Pep Boys determined that our car was leaking power steering fluid and that I would need a rack & pinion steering replacement. We paid $430.00 & picked it up the next day, drove 4 miles home & parked it. The next morning, my husband was driving to work when the paint on the hood started bubbling, turning color & smoke came out. It was hard to steer, but he managed to pull off the freeway over to the side.By this time, the interior was in flames. He jumped out & the fire department put it out. A fireman saw a trail of power steering fluid behind the car and attributed the loss to a steering fluid leak. The car was a total loss and only liability insurance was carried on it.
My husband is a courier/messenger, so the car was needed for his work. With his clothes still reeking of chemical smoke, we obtained a rental and replaced the contents that were lost. (Maps, wheel dollies, jumper cables, cell phone chargers). We called Pep Boys & told them where the car was so they could inspect it. Since we were charged for storage per day, I gave them three days to look at it & still hadn't heard from them. I had to pay a salvage/disposal company to take it away, since there weren't any useable parts from the car. Then Pep Boys called & complained that they hadn't had a chance to inspect it & we were in the wrong for not making it available. They went to the disposal yard to look at it & said it was obviously an electrical fire & not their fault.
We filed suit & served it on them. They failed to answer the suit in the required time, so we filed for default judgment & won $10,000.00. Pep Boys' lawyers protested, so the judge threw out the default judgment.
By this time, I was out $5,000.00 for the car, $2,500.00 for rental, disposal, lost work and contents. It only got worse. I had to borrow money to buy another car, plus I had to pay an expert in the area of vehicle fires for testimony, who told me that most of his cases are against Pep Boys. He figures they probably used old hoses, or didn't tighten the hoses enough & the fluid sprayed on the manifold & caught fire. Plus, Pep Boys is required by the Court to provide me with a copy of their expert's credentials & they never did.
So now I've incurred expert witness fees & court costs & my lawyer tells me that it will cost another $3,000.00 in costs alone to take it to trial. If we lose, we would have to pay Pep Boys costs & fees. So here I am with a fire department report saying my car was ruined by a power steering fluid leak and that the car was worth $5,000.00, an expert in vehicle fires tells me it was the Pep Boys' fault and I am thousands of dollars in debt because of them. We ended up settling for $3,000.00 because I don't have the funds to pursue it.
It will take us years to recover from this financial blow. My advice is to never go to Pep Boys. Pep Boys do not have insurance. They are self-insured & take their chances on people giving up & taking their loss. They probably paid their lawyer $5,000.00 to screw us. They get away with things because they are a big company & we are just working people with a used car.
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