Hi Mr2
My boyfriend rang Maurice yesterday, who was really helpful. Basically, the gear box , as has been said, would need to be taken out, and the whole thing inspected, and if it was faulty, then he could go back to the original garage re warranty e.t.c. Unfortunately this would be quite expensive to do, and if the clutch kit wasn't faulty, there would be no come back. And even if it turned out that there was a problem with it, there still would be a large cost to having the car inspected.
Looks like a loose/loose situation, as even if the original garage is at fault, it'll end up costing big bucks.
As it's an old car, I don't think the financial hit would be worth it (it's already had various other costly repairs).
It's incredibly frustrating the way the garage has responded, but I don't think there's any way to make them do anything, without incurring extra costs.
They are SIMI registered, but I don't think he could reasonably make a complaint to them, if he's not willing to pay to have the gear box taken out (spurious complaint otherwise,except if lodging a complaint on 'attitude' or 'customer service', which I don't think SIMI would be very interested in somehow, and wouldn't appear a reasonable thing to do)
So much for customer service anyway.
I think he's going to have to look for another car. Ouch.
Does anyone know any garages that do trade-in's on barely drivable cars? (we're in Dublin South-side/centre)
I doubt it, but no harm in asking! I remember some ads before, offering a (?) thousand euro trade in on bangers, which the car has now unfortunately become
Thanks everyone for your help
Nicola