It was the simple four-hour fix that took more than three months to have done.
But Auckland woman Kerry So'e is just relieved to finally have her car back, after the engine was flooded while it was at the panel beaters.
"I'm so glad we got it back," she said - seeing her car on the road for the first time since it went to the workshop back in May.
Kerry’s car drama started in May, when her Mazda RX-8 was in an accident. The other party was insured with State, so Kerry was given a list of approved repairers to take the car for repairs. She chose M J Breen in Papatoetoe.
A week later she was told the work had been done, and the car was ready to collect - although she was also told that the car had stopped going while it was in the shop.
Kerry says the workshop told her the flooded engine was her problem to sort out.
"[They said] we're not fixing your car, we got a mechanic in who said that because you gave it to us on an empty tank, that's what caused it to flood and it's your problem. And I said… 'well don't you need petrol in the car to cause it to flood?'"
Flooding an engine is not uncommon - but when it happens to a rotary engine like Kerry's, it requires a mechanical fix.
The cause is too much fuel - not too little, and AA Motoring Advisor Cade Wilson reckons there’s a reason that could happen when a car is in a workshop for repairs.
"Because these engines are uniquely designed, they are susceptible to flooding if you do a lot of cold stop-starts," he said.
The Consumer Guarantees Act says that repairs have to be carried out with "reasonable care and skill" so Kerry thought the panel beater should fix the engine - after all, the flooding had happened well after her car had arrived at M J Breen.
But the company wouldn’t budge, and told Kerry she had to come and collect her car - working or not.
M J Breen told Fair Go it didn’t know who was responsible for the incident.
"Nobody knows who's at fault yet. I'm not a mechanic, I assume you're not a mechanic and I know Kerry's not a mechanic," said Robyn Breen, one of the owners of the M J Breen panel beating workshop.
When Kerry refused to collect her broken car, and instead asked the company to fix it, M J Breen threatened to charge Kerry $40 a day for the courtesy car she’d been using - and said if it wasn’t returned, it would be reported stolen to police.
Kerry returned the car, and was left without a vehicle.
"I don’t know what they’re getting out of this, or if they’re hoping that I just go away and pick up the car and just cut my losses," she said.
Kerry enlisted the help of her local community law centre, and M J Breen promised the car would be fixed by early July. But two deadlines came and went and still the car wasn’t fixed.
However after Fair Go got involved, the panel beaters finally appeared to take action.
In a statement, owner Robyn Breen said that as a family-owned business, the company prided itself "providing to others the service we would expect ourselves".
"We recognise that our actions, although well-meaning and intentioned, may not have appeared this way to Ms So'e and we apologise for this," it said.
M J Breen then sent the car to a mechanic, and after more than 90 days at the panel beaters, the vehicle was finally fixed in just four hours.
The repairer, RX7-Heaven, said the car was repaired at the request of the panel beater's insurer.
Kerry was delighted to finally have her beloved RX-8 returned - and raring to go.
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