stolen / retrieved leased car

Alottment

 car which is leased from Lexus 350 nx has been stolen on 26/03/2025 and retrieved next day .

Police found it and called us , car was left in the car park with windows , doors open ,engine running  , we brought the car back I drove the car myself no problems was all running fine 

car wasn't damaged outside whatsoever , only the steering wheel cut when thief s removed the lock and some damage on the driver side plastic panel

Insurance company  picked up the car and took it to garage for repairs . the lease company has been informed about the whole situation .Since then we have paid 3/4 months instalments to lease company even though we don't have the car.Car is still in garage who keeps sending us text messages with new dates when the car will be ready . They keep pushing the goal post with the excuses that mechanic was sick, or the part didn't arrive or there is a back log on some parts .Now they are said to wait till 6th of September this is another date when it might be ready (it is not firm date they have said) . Meanwhile my lease ended but I don't have car to hand it back so I'm still being forced to pay instalments to lease company ,I'm being by contract with lease company to obliged for the car being insured and MOT up to date ,again this is additional cost . In text messages they are saying which parts are being ordered , what surprised me it is the fact that the car was , " fine " I drove it back home when it was retrieved and now suddenly it is not working , they are changing so many parts !? how can that be ?! How can repair of car which is 3 years old , no damage outside , engine running can take 6 months ?!

Voyager2002

Did the insurer arrange the repair? In which case you have an issue with your insurance company. (Otherwise, if you chose the garage then the issue is directly between them and you.)

MyRealNameToo

Alottment said:

 car which is leased from Lexus 350 nx has been stolen on 26/03/2025 and retrieved next day .

Police found it and called us , car was left in the car park with windows , doors open ,engine running  , we brought the car back I drove the car myself no problems was all running fine 

car wasn't damaged outside whatsoever , only the steering wheel cut when thief s removed the lock and some damage on the driver side plastic panel

Insurance company  picked up the car and took it to garage for repairs . the lease company has been informed about the whole situation .Since then we have paid 3/4 months instalments to lease company even though we don't have the car.Car is still in garage who keeps sending us text messages with new dates when the car will be ready . They keep pushing the goal post with the excuses that mechanic was sick, or the part didn't arrive or there is a back log on some parts .Now they are said to wait till 6th of September this is another date when it might be ready (it is not firm date they have said) . Meanwhile my lease ended but I don't have car to hand it back so I'm still being forced to pay instalments to lease company ,I'm being by contract with lease company to obliged for the car being insured and MOT up to date ,again this is additional cost . In text messages they are saying which parts are being ordered , what surprised me it is the fact that the car was , " fine " I drove it back home when it was retrieved and now suddenly it is not working , they are changing so many parts !? how can that be ?! How can repair of car which is 3 years old , no damage outside , engine running can take 6 months ?!

Well if the steering wheel, which you say was cut, is on backorder then it's going to take however long a steering wheel will take to be delivered. Your lucky though, 4 of our lifts at work are out of order due to an issue with a safety component, one is available and will be fitted in 3-4 months, the others they say will be 18 months for the parts to be manufactured!

You're down the rabbit hole now so probably have to see it through. Personally given how close it was to the return probably would have asked the lease company what the charges would have been to return the car damaged and asked the insurer what their cash in lieu of repairs value would have been and maybe gone with that as long as the cash was close (or more than) the charges. Obviously hindsight is a wonderful thing. 

You could ring other garages and say what needs to be done and ask them to confirm their timelines. Unfortunately it's easy for them to say they'll do it in two weeks without actually checking the parts situation but hopefully they will if you say you know there are potentially parts problems etc. Can then use this as leverage but if they say October because parts are on back order then its a clear problem and not just a poor garage.