A Vancouver car shop was implicated in a BC Civil Resolution Tribunal dispute due to a situation with a customer revolving around a car’s air conditioning capabilities.
MCL Motor Cars, which is located in Vancouver, sells high-end vehicles like Jaguars, Land Rovers, and Audis.
On March 11, 2024, a customer, the applicant in the tribunal dispute, bought a 2018 Audi Q5 from MCL. The applicant submitted a vehicle inspection report that they received when purchasing the vehicle to the tribunal, and the report states that the vehicle had no issues.
Around two months after buying the Audi, when the weather started to get warmer, the applicant noticed that the vehicle’s AC wasn’t working. The applicant took the car to an Audi dealership, and the dealership suspected the evaporator was leaking and recommended replacing it.
The Audi dealership quoted nearly $5,000 for repairs. The applicant got a second opinion at a different car shop, which also pointed to the evaporator leaking, and quoted her $4,159.10 for repairs. The applicant ended up paying that amount to fix it.
The applicant’s argument was that MCL misrepresented the vehicle, and asked the tribunal to order the car shop to replace it. In order for that to happen, the customer had to prove that MCL was negligent.
The repair shop that fixed the vehicle found that “a previous shop or owner tried to recharge the air conditioning system with UV dye. This would allow the air conditioning system to work temporarily until the evaporator core leaked out the refrigerant.”
Due to the expert evidence from the mechanics, the tribunal found that MCL provided the applicant with an “untrue, inaccurate, and misleading representation about the vehicle’s air conditioning.”
The applicant was also able to prove that MCL was negligent in its representation of the vehicle’s condition.
Due to tribunal fees, MCL was ordered to pay the applicant slightly more than the cost of the repair, for a total of $4,334.10.