Bloody Car Mechanics

So this week the saga of my pride and joy's dodgy steering has come to an abrupt conclusion. For people I haven't bored rigid with this story before, about 18 months ago, our shiny new turbocharged MPV was involved in a collision which required some repairs to the front of the car, specifically the drivers side wheel arch area (still, the other car was a write off, which suited me fine in the circumstances). However, post-repairs the car seemed to pull to the left. Not much, but it was noticeable enough that I mentioned it to the coachworks firm employed to fix the car by my insurers. Nah, they said, that's road camber. Perfectly natural. So for a while, or at least until I had gone through through 4 front tyres in six months, I thought it might be my imagination, and for a further while I had the extension to worry about, so it got left. Eventually though, one of the new tyres started to wear and so I reached the point of swearing vengeance on the motor industry and that this would be fixed.

3 sets of garages and about 2 months later, no luck, so I logged onto an owner's club website and discovered something called the Hunter Wheel Alignment System. Just £30 later I was shown a nice printout showing the right front tyre had 200% more negative camber than the left front tyre. So I go back to the brand's authorised mechanics at the third garage and have what is technically known as 'a word'.

Post-word, they then proceed to redo the steering and tracking check but then tell me there's no point fixing the camber on the car. Yes it glows red on the report I got, but really, it will be a waste of money (they said). 15 minutes of online research about excessive negative camber revealed otherwise, but I was now left in the crappy position of being told by Mr Chief Mechanic that there was no point. What to do?

Years of legal experience led me to the conclusion **** it, but I had to demand they replaced the thing most likeliest to be causing the adverse reading. So they pulled out the wishbone connecting the wheel to the axle (sort of) and guess what? It was bent! Suddenly, all readings go back to normal and the car is fine.

Of course, suing anyone for all these screw-ups after all this time is highly unlikely to be successful; everyone will blame everyone else, and indeed the garage think that a nationwide chain have been putting the wrong tyres on my car for a year. The cost though is not the really annoying thing here: it's to do with the fact that for 18 months I have been trying to explain to most of the mechanics in my county that the car needed fixing, and every time I would start by saying "I'm not a mechanic, but..."

Actually, i should have just said "I AM a mechanic, so fix it sunshine and less of yer lip." Would have been cheaper...