Took my car to the garage and now it won't start! What are my options?

Estein

Hi.

An amber engine warning light started to appear on my car's dashboard around two months ago. It was functioning ok, although there were some noticeable issues with it 'kangarooing' when moving up the gears too quickly if I accelerated hard (it's an automatic). 

I decided to bring the MOT and service forward by a month and take it in for this and get it repaired in the process. I drove it in (having driven it about 120 miles in a day a couple of days before without issue). The garage called me later that day to say that after clearing the error codes on it, it now wouldn't start. A day passed, I dropped in a spare key, no progress. Then I waited a week for their head mechanic to come back from holiday, still won't start. 3 weeks on, they have tried everything with it but cannot figure out what's wrong despite various specialists taking a look and truing different things.

My next suggestion is that it gets towed to a specialist Volvo repair centre. Surely this cost would rest with the garage (I've not discussed that yet)? Should they not be able to fix it, either in the current garage or the Volvo garage, then what are my options? Should the garage be expected to claim under their insurance or should I have to claim under mine? As mentioned, there were issues with the car but it was starting absolutely fine and I drove it in to the garage.

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks, Erik 

Mildly_Miffed

You took a car with a fault to a garage. You have no idea what the fault was (I presume... If you know what the fault codes were, will you share them?)

The garage have tried to the extent of their ability, but are unable to resolve the issue. Now they suggest escalating the fix to a specialist.

Why do you think they should be paying?

It's entirely feasible that whatever was causing the engine management light to come on is the same fault as is now causing it to not start, and the deterioration from "running but fault code" to "not running" simply developed through perfectly normal and responsible investigation work.

If the specialist come back and say "the original fault was X, but the non-starting was separate and caused by damage from incompetent work", then and only then might you have cause for comeback against the first garage.

Iceweasel

It's the OP themselves who suggests it gets towed to a Volvo specialist.

I think that any claim against the garage would be countered by the car having been driven for months with an 'unknown' management light on 

'It was functioning OK, although .....'

DullGreyGuy

Estein said:

An amber engine warning light started to appear on my car's dashboard around two months ago. It was functioning ok, although there were some noticeable issues with it 'kangarooing' when moving up the gears too quickly if I accelerated hard (it's an automatic). 

I decided to bring the MOT and service forward by a month and take it in for this and get it repaired in the process. I drove it in (having driven it about 120 miles in a day a couple of days before without issue). The garage called me later that day to say that after clearing the error codes on it, it now wouldn't start. A day passed, I dropped in a spare key, no progress. Then I waited a week for their head mechanic to come back from holiday, still won't start. 3 weeks on, they have tried everything with it but cannot figure out what's wrong despite various specialists taking a look and truing different things.

My next suggestion is that it gets towed to a specialist Volvo repair centre. Surely this cost would rest with the garage (I've not discussed that yet)? Should they not be able to fix it, either in the current garage or the Volvo garage, then what are my options? Should the garage be expected to claim under their insurance or should I have to claim under mine? As mentioned, there were issues with the car but it was starting absolutely fine and I drove it in to the garage.

Any help is much appreciated.

So, you've had a vehicle with both a warning light and physical signs of a problem and you continued using it for 2 months for a decent amount of miles which has probably caused more damage. 

No, unless you can prove that they have damaged your car then it's your responsibility if you want to take it somewhere else. They may be able to arrange it for you but you'd then normally expect them to add their margin on top of the cost so it comes down to if their guy is cheaper than yours. 

What insurance are you thinking of claiming on? Your car insurance won't cover mechanical breakdown of the vehicle and certainly wouldn't cover it with you continuing to drive it for 2 months after the problem started. 

Lorian

Do we know what code(s) were present?

What was their reason for asking for the spare key? 

MEM62

Mildly_Miffed said:

You took a car with a fault to a garage. You have no idea what the fault was (I presume... If you know what the fault codes were, will you share them?)

The garage have tried to the extent of their ability, but are unable to resolve the issue. Now they suggest escalating the fix to a specialist.

Why do you think they should be paying?

Exactly this, why should the garage pay because they are unable to fix the fault.  Escalating to a specialist is the logical thing to do in this case but it is not their responsibility to pay for fixing your car because they are unable to do so.