Ever refuse to work on a vehicle?

Here`s the thing, Good Sam law or not anyone who repairs assumes responsibility. Even if your work is perfect if something else fails and it gets disputed you as someone who should know better might face some liability.
 
NOBODY should tell anybody what they should or shouldn't do. YOU don't have the right to. Dealing with family is the hardest thing to do period!!!! CHARITY only goes so far.
As far as safety...........It's the "owners" responsibility........NOBODY else's.
Never seen such a thing................
 
Originally Posted by Dinoburner
Here`s the thing, Good Sam law or not anyone who repairs assumes responsibility. Even if your work is perfect if something else fails and it gets disputed you as someone who should know better might face some liability.


What law school did you go to?
 
I help friends and the less fortunate frequently and without any expectation of recompense.
Pay it forward as they say.

I avoid cheap, lazy and/or slovenly people whenever possible. Even family.
smile.gif


Yes, you did the right thing imho.
 
I always help family but I don't have issues with family taking advantage. Now my brother in law waited two years to get a wheel bearing replaced and asked me to help. He wanted me to bring all my tools over to his house and work on it in the the street because it was easier for him. Apparently it was so bad braking was an issue. I told him bring it to me on a tow truck if you have to. I'm not working in the summer heat in the street and bringing all my stuff across town. He ended up driving it over and it took all day. I needed way more tools than I thought and he wanted to use the jack the car came with lift it. No thanks.
 
Originally Posted by user52165
Originally Posted by Dinoburner
Here`s the thing, Good Sam law or not anyone who repairs assumes responsibility. Even if your work is perfect if something else fails and it gets disputed you as someone who should know better might face some liability.


What law school did you go to?

Since when does one have to go to a law school to have witnessed someone have a problem that went to court. Also the company I worked for wanted the service techs to make note of problems not noted on the SO leaving a warning tag. One service trainer was fond of saying the one who pays the settlement is the one who stutters first.
 
Originally Posted by Dinoburner
Originally Posted by user52165
Originally Posted by Dinoburner
Here`s the thing, Good Sam law or not anyone who repairs assumes responsibility. Even if your work is perfect if something else fails and it gets disputed you as someone who should know better might face some liability.


What law school did you go to?

Since when does one have to go to a law school to have witnessed someone have a problem that went to court. Also the company I worked for wanted the service techs to make note of problems not noted on the SO leaving a warning tag. One service trainer was fond of saying the one who pays the settlement is the one who stutters first.


That's fine for a garage service facility, hopefully licensed and qualified. But this thread is about private parties - friends and relatives. Difficult to prove liability in this case.
 
Last edited:
I have no issue helping people that are willing to do their part. I'll use my sister as an example. She needed a newer vehicle awhile back and wanted me to car shop with her. She had a very limited budget and I helped her pick out the most mechanically sound vehicle she could afford to pay cash for. I pointed out the issues that I could see and told her which ones I could fix and which ones she would be better off having a shop repair. I generally don't do complex diagnosis and repairs. She had the repairs completed a little at a time as she could afford them shortly after the purchase. It was pretty problem free for about a year. She called me a couple of weeks ago because the alternator needed replaced. She offered to pay me which I declined. I replaced her alternator for free and sent her on her way. I suppose my issue with the van is two-fold. Part of me is angry with him for destroying a perfectly good vehicle and part of me wants nothing to do with keeping this heap on the road if he has no plans to fix the other issues.
 
My step father and mom got me a 95 Nissan Sentra in 04. It was in very good shape and had 118k miles on it. They knew I would take care of it rather well. The previous 4 years I had definitely started taking better care of my cars maintenance wise. I changed the oil on the Sentra every 4-4500 miles, changed spark plugs and wires and rotor and distributor cap as when needed... The car made it for 5 years... Only had a water pump fail $260, a power steering pump fail $220 and a alternator go $500 in that time. I bought tires for the car when needed. When the car died in the Wendy's drive thru of all places... It had 241,000 miles on it. Timing chain broke. My mom was very pleased it had made it that long. I then got their 95 Toyota Avalon which had 227k miles on it. I took very good care of it has well... Until I got my own newer car the 08 Ford Fusion 3.0 SEL in Feb of 2010. When I gave the keys back to my step father the car was in great shape inside and outside. I will say that with the Nissan Sentra I took care of the car mechanical wise really good... Though the inside was a big, big mess a whole lot of the time. Well, when I got the Avalon I took care of the inside just like my step father would have... I vacuumed it once a week and kept the inside very clean with no trash in the car at all. It only took me 2 minutes to get my stuff out of the car when I handed the keys back to him.

That is what you are supposed to do when someone does something to help you.... Take care of it the right way. And in the way they would take care of it themselves.
 
Originally Posted by Dave9
Strongly disagree with your position. You state it's unsafe then when he wants to get something done that is safety related like brakes, you refuse. Ironic to say the least.

With all due respect, you do not seem fit to assess safety of a vehicle if you don't even see how important good brakes are.

This is completely illogical.
1. He didn't say it was unsafe because of brakes, it was unsafe due to many other things. Even if he did the brakes it would probably not make it any closer to safe.
2. Nowhere did the OP say anything about brakes being unimportant for safety. The OP said the vehicle is a POS that's unsafe and he refuses to work on the brakes because the car is unsafe, not because he thinks the brakes aren't important. You made the assumptions and they're all wrong.
3. He owes this person nothing, not a [censored] thing. Anything the OP does is of his free will out of his charity. The OP saying no does not prevent this person from seeking help somewhere else or going to any number of shops to have his problem fixed. The ultimate responsibility is with the owner and driver of the vehicle.

