Not mine, someone I work with lol
Motorway driving, noticed engine starting to overheat so she pulls over and calls AA. Recovery man comes out, finds a split in a hose (top rad I think) and a coolant leak. Fixed up the leak with some tape, said it was Ok to drive on with even though the remaining trip was ~2 hours, but should be taken to a garage next day. Repair report states the same.
She drives on, engine starts overheating again a few miles down the road. Pulls over again, calls AA man (the guy who came out first) who tells her it could be an air lock and to rev it hard to remove the air. She does this, and drives on for a bit more.
Car overheats again. Calls AA and gets a second recovery man out who inspects the car and says the head gasket has gone. She gets given a courtesy car to drive home in, and the AA stick her car on the back of a loader and bring it back to her house.
Next day she takes the car to a garage and lodges a complaint with the AA saying their advice to drive on caused excessive damage (i.e. being told to drive on, rev it etc). AA send out an inspector to view the car, who (in his written report) states that yes the head gasket has gone and standard damage is there, but the head itself visually appears intact. However the report also states further damage beyond requiring a simple skim could potentially be there, e.g. warped head. AA offer £250 as a goodwill gesture, then increase this to £390 to cover cost of a head gasket repair (which isn't the full cost but still) and admit that their initial recovery man gave bad advice.
Garage have since told her that yes the head is warped so requires replacing, pushing the bill to something over £1k. Now the AA are saying that due to the cost, they would write the car off as a book price of £1,000 and offered her £100 'salvage value'.
From what I've seen, the AA have pretty much admitted liability, in writing, that their man gave poor advice and didn't follow their procedures properly. The inspector who viewed the car at the garage states, again in writing, on his report that any damage beyond a simple head gasket pop would be the responsibility of the AA. But still they're refusing to budge on their initial offers of £390 repair, which doesn't meet the full repair cost, or £100 salvage.
Any ideas on the best way to persue this?

