Recently my Vauxhall Zafira went from being a superb gearbox to a bag of nuts in the palm of my hand. The only gears I had were third and fourth. I got relayed to a local garage, and when they looked at it on the following Monday morning they determined my gearbox was broken. They said I could have an exchange box fitted the next day for £1025 or my old one sent away to Plymouth (for three days) and reconditioned for £995. They phoned my warranty company to obtain authorisation, and they said they would not authorise an exchange box. They wanted my old one stripped down to determine the cause of failure. Whilst the garage had my gearbox off they said they may as well put a new clutch in as it was worn, and it was at this point that they determined that my dual mass flywheel was also broken. The gearbox came back and was fully repaired. My warranty company had still not made a decision so I was obliged to settle the bill at £2400.

My warranty company phoned me up yesterday to state they are not paying the £1000 (my claim limit) as the gearbox failure was caused by wear and tear on one of the bearings. The car is a 56 plate, with a full service history and 67,000 miles - I do not see how a bearing in the gearbox can be classed as wear and tear. Surely this is a catastrophic failure.

Can they get away with this? What are my options?