AA Recovery damaged car

[Jack]

Not mine, someone I work with

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?

[kent14sr]

My Mrs noticed a waterleak in her Mondeo when she returned after shopping, and called the RAC. The RAC guy looked at it and condemned the radiator (which was the correct diagnosis it transpired).

However, he then suggested - drive it home gently and ill follow you. If the gauge goes into the red, pull over. Given the drive home was 15 miles, and via the motorway my Mrs refused and insisted he towed the car (which after a load of moaning he did). I replaced the radiator the following day and all was good.

My thoughts though (as above) - if she had driven the car home and the engine had cooked, would the RAC pay the bill and the answer is probably not so thankfully in this instance in didnt happen.

I think the AA should be fully liable, and it exposes how poorly trained the operatives are - with many offering advice that defies all logic to people that (often) do not know any better.

A further example would be the old Cavalier we had (ex Baxter) that was lowered on 17" rims and a CV outer seized up on the motorway causing hurrendous vibration at all speeds - the RAC diagnosis was a seized shock absorber...

Clearly the only avenue to pursue in via a solicitor I suspect.

[Stuart]

a) is the head warped so far a skim wont save it?
b.) find similar cars and prices (if over £1K) and persue a better write off price to then write the car off and not take salvage, they can keep it.

[paul james]

I've also had to call out the AA over a split top radiator hose many years ago, which they just taped up, which naturally didn't last very long. It really surprised me, as at the time I assumed if you called them with exactly what was wrong, they might turn up suitably prepared to fix it. I was also hours from home too, on a Sunday evening, ended up taping it up myself (a whole lot better than they did), borrowed a big water container and kept stopping and topping up with water every 15 minutes or so.

If you keep complaining you should get a result in the end, just need to be persistent. About a year ago my mums car broke down and the AA too about 12 hours to take her home. They made her swap tow trucks 3 times for some dumb reason and forgot about her between one of the swaps. Took a fair bit of complaining but she did get free upgraded membership and some money too.

[Paul]

I once broken down in the yellow turbo on the roadworks on the M1 on the way back from PVS. I got the free recovery to their roadworks depot. While i was waiting for my green flag or spmeone to arrive their was an RAC guy their awaiting for another car to be recovered. Even though i wasnt with the RAC, the RAC guy helped me to fix the car- gave me spare hoses and losn of his tools. Before my recovery turned up I was on my home with my fixed car. The RAC are great.

Inthis instance though surely the AA must pay?!

[Jack]

a) is the head warped so far a skim wont save it?
b.) find similar cars and prices (if over £1K) and persue a better write off price to then write the car off and not take salvage, they can keep it.

Yeah, its shonked - garage are saying the head is banana shaped

Its a Mazda 6, not sure what the values of those are (forgotten the mileage/age!) - when the AA say 'write it off', I assume they are talking hypothetically here, as its not like an insurance write off where they buy it etc.

[meritlover]

i dont know how an AA man is supposed to play this in future. The chances are in the first case the Head gasket was the original and primary cause of the hose failure.

If every AA man was forced to assume that every burst hose was head gasket failure, everyone would be annoyed that they couldnt be helped at the side of the road.

It's a tough call, obviously there are going to be times where the poor guy gets it wrong, but id have thought the frequency of it happening being relatively small, the AA would take the hit and shell out in full when it does go wrong.

if people are in doubt, or think they can do a better job themselves they should just refuse help and ask for the car to be dropped off at the nearest garage or at their home.

i agree with Stuart, yes the damage 'may' be worse than a skim...but is it?

surely you could buy a second hand head and skim it for £350?

[Jack]

Well she's got a second hand head for £160, but even with that the bill is still up round the £1k mark. Not sure how, as surely to replace the head its no different to refitting the original one? Aaaaanyways

I can kinda see her point in that the AA have said policy is for their guys to recommend driving to the nearest garage only, and the inspection report reckons its unlikely the bendy head was caused prior to the first call. So her argument is whilst the AA may not have caused the original overheating issue, they made it worse resulting in said bendy head, so should pay for the excess costs to repair. Hmmm

[Stuart]

Of course the garage will say it needs a new head.....

And if a car is beyond economical repair due to their excessive screw ups then they should put her back in the position she was in before the call out, eg give her a grand and they take a ****ed car off her hands.

Failing that, have it repaired and sue the AA for damages

[Edd]

sounds like the AA just employ anyone with no motor vehicle qualifications then

i mean what kind of idiot says just drive it? with a overheating problem

free cover with bank yes, yearly subscription no