really think they're going to care?

ontheroad1970

The thing is that if the person driving it that 200 miles got caught by a camera, it puts the OP at risk of getting a ticket.  He would have to give what information is in his power to give, but if everyone at the garage denies it, then it gets interesting.  I wouldn't expect anyone to drive my car 200 miles anywhere without my explicit consent.  I would be furious if someone did, and if by chance I saw the car out where it shouldn't be, I would be reporting it as stolen.  

AdrianC

ontheroad1970 said:

The thing is that if the person driving it that 200 miles got caught by a camera, it puts the OP at risk of getting a ticket. He would have to give what information is in his power to give, but if everyone at the garage denies it, then it gets interesting.

No, not at all.

The s172 comes to the registered keeper.
The keeper did not have possession of the car on the date in question, but knows who did - the garage. The keeper nominates the garage.
The garage are then responsible for either denying being in possession (which would be an attempt to pervert the course of justice), nominating a driver, or admitting a failure to keep reasonable records of who was driving the vehicles in their possession.

I wouldn't expect anyone to drive my car 200 miles anywhere without my explicit consent. I would be furious if someone did

Your fury would be best put to use by never using that garage again.

..and if by chance I saw the car out where it shouldn't be, I would be reporting it as stolen.

I respectfully suggest you read back through the thread, because this has already been covered.

There is quite simply no theft, as there was no intent to permanently deprive - demonstrated by the car being returned as expected, and the only evidence being a higher-than-expected odometer reading. There was not even any "theft" of fuel, because fuel had been put in the tank.

There may or may not be taking without the owner's consent, but the garage unequivocally had consent to have the vehicle.
There may or may not be a case based around them using outside of the use for which consent was given, but the chances of the police and CPS actually putting it as anything but their very lowest priority are roughly zero.

Herzlos

Getting the police involved is a waste of time - you gave them the car and don't seem to have even asked them why the mileage came about. The garage could quite easily say it was an extended test run or outright deny it, or just say someone took the wrong car to collect something by mistake. The police aren't going to touch that because it's not in anyones' interest to pursue.

The only thing you need to do is get the insurance sorted out before they charge you more for it, and to use another garage in the future.

knightstyle

We used to have the use of car left at the garage for work to be done. It was an automatic gearbox specialist and cars were often in for several weeks so as a young lad i enjoyed hammering Jags plus others to show off to my mates.

GrumpyDil

Agreed that the main element is the driving score element. My daughter receives money back as small refunds due to good driving so would potentially be penalised by someone else driving it and adversely impacting her history. 
OP that's the element I'd be speaking to the insurance Co about.