
Vauxhall manufactured a “Stolen” car. Thoughts? - casualbob_uk
My friend took her Vauxhall Corsa for an MOT at the weekend. 
Upon inspection, two of the VIN numbers on the vehicle match the log book, the third does not. This is an instant MOT failure.<p>The garage are confident it has not been tampered with or been in an accident.
The garage believe that while they&#x27;ve never seen this before, the incorrect VIN number was installed at the Factory.<p>Because of this, the garage say the vehicle&#x27;s tax and insurance are also likely to be invalid and the car should not be driven. She was also told to inform the police. The police say if she drives the car and gets pulled over there will be questions as to why the cars VIN numbers don&#x27;t match as that is illegal.<p>After numerous phone calls where Vaxhaull wouldn&#x27;t even entertain that this could happen, they eventually agreed to acknowledge the problem and say it will take 6 weeks to correct.<p>My friend is a community nurse and uses the car every day to visit sick people. She now can&#x27;t use the car for six weeks until it is fixed.<p>On asking Vauxhall to arrange a courtesy car, as her livelihood is being affected by their mistake, they were very dismissive saying that the car is out of warranty (it is). My argument is that it&#x27;s not a warranty problem. It&#x27;s not like a part has failed and she doesn&#x27;t want to pay for it. She can&#x27;t pay to have anyone fix this problem any faster.<p>I have a friend at BMW who said if this happened with one of their customers, they wouldn&#x27;t be able to do enough to help them, it&#x27;s embarrassing and completely their mess.<p>Vauxhall don&#x27;t seem to care that this has happened, and my friend is left with the only option of hiring a car for six weeks at her expense.<p>What does anyone think about the situation?<p>TL;DR
Vauxhall made a car with 2 VIN numbers and refuse to sort out a courtesy car while they sort out the illegal, undrivable car. Am I wrong to think they should be more bothered about this?
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lucozade
Legally, I would be very surprised if your friend has a leg to stand on. It
sounds exactly like a warranty issue. IANAL however.

It's also hard to argue anything other than inconvenience, it's not like the
factory fault means the car is unsafe.

TBH if she really wants to try to get some compensation, probably her best bet
would be to bring it up on Twitter/Facebook and try to get some publicity. You
may be able to embarrass Vauxhall into responding that way, especially if you
highlight the community nurse bit. I'd be a little surprised if it worked but
you never know.

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casualbob_uk
Thanks for your input. Good to get different perspectives when I've just been
getting wound up by the whole thing on her behalf.

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detaro
Sounds like something local press might be interested in, if press in the UK
still has sections for that kind of thing.

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J-dawg
Even national newspapers sometimes have sections on consumer rights. I'm
pretty sure The Times still has this as part of the money section (maybe the
Saturday edition? It's been a while since I read a newspaper). This also
sounds like it would be of interest to the specialist motoring press.

I feel like this is one of those cases where generating some negative PR and
embarrassing Vauxhall could actually get results.

Good luck!

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dirktheman
Why hasn't this been discovered during earlier MOTs? You say the car is out of
warranty, so I'm assuming the car is older than 3 years, so it must have been
through MOT test before, right?

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casualbob_uk
Apparently this is the first year where MOT testers have to check all of the
VIN numbers on the car. It's new legislation, according to the garage.

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brudgers
My recommendation is that your friend contact their insurance company rather
than relying on insurance advice, regardless of how well intentioned, from the
mechanic's shop.

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Cymen
Is the car new? Why isn't the dealer offering to loan a car during the repair
time? Or is that not something that is done there? It is what I would expect
in the USA.

