Mechanic Set Fire to my Car

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  • caprikid1
    caprikid1 Posts: 2,125
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    It's great that cars are lasting 15-20 years without the need for welding. Downside is now any decent garage just does not want to do welding. As has just been stated If you don't want to strip a car out completely when welding then you need two people to do it. One welding one with the bucket of water !!. Even if you do strip the car out with sealers and internal cavity wax the car can still catch fire. I was lucky mine did not reach the headlining.
  • AdrianC
    AdrianC Posts: 42,189
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    What was it worth before he set fire to it?
    Scrap value.

    That's what he owes you, and not a penny more.



    Sentimental value is separate, and cannot be financially compensated.
  • juliebunny
    juliebunny Posts: 1,705
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    Thanks for your replies. I don't think there's any happy outcome from this except I've found out my mechanic is awful. To be honest the aggro of fighting with him over £100 is simply not worth the stress, I'm probably just going to walk away from him. He was very rude to me over the weekend.


    Caprikid1 - As you quite rightly state, no one is interested in anything that requires the additional effort of welding.


    The advice I would give to anyone else with an older car now is to find a mechanic who is an enthusiast
    for the car that you need repairing. I've now belatedly found someone via a Fiesta Group who restores old and damaged fiestas and has a passion for this. I've also had some good advice from motorclaimsguru.co.uk
    Less stuff, more life, love, laughter and cats!
    Even if I'm on the shopping threads, it doesn't mean I'm buying! Sometimes it's good to just look and then hit the CLOSE button!
  • missile
    missile Posts: 11,684
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    juliebunny wrote: »
    Thanks for your replies. I don't think there's any happy outcome from this except I've found out my mechanic is awful. To be honest the aggro of fighting with him over £100 is simply not worth the stress, I'm probably just going to walk away from him. He was very rude to me over the weekend.


    Caprikid1 - As you quite rightly state, no one is interested in anything that requires the additional effort of welding.


    The advice I would give to anyone else with an older car now is to find a mechanic who is an enthusiast
    for the car that you need repairing. I've now belatedly found someone via a Fiesta Group who restores old and damaged fiestas and has a passion for this. I've also had some good advice from motorclaimsguru.co.uk

    Don't get mad get even > Take him to court.
    It is quite easy and chances are he will not want to loose time attending court and you will win by default.
    "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." ~ Mahatma Gandhi
    Ride hard or stay home :iloveyou:
  • jlemaitre
    jlemaitre Posts: 299
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    Yep should be claiming from his business insurance. You were paying him for his work, which he failed to carry out the task correctly. Any normal person welding a car would strip the interior out well within any work area.

    I really hope he hasn't charged you for work carried out? Sounds like a proper cowboy to be fair.

    Judging by your post the Fiesta isn't anything special, I'm sure the only sporting Fiesta round that year was the Zetec-S so its not any XR-RS that'll be worth thousands of pounds.
  • Car_54
    Car_54 Posts: 8,180
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    missile wrote: »
    Don't get mad get even > Take him to court.
    It is quite easy and chances are he will not want to loose time attending court and you will win by default.

    We've established that it was worth only its scrap value. Say £100. Is that worth going to court for?

    Even if the OP gets judgement, it doesn't mean he'll get the money.
  • Norman_Castle
    Norman_Castle Posts: 11,871
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    edited 14 May 2018 at 6:42PM
    juliebunny wrote: »
    He has never offered any sort of reparation or even an apology. He just offered to get rid of her for me, so understandably I'm pretty miffed.
    If he was halfway through the welding thats £250 worth of work that he's not getting paid for so he's out of pocket. Not an excuse but he's unlikely to be happy about the situation.
    A proper apology and an offer to help find a replacement should be the least he could do.


    We buy any car offered me £175 but there wasn't any section to tell them she didn't have any MOT so not sure how valid that holds (MOT runs out this week.)
    Scrap guy has offered £100.
    A 17 year old Fiesta with no mot needing £500 of welding is only worth scrap value.
  • Car_54 wrote: »
    We've established that it was worth only its scrap value. Say £100. Is that worth going to court for?

    Even if the OP gets judgement, it doesn't mean he'll get the money.

    Perhaps it might make the mechanic think twice about acting like this again.

    And the op is a she, not a he.
  • Car_54
    Car_54 Posts: 8,180
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    And the op is a she, not a he.

    How on earth do you know that?
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