Taking JEEP to Small Claims Court - What You Think?

pugheaven

pugheaven

pugheaven

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Bryn Celyn Wales
On Friday 27th March, I took my 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0ltr in for diagnosis for a problem on left hand turns (gear box jumping out of gear) that has started happening about 10 days earlier, then in the last few days has got a lot worse, hence bringing it in to be looked at.

The engineers looked at the problem at Platts Garage in Stoke and diagnosed; the gear box was empty of gear box oil (it'd had been full or well within limits 3 weeks earlier). This has been traced back to the bad fitment of a radiator I had fitted in December 2014 by Jeep Dealer Bauer & Millet in Manchester at a cost of circa £475 pounds (which I had to go back a day later as they’d knocked a pipe off the engine that the cruise control uses).



This has basically broke the radiator (bent pipes and cracked the rad) and has also had the knock on effect of draining the gearbox of oil (I wasn't aware that on these Autos, the radiator cools the gear box oil as well). The cost for this rectification work will be circa £1070 pounds inclusive of a new radiator plus additional work. As Platts dealer in Stoke has gone on record and are happy to state that bad fitment of the radiator is the cause of this I am unwilling to pay more money to rectify a problem that has been caused by bad fitment and Jeep. My Jeep is in immaculate condition and has been highly maintained since I purchased.
There are three problems as I see it.

1). The Jeep dealer in Manchester has caused this problem thus I am unwilling to pay for the remedial work on the Jeep (confirmed by Jeep mechanics)

2). The longer term damage has today been confirmed and the gear box with broken metal and also burnt gears will cost additional money and is knackered. The total now is £4,670.14p to fix the car back to fully working order. I've stated I am not paying a penny, JEEP have come back and said neither are they and I can do one as the original radiator was fitted by a JEEP dealer that went into liquidation 14 days after I had my radiator fitted... and thus not their problem.


3). There were no courtesy cars at Jeep Stoke, and as I’ve had to travel in from North Wales (as there are no Jeep dealers anywhere near us, the new one in Chester refused to do the diagnosis work as they didn’t have the expertise due to only just opening) I had to travel 75 miles to Stoke as Platts has an extremely good reputation. The engineers advised more damage could be incurred and they recommended leaving the Jeep there which I did. Therefore I’ve had to hire a car from Enterprise down the road from Platts at cost to myself. At the time they said they'd pay now they say once again do one and I had to drive it back and drop off. The bill for the car was £385 notes.


I do not think it unreasonable to expect a full payment for the fixing of the above problems



So, since they've refused, and I'm not paying, off to the court we go.


What you guys think?


I've basically submitted a claim of £5,000 against them... what you think? I see this as JEEP need to take responsibility for their dealerships... whether they're franchise or not... I go to JEEP for a service as a dealship chain... thus backup if anything goes wrong, hence why we pay more. I find this incredible that they can cause £5k worth of damage to my car and walk away... even when their own JEEP mechnics are stating it's the bad fitment of the original radiator that's caused all this damage.
 
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As far as I know your claim should be against the franchise that carried out the work, whether the manufacturer choses to get involved or not is pretty much their business. The only time I see it being relevant to claim directly from the manufacturer is when the franchise owner no longer exists (not if the specific delaer shuts down)

I'm having a hard time seeing how a radiator can somehow mean a gearbox loses oil but I'm not remotely familiar with these types of setup so it's probably just my naivety.

The fact you have a written statement with regards to the source of the damage from an apparently reputable source is a very good thing with regards to your claim. Be aware though that this will take a long time to come to a conclusion, so you may wish to consider what you do with the car in the meantime. By way of example, I had to defend a small claims action last year and it took nearly a full 12 months to conclude due to requests for more information / EOT etc. The initial hearing is only the first step.

I'm really struggling with £5k worth of work to rectify a gearbox on a 2003 Jeep though - I'm assuming that's at dealer prices? Not sure how reasonable I'd consider that to be.

Remember a claim doesn't have to be for a pounds value, you can ask that they correct the work as that would still put you back into the same position as you were in before. This may also carry a bit more weight in your favour if you have it as a desired outcome - the key is to appear rational and reasonable
 
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get a second hand box and rad and get an indi to chuck it on and get on with yer life.. nobody is gonna look at a 5k repair on a 3k car on a dealer that went bust
 
You had the work carried out by a business which has gone bust. JEEP didn't do the work, the work was done by a firm who had purchased a JEEP Franchise.

However a quick google seems to suggest the place you went to is either still trading or has come back?
 
