Need lawyery car advice...

[SlinkyMike]

I had someone other than the agents perform a cam belt replacement on my Audi.

I was an idiot.

I have since hooked up with a private mechanic who was trained by Audi in Ingolstadt, which is great because he knows what he is doing; has the tools and is not the stealership.

My car broke down during the holidays, just dumped all of the oil and refused to hold any more. Long story short: a bolt came loose and shot through the housing that the cam belt assembly and a bunch of sensors is held in; the pulleys; guides; cam belt and housing all need to be replaced.

My new guy agrees that this was most likely caused by bad workmanship when the cam belt was replaced 8 months ago. He has also noted that there are Tipp-Ex pen marks all over the area where the cam belt is indicating that not only did this other monkey not know what he was doing but he obviously did not even have the workshop manual for my car when replacing the cam belt.

I feel like a total idiot for having such a hectic job done by someone like that but in all honesty: I trusted him - he'd been our mechanic for several years and I had no reason to suspect he'd stuff things up like this.

My question for any lawyery type or anyone with experience in something like this is: I cannot just roll over and accept the cost of fixing his stuff up. I have decided that I need to approach him about it and I was thinking I'd just do that with a damn lawyers letter informing him that he is being sued for the cost of setting this right - my hope is that he is insured and decides to just let his insurance take the knock - if he calls my bluff I'd have to evaluate the cost of repair VS the cost of legal proceedings.

Any thoughts?

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Forget about suing him - they will argue that it was normal wear and tear.

And how will you be able to prove that it was their guy? They will also argue that most probably you took your car off somewhere else.

Maybe somebody else will be able to offer you better advice?

 

[Waaib]

I'd approach him first. If you've been a long standing client he might react well and offer to fix it. Stuff happens, we all know that.
The legal letter route is always there but I wouldn't go that route first. No need to start off so aggressive.

I had a similar situation about 5 years ago with a bumper repair and respray that went wrong. The paint was fine but the bumper rattled loose and eventually fell off while driving about 4 months after the job was done. The panel shop accepted responsibility and replaced the whole lot for free.

 

[ALFAHOLIC]

Agreed with Waib, first of all, sory to hear about that crap...that is the LAST thing a person needs when we think our cars are in tip top condition.

I'd approach him first, explain the sittuation and then hear what he says. 9.9 times out of 10 independant mackies won't owe up! You get the rare occasion where guys will owe up and do it all over for free and only charge you for maybe the parts for instance.

Go try your luck you never know...good luck

 

[Dolby]

If I may - what was the cost difference between the agents and the private mechanic?

 

[SlinkyMike]

If I may - what was the cost difference between the agents and the private mechanic?

About R3k - parts are parts but the agents charge almost R500p/h for labour.

The A6 requires that the entire front section of the car be removed to access the area where the cam belt is housed getting in there is almost 5 hours work so when I say about R3k - it may well have been considerably more.

Either way it is certainly not worth the hassle and cost that I now find myself exposed to. In all fairness though the guy I am currently with would have done a sterling job so to say non-agent needs to be qualified, the guy who created the stuff up is a monkey.

To those others that have replied so far:

I have taken your comments on board and ordered a technical report from the RMI, I will take this to the culprit as the basis of my complaint and see where it goes from there.

Frankly though: someone unscrupulous enough to take on a job they knew full well they could no do is unlikely to admit it and pay up the R15k worth of damage they have caused but we'll just have to see...