How to Lose Your Car to a Car Repair Shop Without Defaulting on a Bill

Many people do not realize that a vehicle can be impounded by an automotive place even if there is no problem with payment for services. I lost a vehicle to a repair shop which kept it for months without repairing it and then refused to return it. To my shock, I found out the law would be on their side.

In the late 1990s, I had a car stolen - legally by an automotive service and repair business. Although this happened in Nashville, Tennessee, from what I have learned, it could happen anywhere.

My Toyota Corolla was several years old, and would have been worth about $3,000 in good repair, so I was trying to fix it up to sell. The car was running roughly, and would hesitate and stall when I was driving, so I took it to a dealer I had used many times in the past -- Oil Change Plus on Charlotte Pike in Nashville -- a company I had referred others to. I paid $1,100 for repairs, and on my way home from picking it up, the Toyota began to run roughly, hesitate and stall out. I took the car back to Oil Change Plus and left it again. After a week or so the manager, Ollie, determined it was a carburetor problem, and he said he would repair my carburetor. If that didn't work, he would rebuild it.

I stayed in touch with Ollie as his mechanics worked on the carburetor. When it couldn't be repaired, they began trying to rebuild it. Time passed, and I realized this project was on the back burner at Oil Change Plus. This put me in the position every woman hates -- be too passive and get run over -- be too assertive and become the B-word. I began to check in once a week and ask for an update, encouraging Oil Change Plus to stay on top of rebuilding my carburetor. After a couple of months, OIlie decided that the carburetor could not be rebuilt, and he said would have to try to find a used carburetor from a junk car that would work in my Toyota.

We repeated the same process as before -- more time passed, and more delays occurred as my car once again was put on the back burner at Oil Change Plus. This time when I would check in, I began to suggest they return the car if the carburetor could not be replaced, but Ollie continued to assure me that he thought he could find a used carburetor that would work.

About 6 months into this process, I had to go in for treatments for skin cancer on my face. Even then I continued to check in on the progress every couple of weeks and to hear the right carburetor had not yet been located. A few weeks later Ollie was no longer available, and no one could give me a status report. After some time, I insisted on talking to Ollie and was told he was in the hospital with pneumonia. I resigned myself to waiting for Ollie's return.

When Ollie was finally back on the job a couple of months later, he could not remember the details of my repair. I went over the history of this ongoing project with him and suggested maybe it was time to return the car. However, after sitting so long in his lot, the Corolla no longer ran at all. He said to give him a couple of weeks and he would get it back to running. I called 2 weeks later, and he said he would call me the following Monday. This started the final phase of this travesty as he would never call when he said he would, and when I would call, he would say he was going to call on Monday, or on Friday, or the next week... and he never did. More time went by and he ultimately stopped returning my calls and was never in when I stopped by.

Finally I sent Oil Change Plus a registered letter requesting that my car be returned. Although the letter was signed for, I never got a response - EVER. I contacted an attorney who told me that I had lost my car, that in these cases the car repair place always turned around and filed a claim for storage of the vehicle at a hefty price. After a year, that fee would be more than my Toyota was worth. In other words, a car repair business can impound your vehicle legally if they keep it for a long time and don't repair it, even if you are following up and asking that it be returned!

So Oil Change Plus charged me $1,100 to repair a vehicle that was never repaired, and then kept it for a year during which nothing was accomplished except the slow disintegration of my car, and then ended up with my car and everything it it -- legally.

The lesson I learned is NEVER leave your car with a mechanic for more than a short period of time. If a car service center can't fix it in a month, it is not likely to repair it at all, and you need to find someone more qualified. Take immediate action to get your automobile back. Otherwise your vehicle might legally become the property of an automotive repair shop.