Warranty grief.

[bigblockmark]

Would like to run this one passed you,tell me what you think.Bought a v nice chim 500 last year from a well known independant dealer in south of england.Unfortunately while out a couple of weeks ago it developed a gear box problem,turned out to be 5th gear and one of the shafts had broken.sorry for not being a bit more technical.When the repairing garaged phoned the dealer for authority he happened to say that he has seen this happen A COUPLE OF TIMES BEFORE,bearing in mind they have been around a few years.Because of this the dealer has said that it is an inherent fault with this type of vehicle and should not be covered but as a gesture of goodwill will pay half.Must make it clear that it is not a third party warranty company,it is his own funded warranty that clearly states that the gearbox is covered for all component breakages up to £1000.I am now expected to pay £400 towards repair,i feel ripped off.Would appreciate your veiws,cheers mark.

[Chuckler]

Firstly, inherent or not it should be covered since under the UK sale of goods act, goods must be fit for the purpose for which they are sold. A car with a broken gearbox is clearly not fit for it's intended purpose.
However as it's second hand, I'm not sure if that applies.
Secondly, if it were an insurance warranty would it be covered? my guess is yes as they usually cover gearboxes. Would the delaler be offering to pay half back to the insurance company as he's asking you to do? I don't think so!
I think you should have full recompense and that's that.
Why is the dealer not fixing it himself as that would be cheaper than paying someone else to do it?

[RAW-SEWedge]

Is that a T5 box ?

I have never heard of an inherent fault with the T5 box. In fact they are regarded as bullet proof by most ?

In which case they must be trying it on.

[bigblockmark]

The dealer concerned does not have his own workshop facilities.Chears chaps,and it is the later t5 box.

>> Edited by bigblockmark on Friday 2nd July 16:08

[alex.mcintosh]

There is an inherent problem with the T5 box and 5th gear.

The warranty will not cover wear and tear, but it should cover common faults. I've had quite a few commons faults repaired under warranty - starter motor, radiator, etc.

Tell them it's not acceptable!

[RAW-SEWedge]

alex.mcintosh said:

There is an inherent problem with the T5 box and 5th gear.

Didn't realise this was the case. Fair enough, however the normal clause on warranty that gets them off the hook is "resonable wear and tear".

This wouldn't appear to apply to an inherant fault?

[Horse_Apple]

bigblockmark said:

Would like to run this one passed you,tell me what you think.Bought a v nice chim 500 last year from a well known independant dealer in south of england.Unfortunately while out a couple of weeks ago it developed a gear box problem,turned out to be 5th gear and one of the shafts had broken.sorry for not being a bit more technical.When the repairing garaged phoned the dealer for authority he happened to say that he has seen this happen A COUPLE OF TIMES BEFORE,bearing in mind they have been around a few years.Because of this the dealer has said that it is an inherent fault with this type of vehicle and should not be covered but as a gesture of goodwill will pay half.Must make it clear that it is not a third party warranty company,it is his own funded warranty that clearly states that the gearbox is covered for all component breakages up to £1000.I am now expected to pay £400 towards repair,i feel ripped off.Would appreciate your veiws,cheers mark.

Not my problem but I will pay half as I am a top bloke = This is my problem, play it cool, act generous and the daft fool will probably pay half.

I am a cynic but I'm also in sales

[Chuckler]

Well Said Horse :clap

[tovey]

BUY MINE, YOU KNOW IT MAKES SENSE,FORGET THE WEDDING, BUY MY CAR, SORTED.

[dvpeace]

Don't take any nonsence from the Dealer, he sold you the waranty and you bought it on the understanding that it covers a major problem with the gearbox. The dealer pays regardless.....
1. The waranty should cover the problem.
2. He sold you a duff waranty his is liable.

It's loose loose for the dealer.

