Is €200 excessive after breakdown?

HELPDESK:Answering all your motoring queries

From MG: My Renault Espace broke down recently and I got it towed to the local Renault dealer. I received a quotation of €1,700 to repair it, which I thought was too expensive. When requesting my car to be towed from Renault, I was issued with a bill for €198.63, which had to be paid before I could take my car back. This bill was for labour to “examine and remove damaged drive shaft from gearbox, give estimate for damage to vehicle”.

The car broke down because the driveshaft had come out, so they didn’t actually remove it. I may have expected a small charge but nearly €200 seems very excessive. The car was subsequently repaired by someone else for €270 (which is 15.8 per cent of what Renault quoted). My query is: was I overcharged? Should I be looking for some refund?

The issue seems to be boil down to whether the dealer told you there would be a charge for the estimate. The dealer in question says that three hours’ work was done on the car to assess the extent of the damage. There is a dispute about whether you were informed of this charge and whether such a charge would be included in the final repair bill.

From Renault’s point of view, the car was out of warranty. In a reply to our queries, a spokeswoman said: “The charge might seem excessive but I can see where in a case like this three hours could be spent examining the vehicle, finding the cause and preparing the estimate.

“If the customer agrees to go ahead with the repairs while the vehicle is still in the workshop, on a lift and partly dismantled, and ready for repair, then the three hours is incorporated in to the final repair bill but if there is a need to reassemble the removed parts without repairing the vehicle and get the vehicle ready for collection then the dealer may choose to charge the customer for the provision of this service.”

Renault, it seems, is washing its hands of the matter and passing responsibility to the dealer.

The key question is whether you were informed that about the likely cost of the estimate before work was carried out. A spokeswoman for the National Consumer Agency said: “If a trader intends to charge a consumer for preparing an estimate then this should be declared in advance either orally, in writing or at the very minimum be displayed clearly on or about the premises. Under the Consumer Protection Act, a retailer must mislead a consumer as to the price of a product and cause the average consumer to make a transaction that they would not otherwise make. In other words, if the consumer had known that the estimate would cost €200, would they have consented to the estimate being carried out?”

Send your queries to Motors Helpdesk, The Irish Times, Tara Street, Dublin 2 or e-mail motorshelp@irishtimes.com