FWIW,
It seems to me that the best car-repair analogy is like one that actually happened around here:

guy takes old sports car to repair shop

guy has a busy life and does not even think about the car for about 3 years

guy finally comes in to get car, and it seems that the car has disappeared
from repair shop

The repair shop, to put it mildly, has poor recordkeeping and though they do remember the guy's car, don't have anything written to show they should or should not still have it.

Perhaps they contracted out the repair, but don't know to whom.

The car was never recovered. I think the man's lawyer advised against a lawsuit due to the appearance that the man had abandoned the car by not communicating with the shop for years. He may have gotten a token settlement amount of money from the shop.

Tom