David

[apprentice]

Having investigated the claim thoroughly and spoken to a number of TVR workshops, it transpires that the 5th gear wheel on 5.0 litre models have been known to lose their teeth and generally suffer from the far greater torque exerted on them.

Irrespective of that, we have decided to cover the full cost of the repair ourselves and have authorised the third party to go ahead.

apprentice

>> Edited by apprentice on Monday 5th July 14:07

[jam1et]

apprentice said:

Having investigated the claim thoroughly and spoken to a number of TVR workshops, it transpires that the 5th gear wheel on 5.0 litre models have been known to lose their teeth and generally suffer from the far greater torque exerted on them. Irrespective of that, we have decided to cover the full cost of the repair ourselves and have authorised the third party to go ahead. apprentice

I commend your actions on this. However..... I'd like to know if it was covered in the policy or not? You make it sound as if it wasnt, but that you're agreeing to pay for it as a gesture of good will. If so, are you saying that its definitley classified as an inherrent fault? How do you classify it? Do a certain percentage of cars produced have to develop the same fault? How come TVR have rebuilt so many SP6 engines under warranty, surely that must be classed as an inherrent fault? Perhaps their policies dont have an 'inherrent fault' clause... Someone who is taking out a warranty is doing so in the expectation that it will cover them against exactly these types of manufacturing faults rather than having to rely on the goodwill of the dealer.

>> Edited by jam1et on Monday 5th July 14:39

[apprentice]

jam1et said:

apprentice said: Having investigated the claim thoroughly and spoken to a number of TVR workshops, it transpires that the 5th gear wheel on 5.0 litre models have been known to lose their teeth and generally suffer from the far greater torque exerted on them. Irrespective of that, we have decided to cover the full cost of the repair ourselves and have authorised the third party to go ahead. apprentice I commend your actions on this. However..... I'd like to know if it was covered in the policy or not? You make it sound as if it wasnt, but that you're agreeing to pay for it as a gesture of good will. If so, are you saying that its definitley classified as an inherrent fault? How do you classify it? Do a certain percentage of cars produced have to develop the same fault? How come TVR have rebuilt so many SP6 engines under warranty, surely that must be classed as an inherrent fault? Perhaps their policies dont have an 'inherrent fault' clause... Someone who is taking out a warranty is doing so in the expectation that it will cover them against exactly these types of manufacturing faults rather than having to rely on the goodwill of the dealer. >> Edited by jam1et on Monday 5th July 14:39

Thanks for your question jam1et - I shall endeavour to answer it.

As Mark posted earlier in the thread - we do not use insurance backed warranties (we ditched those 3yrs ago based on customer feedback) prefering to administer our own nationwide warranties in house.

When a car is inspected at third party workshops where we do not have an existing relationship, we always investigate statements made by said third party. This is not the place to get into the detail, suffice to say that we received a diagnosis which suggested it came under the standard General Exclusions - so fell outside the remit of the warranty. Let it be said we have to rely heavily on an honest an accurate third party diagnosis.

On their diagnosis we chose to make a gesture of goodwill of 50% contribution in that particular instance. Client was not happy with that offer and we agreed to look into it further on his behalf.

Although our subsequent enquiries showed that the fault is reasonable commonplace we decided it could not be considered to be "an inherent design fault" and therefore authorised the full cost repair. This was not a jesture of goodwill on our part.

Used car warranties are by their very nature only ever a mechanical breakdown warranty. Their interpretation is rarely an exact science, however we do like to feel that any decisions we make, do demonstrate a good degree of customer empathy.

I'll wager, that an insurance backed warranty would have taken a less pragmatic view and that a thread like this would have had an altogether less happy outcome!

apprentice

>> Edited by apprentice on Monday 5th July 16:49

[bigblockmark]

Thanks for everyones input and thanks to apprentice for sorting out authority for repair.Hopefully picking
car up tonight.YIPPEE.

[jam1et]

Thanks for the explanation. Its a shame some dealers dont act in the same way.