Car breakdown

They said they'd give me some phone numbers. Meanwhile I've Googled some but would prefer a recommendation.
I suppose it's honest of the garage to tell me they've not fixed it so won't charge me

Aveline my car was in for service at ATS one year and they said it needed some work doing by an autoelectrician.
They told me which one to use and where they were, unsurprisingly I had no idea.
Your garage should be able to give you the same information. Depends how helpful they are in general I suppose... ?

Sounds awful. I'm dreading trying to drive my car home tomorrow. Just hope an auto electrician can do home visits. I'm going to pick it up early tomorrow morning as I can't face the engine cutting out in the rush hour traffic. It's very stressful.

My new Ford Puma, less than a year old, has pre collision assist installed - no idea what it did but I knew it was to do with the sensors picking up objects ahead of the car and alerting me.

Last Saturday, I was driving up a slight hill, the road ahead was totally clear with no other vehicles in either direction when suddenly, without warning, my car did an emergency stop and an alarm sounded! I was absolutely terrified and shaking, I saw an flashing icon on the dashboard about pre collision assist which told me how to restart the car which I did and I gingerly drove off.

The only thing I can think of is that the sensors were not aligned correctly as I was going up a hill and a cyclist, approaching the junction on a side road, had triggered it. The cyclist stopped at the junction though and made no attempt to cycle across in front of me - I had seen the cyclist anyway.

I read the manual and have now disconnect this feature until I can discuss it with the Ford garage as I’m concerned about it happening again, had a car been behind me, I doubt that it would have been able to stop in time.

It felt very odd when the car took over control from me!

My garage just phoned to say that the new alternator that they fitted hasn't solved the problem so they're refitting the old one and I have to find an 'autoelectrician'. Goodness knows how. They said they didn't want to have to charge me the £648 they were going to charge for this new alternator. Great. But I'm back to square one ?

I use Halfords, the prices for a job are fixed and the employees' wages are not dependent on the number of jobs they do so there is no need to invent faults where there are none. Reputation is everything for a garage so it is important to leave reviews.

Interested in this. My son has had his car serviced and MOTd annually by the dealership he bought it from as new. Always expensive and with faults on each occasion. The dealership closed down this year. Son went to Halfords. Car passed first time with a very small price tag. No, I have no shares in H nor do I know anyone employed by them. Just saying.......

Thanks for all the comments.
I did ring the garage, and was told by the receptionist that a service engineer would ring me.
So far, no phone call.
Mind you, I have been on the phone quite a bit, but will give them until mid afternoon.

Meanwhile I am defrosting a freezer, and trying not to worry too much.

It doesnt matter if the warning light was anything to do with the service. It meant something was badly wrong and needed to be examined.

Look up in your handbook what the warning light meant. It is possible that it was not connected with the service.

I would not go back there in future, it is very poor customer service.

Auntie flow….I too had a dreadful fright on Tuesday when my car slowed down as if to stop when I moved away from traffic lights. It them picked up speed and the whole thing left me shaking. Fortunately there was very little traffic and none on my inside so I was able to drive into a burger place.

I didn’t know what to do as I had left my phone at home but I got up the courage to drive the car to my garage which was only 7/8 minutes away but 20 minutes from my house. They kept the car in for a service and told me that they didn’t want me driving it?. They also said that they were booked up completely for a month but because……

I picked the car up yesterday and they said that it was a ‘software blip’ and that they had reset the software and given it a full service. My car is a 6 years old BMW and I don’t expect that to happen!.

I do think that your garage should have given your car a full service like mine did and I think we’ve both been very lucky. I would get back to your garage and let them know how you feel about it and insist on them checking the car for you. I would insist on it if I were you as you need to be sure it’s safe to drive.

Mine died on me ten days ago, on a dual carriageway with no hard shoulder. I managed to get on to a small bit of pavement and put my hazard lights on. In those circumstances, I couldn't have expected another driver to offer help and none did Green Flag sent out a recovery vehicle. All was efficiently managed and after two days, I had, at vast expense, a new clutch.

Yes, they should have offered. Absolutely. How lovely that two people came to your rescue.
On Wednesday I managed to hit a kerb and made a huge hole in a tyre. So I phoned the RAC who were wonderful.

It is such a horrible feeling when your car lets you down.

Ofcourse, they should have offered to have the car in again. Did the young samaritan, who managed to start the car again, tell you what he thinks may have caused the breakdown? Was it the battery? I know it’s a scary experience. I’ve been through similar recently. Talk to the Garage again. They should recheck the car. Good luck !

My sympathies. I’ve never forgotten the day when I drove to the nearest town and my car died on me, thankfully in a car park. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so helpless and frightened. As for the garage: words fail me. Was it a Ford dealership? If so they need reporting. One thing I’m very careful about these days is not letting my car get low on fuel as I used to do that and one car got dirt in the engine and was never the same. My ex was an engineer and we had a succession of old, unreliable cars that he knew how to handle but I didn’t ( he used to tell me to check the rev counter all the time).

Insist that they do. You need to have a diagnostic assessment of what is wrong in case it happens again. I'm a veteran at taking on garages! If they can fob you off they will.
My new battery failed again yesterday. I called the AA who came out tested the battery and gave me a print out to give to the garage. It was very helpful and showed exactly what was wrong. Needless to say I'm now the proud owner of a new battery fitted FOC.