A Trim-based woman who noticed a noise in her car 11-year-old found that the noise started up again when she retrieved her car from a garage in the town after a repair which cost her a total of €1,980, she told a local court. Claudia Mahony, Norbury Hall, Trim took a case in the Small Claims Court against Krzysztof Klas, Oaktree Business Park, Trim.
Ms Mahony said she took the car to the garage in January this year after discovering a noise in it. At first he told her it might be the timing chain but then said it might be the clutch that needed repair. He contacted her later and said the clutch was broken. He priced the job at €1,500 for the clutch and €480 for his labour. He said he was waiting for parts and the matter went on for nine days.
She eventually collected her car “and the moment I left the garage it was still making the noise and obviously I immediately went back to Mr Klas to get him to have a look at it. This was Friday and he told me to come back on Monday morning”.
She said she worked in Dublin city and on her way home from work two warning lights came on and it was also making the noise. She contacted Mr Klas and it would agreed she would drop the car back. When she was driving up to the garage it was very difficult to get the car into gear and that had never happened before. When she later contacted him to ask when her car would be ready he said that “the problem is with the turbo”. She said she told him “if it’s not the clutch at all, what does that mean?” and he responded “the clutch is ok”. When again she asked when the car would be ready he sent her a text “hi, car is ready to collect”.
When she collected it, it was still making the noise. “He told me it was actually the fanbelt tensioner that was causing the noise and he couldn’t sort it, it would have to be sorted at a BMW garage . I asked him why he replaced the clutch if that was not causing the noise and he said the clutch was worn”.
She took the car to a garage in Rialto and they told her the fanbelt tensioner had to be replaced, she said. They said that kit was actually a crankshaft pulley that was worn. She said the total bill from Klas garage was €950 on top of paying Mr Klas €1,950. “At this stage I was €2,800 in total”. She tried but could not reach a resolution with Mr Klas before coming to the court. Mr Klas said he told Ms Mahony that he could not fix the problem because he did not have the parts. He had letters from the supplier saying they did not have the parts.
Judge Eirinn McKiernan said that Mr Klas had not identified the crankshaft pulley. He said that when Ms Mahony came to his garage he had showed her everything step by step. She had started the car and “there was no noise, nothing”. He told her that he couldn’t change a particular part because his supplier didn’t have the part. His proposal was that she would come back and when he had the part he would change it for free. He said he had pictures of the problem. He had explained everything to her, “every single step what I do”.
Asked by the judge if he disagreed with anything Ms Mahony said he said “I am sure like I did something wrong”.The judge said “But she came to you with a noise and she left with the noise after paying you €1,850. Could you not have come to some agreement with her about this matter? I think it’s a fair compromise that you pay this lady €950 and I’m granting a decree for that amount to be paid by 23 rd January.”
”
