New car what rights ?

W

wniamh

Guest
Hi any advice
Bought brand new car in March and have had 4 major problems 3 have neccesitated towing the car away.
2 battery replacements and loose starter motor connection
1 gearbox relay replaced
Now awaiting new catalytic convertor.
Battery also seems to be running low again !!!!

What are my rights with regard to demanding replacement or money back. Car cost €60k ?
Thanks
 
Ring Importer, express how un happy you are. If the car is still draining the power, it looks like it was mis-diagnoised a few times. Ask for the importer to check car over and see what the problems actually are.

Your problems are not sever enough to get money back etc. If you were to pled a case of lost confidence both in the car and garage you could say you want a new car in '08. You will have to pay toward the new car. You will not get a free exchange.

They could also offer to swap a similar car they might have in stock.

I understand it has been an inconvience to you but they are small items.
 
Without naming brand - what country was the car designed/developed in?
 
Name it. A €60k dudmobile!

Write too dealer, detailing what's gone wrong. Tell him you are unhappy, and do not get fobbed off to the manufacturer.

Threaten to go legal, and tell him you'll want a refund if it goes wrong again.
 
You can threaten to go legal all you want but everybody should know it's arbitration. It's not going to get a garage to jump.

The importer is the correct course of action.

Break it down,
Cat and relay and maybe one battery is the cars fault (manufacture problem).

Second battery, loose starter connection and still draining battery, dealer problem.

It's not enought to get your money back.

At the end of the day, if you spent 60K on a car you must like it and would usually like to keep similar car.

If you had a couple of small problems with a new house, would you demand a new house / money back? It hasn't fallen apart, does not warranty replacement.
 
I don't agree Mr2. OP bought the car from the dealer, and not the manufacturer.
 
That's okay RS2K if you don't agree, but you would be wrong.

It's a franchise we have like Mc Donnells etc. you can have problems with a dealer and the manufacture, they are different. While the importer acts in the intrest of the manufacture and in our eyes is the same, us as a dealer are owned by different people.

Most dealers of the same franchise nearly all look similar by now, that's down to minium standards set by the importer so as we can have a franchise. The staff we have and decisions we make while influenced by the importer are ours to make.
 
Thanks for all your replies.
The car is a Chrysler Grand Voyager. I have met with the sales Director of the dealership today and followed up the meeting with a formal letter of complaint requesting a new car or refund as I believe the problems that I have had are in contravention to the sale of goods and supply of services act as I have 3 times been unable to drive my car and currently have a car that would not pass an NCT with a broken cat converter.
Having sought some advice I know my contract of sales is with the dealer not the importer. I have though also written a letter detailing my complaints to the importer and have asked for his response.
I will keep you posted.
 
There are definitely better brands to be spending €60k on IMHO. Despite everything, there is a case of you get what you pay for, some brands are better than others. If the car is in warranty and they take care of everything without complaining, then I guess it will be harder to get a full refund. Thats what warranty periods are for.

Good luck though, horrible position to be in
 

I am afraid you are wrong mr2, the dealer is responsible. The dealer buys the cars from the manufacturer, then sells them to the public. The dealer is now solely resaponsible. If the dealer has a major problem with a car he has sold, its up to him to sort the problem. When he has sorted the problem for the customer, he can sort it with the manufacturer.
 
manus, first of all there is no major problem with this car. Dealer is a franchise for the importer of whatever brand it is.

In normal term of warranty the dealer will fix a customers problem and then claim it back from the importer who passes it on to the manufacture.

This is not a normal warranty claim, the customer wants her money back / replacement. The dealer didn't build the car, so why would a dealer soley accept the cost/loss?

From a dealer or manufacture's eyes all we have to do is fix what ever is wrong, when it goes wrong. The customer here is looking for goodwill.
 
ok ok i didnt read the original post correctly. the faults that wniamh has listed sound like very small faults, there is nothing wrong with the car itself. a dealer would certainly not be obliged to give a replacement car in this case. however, one thing that sent alarm bells ringing in my head was when i read that there had been two replacement batteries and a loose starter connection fault. sounds like a bad mechanic is responsible here. there was probably nothing wrong with the batteries in the first place, just the connection at fault.
my apologies mr2
 
Ne prob manus,

I do agree with you like I said near the start, some problems are with the car and some problems are with the dealer. Not the op's fault but suffering as a result and if she words the letters/ phone calls as loss of confidence in the product she might get somewhere.
 
Very small problems????
I'd like to see how small you think these problems were if you had your car towed away 3 times once on a bank holiday weekend packed and ready to head off and another time in the UK on holidays when your car is taken 50 miles away and you are left stranded for 4 days because hiring a car suitable for 6 people at short notice is next to impossible.
Every time my car has broken down I have to organise at least2 different friends to transport my kids aswell as my husband having to take timeoff work.......these are not SMALL problems!!!
I bought a new car that I thought was very practicle for the size and age of my family not for the look of it (test drove a Q7 and that would have won hands down as a drivers car but space is limited and with 2 kids in boosters and 2 in full childseats work out the difficulties not to mention buggies etc in the boot.
I now have a borrowed car for a week while interim repairs are carried out.
The point I am trying to make is that I have been robbed of the chance to drive a new car, instead my car is the but of every joke "monday morning car"........like the weather it is an opener for conversations...."whats up with your car this week?" or " I could hear your car up the other end of town"
 
Too late for you to be doing research now but the car is a lemon.
2nd from bottom in 2007 UK J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction Survey

[broken link removed]
 

Only trying to give you some help and advice there wniamh, if you read my post I meant that there is not much wrong with your car, but there may be a problem with the mechanic working on it. It should have been fixed properly the first time you brought it to the garage.
Dont shoot the messenger
 

Well you did buy a Chrysler after all, and just because the problem has a knock on effect to the events in your life doesn't mean the vehicle's problems aint small. It just means that being without a car causes you major hassle.

Them's the breaks of car ownership, all you can do is try and buy the best car for your money in terms of reliability and I'm sorry to say a Chrysler would not be in the top 10 on my list in that respect.

Once the dealer is honouring the warranty and fixing things promptly then, cest la vie I'm afraid. Unless you can prove that the mechanic is at fault, but even then, that won't get you a brand new car!
 
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