I don't think you are going to get anywhere with this unless you can solve one huge problem.


pugheaven said:
2). The longer term damage has today been confirmed and the gear box with broken metal and also burnt gears will cost additional money and is knackered. The total now is £4,670.14p to fix the car back to fully working order. I've stated I am not paying a penny, JEEP have come back and said neither are they and I can do one as the original radiator was fitted by a JEEP dealer that went into liquidation 14 days after I had my radiator fitted... and thus not their problem.
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If the original Jeep franchise that did the work no longer exists, you have no one to sue essentially. Are you sure they went into liquidation and no longer exist ie fully wound up, assets sold and company closed.

It could have been the case that the company was sold to someone else and re-branded/absorbed into another dealer. If the latter was the case the new owner could* be liable to fix the problem. If the former was the case, then your screwed.

You may be able to get money from your credit card provider but only to the value of the original works carried out.


*The new owner may have only bought a part of the business, which may not have been the part that made them liable to your repair.
 
I'm not sure on that tbh, genuinely can't really think if it extends to the maufacturer if the franchise owner is dissolved (though I'm far more aligned to 'no' given that its just a brand name they have been allowed to use, then again for warranty work and the likes you may talk directly to the manufacturer via the franchise). Business to business matters are simpler in this respect as there either will or wont be some sort of parent guarantee.

I believe it absolutely doesn't move to the manufacturer if the franchise still exists, even if they no longer own that Jeep outlet. Arnold clark would be a good example of this, they drop certain sites all the time, but the company still exists and could therefore rectify the issue
 
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Well little update. Had mediation on Monday 24th and although I can't be explicit about the settlement I got a considerable amount of my claim back directly from Jeep. So was worth perusing.

However on a secondary and disgusting note. The replament gearbox that was fitted in May went wrong July 20th and the second box they fited went wrong 4 weeks ago... And this one has just gone wrong two days ago... Looks like I'll be onto my 3rd brand new gearbox. It's quite obvious Jeep are fitting this incorrectly!!! So without jeep again!
 
[TW]Fox;27967708 said:
You had the work carried out by a business which has gone bust. JEEP didn't do the work, the work was done by a firm who had purchased a JEEP Franchise.

However a quick google seems to suggest the place you went to is either still trading or has come back?
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Bauer Millet was split into 2 divisions. One half did Jeep/Alfa/Fiat and the other did big American cars (Cameros, Cadillacs etc)

As far as I'm aware the regular car side went under and only the American division is still trading. If they had 2 separate company identities (which I assume they did) it still wouldn't help.
 
Glad you got it sorted, but just a note (in case anyone finds this via search years from now or something), even if the dealership has gone into liquidation, if they had professional indemnity insurance then you could still claim from the insurer they had when the work was done (if they had insurance of course).



rodenal said:
I'm having a hard time seeing how a radiator can somehow mean a gearbox loses oil but I'm not remotely familiar with these types of setup so it's probably just my naivety.
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On [most] autos the radiator has a pipe in the bottom tank with inlet/outlet barbs which connect to hoses attached to the gearbox, the ATF is pumped through the rad to cool it.
 
Marvt74 said:
Bauer Millet was split into 2 divisions. One half did Jeep/Alfa/Fiat and the other did big American cars (Cameros, Cadillacs etc)

As far as I'm aware the regular car side went under and only the American division is still trading. If they had 2 separate company identities (which I assume they did) it still wouldn't help.
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Bauer Millett has gone entirely.
 
You issue is with Platts, not Jeep. You can take the issue up with them and see what they do, but taking them to small claims is going to get you nowhere.
 
Yes, but you seem to have missed that

1 - His issue was with Bauer Millet (Platts being the franchise helping)

2 - He got a payout due to his claim
 
Marvt74 said:
Yes, but you seem to have missed that

1 - His issue was with Bauer Millet (Platts being the franchise helping)

2 - He got a payout due to his claim
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I was being blonde, see my edit. I expect it was just a goodwill offer to try and get the OP off their back but Jeep can just play slippery shoulders and say 'it was their fault, we can't be held accountable' if the OP was to submit a claim. Perhaps finding out who handled the winding up of the company and trying to claim from them would be a better approach, but that's probably going to be like getting blood from a stone.
 
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Janesy B said:
I was being blonde, see my edit. I expect it was just a goodwill offer to try and get the OP off their back but Jeep can just play slippery shoulders and say 'it was their fault, we can't be held accountable' if the OP was to submit a claim. Perhaps finding out who handled the winding up of the company and trying to claim from them would be a better approach, but that's probably going to be like getting blood from a stone.
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Agreed, would be good to know what the amount was.
 
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