Case or no case??

[themahoneysinva]

What is the name of your state? Virginia

This is rather lenghty, so please bear with me. I had some maintenance preformed on my vehicle on October 3rd by a local dealership. There were many maintenance items preformed, but the one I will be referring to in this question is the replacement of my sway bar linkages. For those of you unfamiliar with what those are, a sway bar is a torsion bar mounted laterally on a suspension and is designed to reduce side sway. The sway bar attempts to accomplish this by transferring movement from one side of the suspension to the other. This is done through the connection of a torsion bar to each side of an axle by flexible links. This indirectly affects the steering, and if not done correctly can lead to some serious consequences.

To make a long story short, I recently returned from a trip in NC with my wife and child in which I had to have maintenance preformed on my vehicle. As it turns out, when the dealership had replaced those sway bar links, they forgot to tighten a bolt which was causing the car to click very loudly whenever I went over any bump. The mechanic had explained to me that if I had travelled back through the mountains, the linkage would have snapped and in his words, "It would not have been a fun ride.".

Now, I am deathly afraid of the vehicle, as well as my wife who already had panic attacks whenever she entered a vehicle. The stress from hearing what the mechanic told me made her sick the entire way home, and she recently was checked over by a doctor to reveal that she has broken out into a painful rash as a result of the stress. On top of all of that, she is now having to undergo psychiatric care because of her increased fear of vehicles now.

My question is, is there anything I can possibly do to sue this dealership for the pain they have caused my family? I'm not talking about a mulit-million dollar lawsuit (although it would be nice), all I want is a different vehicle, and compensastion for my wife's medical problems. I have paperwork from the dealership showing the dates the maintenance was preformed, as well as it stating that there was a warranty associated with the maintenance. I also have the paperwork from the other mechanic who looked at the vehicle and determined that as a result of the dealership not doing the maintenance properly, there was a high probablility of death if I had coninued driving on it.

Fortunately for me, I had it looked at before it came to that, but on the other side, it looks like I might be screwed because noone died or was injured. IS there nothing I can do?

[moburkes]

Because they didn't tighten a bolt, you want a new vehicle?

[themahoneysinva]

Yes, I do. That bolt could have led to the death of my entire family. It wasn't something as simple as leaving a gas cap off. Hyundai recently went through a lawsuit in which maintenance was preformed on a vehicle which left the passenger airbag unable to sense if a passenger was in the seat or not. No deaths resulted, however the case was won and a $6.7 million settlement resulted from it. Can you honestly say that if you were in a situation where your family was put in a high risk situation because of faulty workmanship, you would not do the same thing?

[moburkes]

Originally Posted by themahoneysinva

Yes, I do. That bolt could have led to the death of my entire family. It wasn't something as simple as leaving a gas cap off. Hyundai recently went through a lawsuit in which maintenance was preformed on a vehicle which left the passenger airbag unable to sense if a passenger was in the seat or not. No deaths resulted, however the case was won and a $6.7 million settlement resulted from it. Can you honestly say that if you were in a situation where your family was put in a high risk situation because of faulty workmanship, you would not do the same thing?

I would ask them to pay for it to pay check out by a qualified mechanic at another facility. I don't nee dto get rich off of a mistake that someone made. What "could have" happened, didn't.

[isue4you2]

I am very sorry, but I doubt very seriously any attorney would take this and if you did locate an attorney to take it no jury would award damages based on what you posted. I would love the citation for the case you referred to.