Winning the fight over some big bills

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Wed 6 Jul 2005 14:44
Winning the fight over some big bills - Roger Jones
Two interesting cases on the back of the July Which? magazine today:

* BMW owner faced with warranty company's refusal to meet more than 20% of a claim for £5000 to repair extensive engine failure caused either by a failed water pump or a blown head gasket, or both; the refusal was based on blaming only the water pump and having no responsibility for other damage. Warranty company backed down only when Which? threatened to refer the case to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

* VW Passat owner suffered premature timing-belt tensioner failure in four-year-old car (failed at 64k, but was said to be good for 80k). Original suppliers of car tried to evade responsibility for supplying car of unsatisfactory quality. Threat of court proceedings by Which? eventually resulted in the supplier's insurance company meeting the cost -- £1885 -- in full, in spite of the supplier having changed its trading name and no longer being a VW franchisee.

Note the size of those bills.
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Wed 6 Jul 2005 14:49
Winning the fight over some big bills - Happy Blue!
regretfully, neither case went into court so cannot be used as precedence.

However, useful ammunotion for fighting similar cases.
--
Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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Wed 6 Jul 2005 15:42
Winning the fight over some big bills - artful dodger {P}
IIRC for a case to make legal precedent it must have been heard in a District Court, not a Small Claims Court.

Still a good result for the motorists concerned and possibly for many more in the future.
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Wed 6 Jul 2005 15:51
Winning the fight over some big bills - Bromptonaut
IIRC a precedent may be persuasive but it only becomes a binding authority on reaching a higher court; normally the Court of Appeal.
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Wed 6 Jul 2005 16:36
Winning the fight over some big bills - P 2501
Massive bills,esp. the BMW. 5K must be for a brand new engine fitted by bmw technicians.(or is that the going rate for a BMW engine these days)

Just goes to show that in cases like these the garage/warranty company etc know they are wrong, but will only cave in when the owner gets big organisations like which? on their side with threat of legal action.

I would bet that the owner of these cars would have had no joy at all fighing this on their own.
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