Hello everyone. Perhaps you can offer me some advice.....

I dropped off my S2000 at Bristol Honda in Cribbs Causeway this morning for an 18k service and when I picked it up it had a dented passager door (from someone opening their door into mine) and a scuffed rear bumper!

I know that the damage was caused at the dealer as I washed the car yesterday (definitely no dents) and until today it had been garaged.

The dent was present at the dealer inspection (i.e. it had occurred whilst waiting for the inspection) but the guys at Honda appear a little dubious on this. The scuff to the bumper was not included on the inspected damage and had obviously happened after the car had been valeted (as the paint could be wiped off with a finger).

I complained to the dealer and they went through the CCTV footage with me. It appears that we may be able to identify the only car which opened it's door towards the passenger side of my car - however I am not sure this is conclusive evidence. I may be able to line up the corner of the owner's door (a CRV) with the height of the dent - but even then is this enough?

Also I noted that the parking spaces in the car park were extremely tight on width. Does anyone know if there is a British Standard for minimum car park space width? Two examples of damage to my car suggests that there should be!!

Does anyone know what liability Honda have over damage occuring during their possession of the car? Do they have to repair any damage however caused or are they just liable for damage caused by their mechanics? At what point do they officially take possession? Is it when the keys are handed over or when the inspection is complete or when the car enters the car park? etc. I noticed that some pub car parks have a disclaimer stating that they are not liable for any damage and cars are parked at the owner's risk etc. Honda did not appear to have one of these - does this matter?

I am going to go over all this with the Manager tomorrow and will let you know how I get on. Meanwhile any advice would be gratefully received.

All the best.

 

I would say Honda had a 100% obligation whilst the car is in their possession. The trouble is proving it happened whilst they had it.

 

min width of parking bay is 2.4m x 4.8m going by building regulations.

 

If Honda want to keep there good customer service name then they will sort it 'No Quibble' and that's that.

 

This exact same thing happened to my P1 when in for a service. Told the dealer and it was sorted in 2 days. They sent a dent repair guy round to sort it. If this garage is worth it's salt they'll do the same.

 

So, if you get dinged whilst parked in Tesco, is it Tesco's fault?

 

No, but Tesco's aren't in posession of your car and looking after it

 

 

I know where you are coming from, but I think that in this case possession of the car is the key difference.

When I dropped off the car I was given a courtesy car. If the courtesy car had been parked in Tesco and was damaged, Honda would expect me to put it right as the car was in my possession.

I don't think I could shrug my shoulders and say that they should try to track down the real culprit...... But that seems to be what they are suggesting that I should do about my S2000.

I think they should accept that the damage occurred during their possession, put it right, and then track down the real culprits to recover their money.

We'll see........

 

If they want to track down the culprit it is up to them, however any claim against that person should be made by the Honda garage in person, if you get no luck with the garage then start escalating within Honda itself, after all they are franchises.