Help! Mechanic had my car for nearly 5 months!!!

[louisemcc24spirit]

Hi, in Feb 2015 my car had a replacement engine fitted and this came with a 2 year guarantee.
All was well until Dec 2015 (10 months later) when there was a strange grinding noise from under the bonnet, a local mechanic said that something had broken inside the engine so i called the original fitter under the guarantee. That was Dec. It's now May and I have months of text messages from me enquiring when car will be fixed. I have been told the place he got the original parts has gone out of business and so he is having to pay for the repair himself and is awaiting parts from Japan. In March i was told the engine would be back in that week and would be ready to collect. Since then apparently there is a problem with the pipes / hoses.
Last Thursday I was told it'd be ready definitely on Saturday, then he asked me to make it Tuesday (today)
I have taken so much time off work to make arrangements to collect car on various days he claimed car would be ready. Not to mention the amount it's cost me to get to work without a car. Today I've had enough, he is avoiding my phone calls and messages despite the fact I have been very polite and patient.
Where can I go from here? Any advice gratefully received

[R0b]

Re: Help! Mechanic had my car for nearly 5 months!!!

Have you tried to attend in person, that way he has no choice but to see you, and at the same time you want to see your car and what state it is in - if you have to take someone with you as a witness to everything.

5 months is a long time and it sounds like something is fishy to me. Your only other option I guess would to take legal action against he mechanic but you might want to check first whether he still has the car in his possession.

[louisemcc24spirit]

Re: Help! Mechanic had my car for nearly 5 months!!!

Hi, that's a part of the problem as he's 1.5 hours away. I'm not even sure what legal action i'm entitled to take or how to go about doing it :-(

[Ripped-Off]

Re: Help! Mechanic had my car for nearly 5 months!!!

The problem with us Brits is we're too nice and too naïve. Rather than teach our kids about things they'll only ever need in a pub quiz, we should teach them law. You are being fed a line about parts from Japan and everything else. What are you driving....a 1980's Datsun?

Your contract was made pre-Consumer Rights Act so you rely instead on either the Supply of Goods Act or the Supply of Goods and Services Act. In any of these you are entitled to claim for consequential loss; that is losses that are secondary and indirectly connected with the loss in question, i.e. the engine.

Write to the garage and make time of the essence. Tell them that you are incurring additional travel costs and unless the motor is fixed in say .... 2weeks, you will have no alternative but to recover the car yourself, have it fixed elsewhere and recover all of your losses from them, including past transport costs. If they try to bluff you, bluff them back; tell them that any exclusion clauses they try to rely on do not satisfy the reasonableness test of the Unfair Contract Terms Act.

Business push and push consumers without fear of reprisal. Be prepared to fight for your rights in the small claims court if the garage fails to deliver the motor within the two weeks.