The OP absolutely made the right call. If he touches this POS and then it ends up killing someone, in this country he can very easily be blamed for causing the accident even if he didn't. He can avoid all of that trouble by telling the owner that his car is unsafe that a lot of repairs are needed to make the car roadworthy, which is exactly what he did. The owner should then do the responsible thing and have the car fixed. Since the owner let it get to this point and appears to be the kind of person that lets things go until something bad happens, everything is his fault. Some people never learn a lesson and steer themselves towards bad consequences no matter what, they're a force of nature and the OP should just scoot out of the way and let nature take its course, provided he gave his advice his conscience should be clear.
 
Originally Posted by user52165
Originally Posted by Dinoburner
Originally Posted by user52165
Originally Posted by Dinoburner
Here`s the thing, Good Sam law or not anyone who repairs assumes responsibility. Even if your work is perfect if something else fails and it gets disputed you as someone who should know better might face some liability.


What law school did you go to?

Since when does one have to go to a law school to have witnessed someone have a problem that went to court. Also the company I worked for wanted the service techs to make note of problems not noted on the SO leaving a warning tag. One service trainer was fond of saying the one who pays the settlement is the one who stutters first.


That's fine for a garage service facility, hopefully licensed and qualified. But this thread is about private parties - friends and relatives. Difficult to prove liability in this case.

We're talking about liability here not the OP winning or losing, which law school did you go to? It's very possible that someone can and will blame the OP if something goes wrong, the OP would have to prove they're not responsible and maybe the OP would win...but maybe the OP would lose, you have no idea what's going to happen.

The only thing we're saying is that something that is guaranteed is that if this person decides to file a claim, the OP is going to have to spend time and money and plead their case. What kind of idiot would volunteer to go through that? Because it's "difficult to prove liability"? I'm sure that would comfort any rational person
smirk2.gif
, have fun with that.
 
Originally Posted by user52165
Originally Posted by Dinoburner
Originally Posted by user52165
Originally Posted by Dinoburner
Here`s the thing, Good Sam law or not anyone who repairs assumes responsibility. Even if your work is perfect if something else fails and it gets disputed you as someone who should know better might face some liability.


What law school did you go to?

Since when does one have to go to a law school to have witnessed someone have a problem that went to court. Also the company I worked for wanted the service techs to make note of problems not noted on the SO leaving a warning tag. One service trainer was fond of saying the one who pays the settlement is the one who stutters first.


That's fine for a garage service facility, hopefully licensed and qualified. But this thread is about private parties - friends and relatives. Difficult to prove liability in this case.


"Difficult" to prove doesn't mean you can't get sued and then spend thousands on lawyers to protect yourself. What if that vehicle (or should I say "pile of parts") got involved in a major accident causing deaths or serious bodily harm. Don't you think the affected parties of that accident might hire a slick attorney to sue the pants off the owner as well as the last person who "maintained and serviced" said vehicle, especially if that person had deeper pockets and a better insurance company than the owner. The liability is there. The OP was wise to walk away.
 
Last edited:
I quit working on other peoples vehicles , friends, family, in laws or out laws...people were bringing me cars that the junk yard wouldn't want...why do people buy 200 dollars cars and want to put 2000 plus into them is beyond me...last one was a ford ranger that the guy bought for 300 ,I wonder how he drove It to my place and who inspected this thing,,yep it had a good inspection sticker... it needs all ball joints .body looked like swiss cheese 4x4 doesn't work..frame looks like its about ready to give out the next good bump in the road,,the engine needs more than just a tune up,,.might be able save part of the exhaust but most likely needs it all..I just don't understand why anyone would do that. I told him wait till scrap prices go up , take it to the scrap yard and with any luck your break even
 
Originally Posted by FT92
I quit working on other peoples vehicles , friends, family, in laws or out laws...people were bringing me cars that the junk yard wouldn't want...why do people buy 200 dollars cars and want to put 2000 plus into them is beyond me...


Maybe they figure they would still have to put $2,000 into a $2,000 car that they bought?
21.gif
 
Interesting topic.
OP, without knowing ALL the details, you did the right thing.

I have refused to do a brake job on a relatives vehicle because - I don't need to prove I can do everything.
People don't appreciate the effort you put into helping them.

People have to be willing to help themselves first / Health, Finances, Home & Personal Property
Then you don't mind helping them.

The word 'enabling' comes up often.
I think the people who are constantly helping are realizing their part of the problem.
And then when you stop helping, the other person gets mad at you.
 
Last edited:
Avoid the liability. Helpless Hannas cry all the time. That's all they do. And yes, it stings when they're relatives.

Friends -essentially family- insisted on buying our wagon for their son to whom they "owed" a car.
He kept his grades up and his father actually trashed the lad's car while the lad was in school.

I delivered the car with it's repair and maintenance history boiled down to a one page chart. I told the lad to "continue this list into the future".
He didn't. Our gem became a dirty rat's behind.

At least the parents paid us fairly for the car. And now that I'm thinking about it, the 4 years of service he got might have been satisfactory.
 
Originally Posted by JustinH
The only car I work on is mine and my wife's.

Not messing with anyone elses jalopy.


Amen !
 
Back
Top