Auto dealership will appeal ruling
Auto repair shops have a duty to inform customers of looming mechanical problems even before they become obvious, a judge here ruled last week.
In a small claims case appearing to mirror medical malpractice standards, judge pro tem Edmond Siegel ruled in favor of car owner Lynda Jackson’s $1,313 claim that Steve Taub’s Porche Audi dealership should have told her that her Audi needed new brakes before her warranty expired.
When Jackson brought her 1998 Audi into Steve Taub Inc. in August of 2000 for a check-up covered under her 3-year warranty, she claimed the repair shop didn’t diagnose problems with the front and rear brakes, as well as a disc, a new boot and rotor. So when she returned the next April for a routine oil change, she was surprised to learn that the car needed $2,500 in repairs. The delay was costly because her warranty had expired two months earlier.
Like many medical patients, Jackson got a second opinion — which she felt reaffirmed Taub’s delayed diagnosis. She had the repairs done by a competitor, but argued that had Taub properly alerted her, they would have been covered under warranty at Steve Taub Inc.
“I couldn’t believe that all the damage had occurred and they didn’t see it,” she said. “Prior to going into service, none of those problems existed.”
Steve Taub Inc.’s service manager, Ardy Ghaffari, said it would have been premature to diagnose Jackson’s Audi as needing new brakes. After all, she had traveled another 7,000 miles before the problems were observed, he noted. Several repair shops have noted that it’s possible for brakes to go bad in that period, depending on the driver.
“So much time had elapsed and she had come in after her warranty expired,” he told the judge, adding the car is supposed to have sensors that tell the driver when the brakes are going bad.
Jackson said the second opinion revealed that the car’s brakes were “metal on metal” — in very bad shape — and that no sensor had ever gone off.
Questioned by Judge Siegel on how thick the brake pads must be when they need to be replaced, Ghaffari said four millimeters. His technical testimony may have wrapped up the case for Jackson.
“That is putting an awful amount of risk on the driver,” Siegel told Ghaffari. “I don’t know if that’s appropriate that she would go metal to metal in 7,000 miles. You allowed her to go that far and that’s your responsibility.”
Siegel ordered that the Santa Monica-based Steve Taub Inc. pay Jackson $1,313 — the amount she paid to make the repairs, which came in $1,187 less than Taub’s original estimate.
Ghaffari said he will appeal the judge’s decision and said he isn’t surprised because California is a “consumer friendly state.”
“It’s a joke,” he said. “She neglected her car and it’s our fault?”
A dealership doesn’t have a financial incentive to wait until a warranty has expired, some service managers said. They noted that warranties sometimes pay better than straight labor at the service shop.
Even though repair prices are based on dealership labor books and price catalogs, the parent companies sometimes give larger allowances for work done — such as “access time” which is more expensive because a part may be harder to get to than another, said Santa Monica Ford Service Advisor Dennis Amey.
“The standard they set may be higher,” he said. “Retail repair in some cases is less.”
Both Ghaffari and Amey say the dealership would rather do the warranty work because it’s guaranteed business. In Jackson’s case, Steve Taub Inc. lost the after-warranty repair business to a competitor who was less expensive.
“If I could have (diagnosed under the warranty), I would have because I would have gotten paid,” Ghaffari said. “Half of the time, the customer doesn’t come back. She’ll go to someone who can break our prices.”
“If I could have (diagnosed under the warranty), I would have because I would have gotten paid. Half of the time, the customer doesn’t come back. She’ll go to someone who can break our prices.” — — ARDY GHAFFARI Service manager, Steve Taub Porsche Audi
Amey agrees. “It doesn’t always guarantee that the customer will come back for that work,” he said. “There is no gain (in not diagnosing under warranty.)”
And while Amey believes that it is the dealership’s responsibility to alert car owners to major safety repairs that could pose a risk, he has seen motorists blow through brakes within 7,000 miles.
“The judge ruled in favor of the consumer but that doesn’t mean it’s right,” he said.
Ghaffari said the dealership would not be able to recover from Audi any funds it must pay Jackson.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 8, 2002. Read the original PDF.