Lombard Motors

Review: To whom it may concern,

My 2000 [redacted] 528i overheated on Rte 15 South just below Exit 62 on Sept. 4. This was the Friday before Labor Day. I had made arrangements for it to be towed to a local mechanic but those plans didn’t work out. My car was apparently picked up by Lombard Motors on Monday, Sept 7. Initially, I was unaware of who had my car and couldn’t make any calls until after the holiday. I did searches on the internet with my VIN/tag number and couldn’t locate. I called the CT State Troopers on Wednesday and after several transfers they stated that Lombard’s probably has it. I called Lombard’s to confirm and they stated they did have my car.

At this point my car had been in their facility for 3-4 days. I knew that I had blown a radiator hose/pipe because I was leaking fluid. Lombard’s agreed to waive the storage fees if I had them repair the car. I was there the next day (Thursday) to give them the key. I stated that I needed them to make sure that was all that was wrong and to obviously give me a quote before they started the repair. To keep it short, I called every day from Friday to Wednesday to get a quote to find out how much the repair would cost me. I was given multiple excuses as to why they couldn’t get to it. I have general knowledge of cars and know that it doesn’t take long to put a car on the rack to inspect a problem that my car had.

I finally received a quote on Thursday, exactly one week after I request it. On the phone they stated it would take 7 hours to repair the car. I called my usual mechanics and they said it was typically a 3-4 hour job. I could go into much more detail if necessary as to what needed to be done. I’ve attached their quote which they dropped down to 6 hours ([redacted] Auto Center) along with two other garages for the same job. The part costs $30 and they are charging $149. Total charge for their repair would’ve been at least $783. Quotes from the other garages ranged from $313 - $486.

I also didn’t receive official notification of where my car was location until September 17 which is 10 days after the tow. It was a piece of certified mail that doesn’t state when the car was picked up (attached). I’m not sure if there is a process for the tow companies to register cars that are towed so they may be found via government websites. If so, Lombard’s did not follow that procedure and it was difficult to find my car which, obviously, accrued storage time.

When I did find my car and I agreed to have them look at my car for repair it took them a week to give me a quote which, again, accrued storage time. The quote finally given was double the price above any service station that I communicated with. Their answer was “that’s how long my mechanic says it will take”. I did not agree to pay them that much for the repair so they deemed me responsible for the entire time my car was there for storage. I had to pay just over $400 (attached) for storage and their initial tow. There’s one charge on there that I can’t discern for $85. Frank verbally told me they picked my car up on Saturday but the tow report (attached) states it was picked up on Monday. I’m not even sure if he charged me for those days.

I believe I am not responsible for a majority of that storage time. I believe they took advantage of the fact they were holding my car. They delayed the quote knowing that by the time I received it the cost would be increased on the storage and it would make more difficult to say “no”. I actually did pay them the $400 and another mechanic and paid less than if I would’ve had them do the entire job. It is absolutely ridiculous that Lombard’s takes advantage of these situations. Luckily, I know enough about cars to see through some of what they were telling me. I’m leaving a lot of the chit chat out of this. All they needed to do was take care of the car in a timely manner and give a fair quote for the repair job.

Lastly, I immediately turned off my car when I saw it overheating. If you run a [redacted] too long hot it will warp the head and essentially ruin the motor. I’m quite sure I stopped in time. After being repaired by my mechanic, I found out the head is damaged. I don’t know how often or how much my car was left on at Lombard Motors as they moved it around. There’s no way to prove but I’m out of a car now. I don’t think I can go down that road but I know they were absolutely wrong in how they handled the procedures above.

Please let me know if you need any more information or need to call me. I am completely dissatisfied with that entire situation. Add to it, I have my own business and was out of work losing money while Lombard’s delayed this transaction. Thank you for your time.Desired Settlement: Would like to be reimbursed for the storage fees because it took a week to give me a quote along with the extra time it took for me to find my car. And again, I don't know what that $85 charge on the Tow Receipt involves. In regards to the overall condition of my car, there's nothing I can prove to say it was run too long and overheated again while in their possession. I'm guessing I'll just have to leave that alone. I will settle with the storage reimbursement.