Legal Question in Consumer Law in Florida

My son had the engine replaced in his car. We payed 2500.00 for it. It came with a 12 month , 12,000 mile guarantee. He took it back to have the oil changed after 500 miles

as suggested by the mechanic. The mechanic told him it had no oil left in it and that the engine had an oil leak. They wanted to charge him to fix the leak. He didn't have the money at the time. So he drove it for the next 3 months, checking the oil and adding as

required. The engine started nocking so he shut it off and called the mechanic. They

towed it in and fixed the oil leak. Now it needs a Crankshaft kit and the mechanic wants

my son to pay for it to a tune of $1500.00, because he ran it low on oil. My arguement

is that he should have fixed the oil leak in the beginning. If he had there wouldn't be any problems now. It is still under the guarantee. Do we have a case ?


Asked on 10/26/10, 5:03 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Shelly Schellenberg MI & FL private practice

You will each be able to give your version of the facts to the court. The dealership has the edge since your son refused to make the repairs that were necessary 3 months ago. Their argument is that your son should have made the repairs and then litigated about who was responsible for the payment, in order to avoid further damage. It's your son's car, and he was responsible for the decision to fix it, or not fix it. It wasn't the mechanic's decision to make, so it doesn't matter now, if he wanted to charge for the repair back then.

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Answered on 10/31/10, 9:29 pm


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