In January my car wouldn’t start and I called the AA. The patrolman diagnosed a faulty engine control unit (ECU) and towed it to an AA-approved garage, RCS in Deeside.
I didn’t receive it back until July and, only then after I reported it stolen to the police. It was coated in bird dirt, with a missing number plate light lens and faulty digital display, and there were 15,000 extra miles on the clock.
The garage claimed that fiddling with the ECU can alter mileage and denied driving around in it. However, I have received a £70 penalty charge notice (PCN) from the council for an infringement in June when the car was in the garage’s possession. The MOT had expired in February, a fortnight after it was taken in.
I am a disabled carer for my elderly mother and have had to rely on my mobility scooter during the six months I was without my car. I’ve had to cancel hospital and dental appointments because I couldn’t afford the taxi fare. I liaised with the AA throughout and every time it had a different excuse for the delay.
LO, Wirral
Where to start with this one? I began with the PCN for a clue as to your vehicle’s adventures during its time away. The photos supplied by the council show your car parked on double-yellow lines on a public road in Flint, 10 miles from the garage where it was supposedly being repaired, and five months after it was taken in.
Next, I checked its MOT status on the DVLA website. That shows the MOT was carried out two days before the car was returned to you, and more than five months after it expired, so it would seem it was on the road illegally.
It also shows that in the nine years you have owned it, you have averaged under 2,000 miles a year, whereas it has clocked up nearly 17,000 extra miles since the previous MOT.
So what on earth was going on at RCS? Companies House might offer a clue. Its accounts are four months overdue and there is currently a notice for compulsory strike-off, the second since it was incorporated two years ago.
In that time it has changed its address three times in quick succession. I asked its director, Antony Hutchison, if it had cashflow problems. He insists it had not, but tells me it had ceased trading, while claiming multiple moves were due to its expansion.
He says it had taken months to source a suitable ECU and blames further delays on a partner garage in Flint to which he had delegated the work.
He says he was unaware of the PCN, which he paid on the day I got in touch, and insists that because the replacement ECU was secondhand it showed added mileage. “I admit the vehicle was off the road for a long period and we did everything in our power to get it fixed,” he says.
When I contacted the AA, it jumped into action and said it would ensure a satisfactory resolution. “We deeply regret the extended delay LO experienced in the repair of her vehicle and recognise the significant impact this had on her daily life,” it says. “This unacceptable delay was primarily caused by a mismanaged ECU repair process, compounded by poor communication from the garage. The AA’s relationship with the garage concerned is now under review.” It has since offered to make the car roadworthy and pay £150 in compensation.
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