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Car 'developed' problem whilst at garage


The Woolster
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I use a specialist garage for my car servicing and MOTs, and they make a point of using plastic seat covers and cleaning the steeling wheel, door handles and any other surfaces they might have touched. As the owner of the garage said to me, customers remember things like that because it gives the impression that the mechanics really do look after your car and so they'll keep coming back. If a mechanic given an impression of trying to fleece the customer or just being careless, they'll lose business. It's an industry where word of mouth is hugely important.

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Good news.  

 

Back to the problem in hand, Woolster.  It's clearly an issue caused during the test itself.  Negligence or bad practice will be nigh on impossible to prove, but they will be clear that it won't be great publicity if it gets out that not only did they manage to break a car's driveshaft during testing, but they refused to acknowledge any liability.  It's a discussion you should have with the garage at the earliest opportunity.

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I use a specialist garage for my car servicing and MOTs, and they make a point of using plastic seat covers and cleaning the steeling wheel, door handles and any other surfaces they might have touched. As the owner of the garage said to me, customers remember things like that because it gives the impression that the mechanics really do look after your car and so they'll keep coming back. If a mechanic given an impression of trying to fleece the customer or just being careless, they'll lose business. It's an industry where word of mouth is hugely important.

 

They even clean the steering wheel.

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I use a specialist garage for my car servicing and MOTs, and they make a point of using plastic seat covers and cleaning the steeling wheel, door handles and any other surfaces they might have touched. As the owner of the garage said to me, customers remember things like that because it gives the impression that the mechanics really do look after your car and so they'll keep coming back. If a mechanic given an impression of trying to fleece the customer or just being careless, they'll lose business. It's an industry where word of mouth is hugely important.

 

I bet you don't know why you came here tonight, and you've got the feeling that something ain't right.

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http://www.findlaw.co.uk/law/consumer/services/8789.html

 

Also, only from Answers.com but covers the point I was going to make: What would break a drive shaft... "Bad or neglected U-joints, locked up rear end, extreme stress, extreme torque, sudden and complete stop of rear wheels while at high rpm. Severe imbalance condition, damage by road hazard." Seems like most are maltreatment, rather than wear and tear, unless they can show you where some has caused it to wear out.

 

When I am dealing with a mechanic I always drop a few inquisitive question which seem to accept what they are saying. What do they think caused it. Might else it have damaged anything else, if there's a potential problem I need to sort it (good line of questioning to lure the dodgy fuckers in...). etc etc. Make sure you make a note of what they said later. Are they online, if so see if they are accredited by any trade associations (if not ask a mate to call them on the pretence of needing some work done and ask). Then call/check online to see if that claim is true.

 

Also might be worth seeing if the association or your insurance firm can support any queries (in terms of when the damage happened and whose responsibility it is).

 

What is the car BTW, 4WD or 2WD, how new...

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One thing you need to understand, and I'll impress this upon anyone who'll listen, is that car mechanics are absolute scum.

 

Bit of a sweeping statemnt, isn't it? People might say the same about journalists.

 

There are some excellent mechanics out there.

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Diesel servicing is more expensive than petrol. Then the make of car makes a difference to servicing costs. Then it depends on whether you choose a main dealer, a specialist or a back-street Phil Mitchell with a hammer. If it's your cars first MOT then I presume your car is 3 years old. Do you have any sort of warranty on it? That may offset some of your costs.

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That story above hits a chord with me as I've started making a mental note of the mileage in my car when I drop it off, just to see how many miles they give it for it's 'test run'.

 

 

I should of really posted that in the 'You know when you're getting old' thread, as I've only starting doing that over the last two years and its such an arld and sensible bastard thing to do.

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Every garage has mechanics with greasey hands.

 

Well the ones who don't give a shit do. 

 

I use a specialist garage for my car servicing and MOTs, and they make a point of using plastic seat covers and cleaning the steeling wheel, door handles and any other surfaces they might have touched. As the owner of the garage said to me, customers remember things like that because it gives the impression that the mechanics really do look after your car and so they'll keep coming back. If a mechanic given an impression of trying to fleece the customer or just being careless, they'll lose business. It's an industry where word of mouth is hugely important.

 

I'm with Trumo here, if you are getting your car back from them and it's dirty and has muck on the handles and steering wheel they probably aren't taking much care with your car in general. 

 

We always used seat covers, wrapped the steering wheel and gearknob and put paper floor mats in to keep the car clean. Even then everything was wiped down after removal too. My dads trick was to also leave a paper napkin (not really a napkin but we used to get them for free from Shell) over the steering wheel, punter goes outside and then wipes the wheel themselves, looks at it and sees it's got no muck on it and knows the car is clean.

 

Bit of a sweeping statemnt, isn't it? People might say the same about journalists.

 

There are some excellent mechanics out there.

 

Beat me too it as I was also going to comment on the extremely noble profession of journalism. It's not like they ever make things up to lure people in and earn money.......

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