Is The Garage Liable?

[lemonsqueezy]

several months ago my second car had a flat tyre, my local garage came out and put the emergency tire on the car and returned the car to my home.
recently i had cause to use the car again and went to retrieve the punctured tyre to get it repaired, only to find it was not left in the boot of the car by the mechanic.i contacted them and they said they had left it on the back seat!! i assured them that it was not there, or even in the boot and told them it must be in their workshop.
they came back to me and told me the tyre was definitely not there and i would have to buy a new tyre and wheel. i have looked on eBay, Gumtree etc and i cannot buy one single wheel, i have to buy a set of four.
the car is my daughters, who is at university, and so it is not used day-to-day. however i check the car regularly and would have definitely seen the tyre if it were in the car. i only mention this because it explains how several months have passed before realising it wasnt there.

My question is: do i have any legal redress towards the garage for the cost of the replacement? as they have completely shirked responsibility.

any advice would be gratefully received, thank you!

[boxtops]

I don't know how you stand legally, but my first thought is that it's been such a long time since you took the car from the garage, that it would be extremely difficult to prove, either way. If you check the car regularly, the garage could argue that opening the boot would have shown the tyre wasn't there either (and the back seat seems a strange place to allegedly leave a tyre, IMO).

[Prudie]

Where was this emergency tyre put on - outside your home or on some journey? If it was a journey (which is suggested by your wording) who was driving at the time, don't they remember what happened to the tyre??

[Sqad]

\\\several months ago my second car had a flat tyre, my local garage came out and put the emergency tire on the car and returned the car to my home. \\\

Did you check, that the punctured tyre was in the car?

NO!......I guess.

Then it is your word against theirs.

[jomifl]

You will be able to get a single wheel at your nearest car breakers which you should find in the Yellow Pages.

[TWR]

I doubt whether you have a cause for comp here Lemon due to the time factor, what's the make of the car? Tyre size, Metal /Alloy wheel,

[douglas9401]

Procrastination, it appears, is not only the thief of time but car wheels too.

[Graham-W]

I presume you have looked under the boot carpet where a spare wheel would normally be stored. Is there storage in the boot wall to the right or left of the opening. They're sometimes store there.

[woofgang]

several months ago? not a hope in hell.

[ToraToraTora]

probably it is thier liability in law but it's your word against theirs so not a prayer in getting a new wheel out of them, the tyre was presumably knackered anyway. So all you need is a wheel here is the results of my search for "spare wheel" on ebay: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR11.TRC1.A0.Xspare+wheel&_nkw=spare+wheel&_sacat=0&_from=R40

depending on what you want you can refine the search and buy a single wheel easily. Is it a steel wheel? alloy? or what, what size? Pattern etc. Really ebay has many, my search above yeilded 15000+ hits

[ToraToraTora]

PS you'll probably get a decent tyre too!

[chas2008]

driving around on the emergency spare for a couple of months? thats a no no in itself...

[Peter Pedant]

.

in short no: buy a new spare wheel.

for a start you would have to show they didnt put it where they said they had- (or putting on the back seat was negligent) and I dont see any real possibility of doing that for starters let alone the other obstacles .... including laches (length of time before action)

[lemonsqueezy]

thank you very much for everybody's help and advice! i really love this website, it is so lovely that people are so happy to help one another for no other reason that that