My garage took my car on a 95-mile test drive [LBC Legal Hour]

Alicia's repair garage drove her car for 95 miles and she thinks they damaged it. The garage claim that the mileage relates to a legitimate test drive. What can she do?
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This video is published by Employment Law Services Limited. The information in this video is for general guidance only and, although the presenters and publisher believe it was correct at the time it was recorded (April 2024), the law may have changed since then. You should always seek your own independent legal advice. Please note that for employment law, the law explained applies to England, Scotland and Wales. For all other areas of law, it applies to England only.

[@d.collective1670]

95 miles is equal to one hour and thirty minutes at 60 mph. You could travel one way to the nearby town of Leicester, but it would take more than 95 miles to get from Castleford to Birmingham.

[@LemonLucozade]

Hey today Daniel!
I woke up and the sunshine outside was a tad too bright.
Do I have any recourse or am I entitled to compensation??

[@parametr]

Did you sign a contract with God for daily provision of sunlight?
Was the sunlight blindingly bright, or just a tad brighter than expected?
Did the brightness cause any damage?

[@tracer1127]

So some dent guy fixes some scratches a month prior to the garage fixing your car and that is proof that they damaged your car. Absolute tosh. It doesn’t matter if the the guy fixed some scratches the day before that doesn’t mean that the garage scratched it afterwards. As for the 90 odd miles , did they fix the fault or not ?

[@Dan-zn7pd]

95 miles isn’t unreasonable at all. I work at a main dealer and if a vehicle is in with a complex fault that we are struggling to replicate, then a Master Technician or manager will take the vehicle home for a couple of days. 95 miles would be equivalent to my Service Manager taking the car home for a night and a local test drive following repairs. Bear in mind that we all drive brand new company cars with fuel cards so we would honestly rather not drive your battered, dirty old 62 plate Corsa if we can help it!
The garage have no reason to be secretive about this though and should have asked the customer permission to do this out of courtesy first.
The garage have also tripped themselves up by not formally booking the vehicle in on arrival and noting damage.

[@Rapscallion2009]

I'd say the 95 miles might potentially be reasonable. Some faults require several test drives to diagnose the fault and test - particularly if it only occurs periodically or requires certain conditions for example the engine to be fully warm or the car to reach a particular speed. I wouldn't assume people are extracting the urine without know what was wrong with the car. If the horn isn't working that's one thing, if the engine occasionally misfires under load when fully warm that's another.

[@jordancrabbe4404]

At an average speed of 40mph this is just under 6.5hrs of test drives, for a warranty fix 🤣🤣🤣

[@alan_davis]

​@@jordancrabbe4404math not your strong point?