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On the 10th Dec 2007 I took my car into the garage to have a pipe fitted to the air-conditioning pump. It had originally been broken when the mechanic fitted a new pump, he admitted what he'd done and offered to replace the pipe at his cost.
I dropped the car off at about 10am and went to work. At about 12.30 my mobile rang. "There's something seriously wrong with your car, there's water & oil pouring out of it and I think the head gaskets blown cos it's overheated" was what greeted me when I answered the call.
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My partner and I rushed round to the garage, accompanied by a colleague who's an ex-mechanic. A rather nervous young mechanic greeted us, swearing he'd only left the car ticking over for 5 mins and it had over-heated causing major damage. "It must have had something wrong when it came in and it had no oil or water in it" Strange, because that morning I had driven in excess of 100 miles with no problems and I knew for a fact that the oil and water were fine as I'd checked them the day before. Added to all that the car has an on-board computer which warns you long before fluids reach dangerously low levels. The same mechanic had even commented on how smoothly the car was running when I dropped it off.
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The upshot was that the garage owner, whilst not admitting liability agreed to carry out all of the work on the car free of charge, I reluctantly agreed to pay for parts up to £100. He promised I'd have the car back for Christmas. Despite constant calls and visits the car still wasn't ready by the Friday before Christmas, but was promised for Christmas Eve. Surprise, surprise, it wasn't ready and the garage was closed. They remained closed until 7th January - I was on the verge of reporting the car as stolen as there was no sign of it in the garage or yard when they finally got in touch. As yet no work had been carried out on the car, it hadn't even been stripped down.
To cut a long story short I called and wrote and visited constantly in an effort to get the car repaired or at least a date for completion. I was constantly promised "Next week, next week..." Finally, last month - 3 months to the day, they called me. But not to say it was ready, Oh no that would be too simple for these Muppet's. They'd built it all up again after having one of the heads skimmed, but it's a V6, it has two heads and they'd "thought" only one had blown so hadn't checked the other until now! Yes, you've guessed it the whole engine had to be stripped down again for the other head to be skimmed.
It's now nearly 4 months down the line, the engine has almost been re-assembled - I've been guaranteed it will be ready on 4 occasions in the last week, needless to say those promises have not been fulfilled. The tax has expired, the MOT has run out, they've managed to crack the windscreen, there are several scratches on the bodywork, the wiper blades have been removed (why?) and the upholstery is covered in oil.
They've promised it'll be ready tomorrow. If it was drivable it'd be out of there but when the engine is in bits what the hell can I do but carry on waiting and watching my car fall to bits.
By: Cuteface
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