About 6 weeks ago, my wife purchased a Smart Roadster from a well known car supermarket, which provides a 30 day warranty. Along with this we purchased a 5 star warranty from a well known breakdown organisation. All bases covered, I thought.
Two weeks ago, and the car demonstrated a fault, 2 days outside the 30 day warranty. The car has the usual Smart semi-auto gearbox and what happened was this: the car cut out and the gear display on the dash went blank, followed by three parallel bars, indicating that no gear could be selected. Bah. Disconnected the battery for 5 minutes, and hey presto it's all working again. I drive it to the local Smart dealer, about a mile from my house. My reasoning is that they're local, they're specialists, they'll be able to fix it easily and if I try to do it through the car supermarket where it was bought, I'm in to a logistical nightmare, and in any case, they'll refuse to fix it gratis as we're two whole days outside their 30 day warranty.
The dealer identifies the fault as the "actual gear sensor", gets the replacement part, and fixes it. 200 quid, thanks. Call my warranty company I say. He does, and tells them the fault. They ask: "Is the faulty part integral to the gearbox?". He says "No". They say "Tough luck then, not paying". I take it on the chin, grumble under my breath and pay up. Not worth the hassle arguing.
So. Forward a week, and there I am pootling down the road when......yes, car cuts out, gear indicator goes blank, 3 bars of death appear on the display. 5 minutes without battery power and it's fine again.
So, back to the dealer it goes.
I am not looking for advice here as to what may be up with the car (although any suggestions would be welcome), however I'm unsure as to where to go regarding getting either the supplying dealer or the warranty company to help out financially here, as I'm now thinking that, if a main dealer can't fix it first time, chances are I'm stuck with a car which will keep throwing up the same fault, and be permanently spending money at the dealer.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I should proceed with this?
|
I'd be surprised if the supermarket warranty is limited to 30 days - I'm sure that your local Trading Standards office can explain - but I'd expect six months is nearer the mark.
I'm surprised that the Smart dealer said the gear sensor is not integral to the gear box - without it it's a pile of potential scrap, as you have found.
I think you need to deal with the car supermarket; I doubt the 30 day warranty stands up in law.
|
|
|
No real suggestions but have you tried looking on other forums for info on the problem eg.
www.thesmartclub.com/board/showthread.php?p=93314
|
|
Thanks, yes, I've asked on theroadster.net and had some good technical suggestions.
|
also worth going back to the car supermarket, we got good response from one a couple of months ago when my son had a problem with his car 3 months after purchase.
Funnily enough, again the warranty company initially rejected the claim and said in our case the gearbox mountings were not part of the gearbox as far as warranty concerned.
The legislation stuff I gave him to quote was
The consumer returns the goods in the first six months from the date of sale and requests a repair or replacement or a partial refund. In that case, the consumer does not have to prove the goods were faulty at the time of sale. It is assumed that they were. If the retailer does not agree, it is for the retailer to prove that the goods were satisfactory at the time of sale. This comes from Sale and Supply of Goods to Consumers Regulations 2002, derived from EU Directive 1999/44/EU which became Clauses 48A to 48F inclusive of the Sale of Goods act in April 2003
Key points
you have up to 6 months to reject or ask for repair
car has to be of reasonable value (over £2k)
It is not for you to prove fault existed at time of sale it is for them to prove it did not
good luck
|
|
That's teriffic. Thanks everyone. I'll contact the supermarket.
|
commerdriver has covered this for you. There is another version of the same answer in HJ's FAQs in the top tool bar of the home page.
|
|
|
|
So what was the actual cause & fix for the three lines?
|
|
I've long since decided no used car warranty is worth the paper its written on, including 'approved' main dealer ones.
Small claims court is a great facility though - they are sympathetic to individuals who are dealing with a large company, as long as you're realistic and have your facts straight.
|
|
|
|
You're not going to get an answer to this as the last post was nearly five years ago.
Sorry!
|
|
|
|
|
|
