Help, I have to pay £1500 for a gearbox on a new car thats in Warranty

nutmegman

Hello,

My Dad purchase a brand new Aixam car Last March, from a motor dealer. The car comes with a two year warranty.
Two weeks ago his gear box went, unfortunately this will not be fixed under the warranty, the garage have stated that the gear box damage was due to driver error, now i am not sure if this is true. What i am told is that the gear box is a ‘cvt’ in other words if you really wanted to you could put the car in reverse when going in a forward motion.

In short, the garage has my dads car, the manufacturer wont honour a warranty claim, thus he ahs to pay £1500 to get his car back.

Any ideas................one thought he has is to get the car off the delivery lorry tomorrow and then refuse to pay.....but that will end in tears.


If he pays the £1500 i guess he has little chance of getting his money back.....

Weirdlittleman

He shouldnt have let them do the work if he disputed there findings. He really needed to get it back and get it inspected and get a report confirming his assertions and disputing the garage/manufacturer.

4743hudsonj

Whats the fault?

What do they state the driver error is? did he shove it in reverse when going forwards?

FYI CVT stands for constant variable transmission. It effectively has infinite gears and works by a belt sliding up and down to angled pulleys. I dont know massive amounts about them but logic would tell me that you couldn't put it in reverse going forwards as it would instantly reverse the pulley and belt direction, probably snapping or derailing the belt causing other damage.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/cvt.htm/printable

No mention of this "feature"

However if he really thinks its not his fault he needs to get an independent report stating the cause of failure in his favour and take this to small claims court.

PS arnt they those microcar things? like quadracycles?

nutmegman

Thank you, yes the car is effetivly a quadrycycle.......

The garage will be returning the car back tommorow and the broken gear box will be with it. I spoke to the garage and they said it was driver error and the gearboth is very bad teeth missing on gears etc......


My dad had no choice but to accept it, the garage is approx 80 miles away and the manufacturer will not cover it under warranty.........

I think the challenge is to prove driver error, which will be hard i dont know where to start....

nutmegman

4743hudsonj wrote: »

Whats the fault?

What do they state the driver error is? did he shove it in reverse when going forwards?

yes thats what the garage say......so Aixam wont cover it under warranty

cybergibbons

Hmm. I haven't seen an Aixam car for a good few years - but last time I did, it was really basic. There wasn't much difference in the CVT on a small tractor compared to it. In fact it may have been the same as the engine is a Kubota (which are commonly used in tractors).

They need to tell you what the problem is with it.... my guess would be worn sheaves but how do they prove it was the driver at fault?

cybergibbons

nutmegman wrote: »

yes thats what the garage say......so Aixam wont cover it under warranty

I wonder if this is recorded on the onboard computer or if they are just guessing from mechanical damage.

You may be in a bit of a stick... is the garage the only one that can deal with the Aixam?

nutmegman

cybergibbons wrote: »

I wonder if this is recorded on the onboard computer or if they are just guessing from mechanical damage.

You may be in a bit of a stick... is the garage the only one that can deal with the Aixam?

The car has gone back to the garage my dad bought it from, he has had this kind of car for approx 6-8 years now and owned three i think, so i really doubt driver error.

On the subject of driver error is it possible to slot it into reverse whilst in forward motion?

Tommorow when the car arrives back I think my dad will try and get hold of it before he hands over the money, then tell them where to go......then the garage will have to chase him for the money and prove it was his driver error.

OlliesDad

nutmegman wrote: »

Tommorow when the car arrives back I think my dad will try and get hold of it before he hands over the money, then tell them where to go......then the garage will have to chase him for the money and prove it was his driver error.

I wouldn't recommend this. He would be better off paying and then getting the gearbox inspected by an independent garage. If they advise it was an inherent fault, then claim the money back through small claims.

If your Dad does it the way he is planning, he is likely to find himself with a bigger bill (Debt Collectors etc). In order to prove that it is driver error, all they would need to do is produce the engineers report.

In all fairness to the garage, i have never heard of teeth coming off the gears due to an inherent fault (i have only ever worked in one garage 10 years ago, and that was for 3 months, so i am not an expert).

4743hudsonj

I agree with the above, im in the trade and have never experienced this through an inherent fault.

Im sure it is possible to engage reverse going forwards, but you shouldnt as this is the precise type of damage it causes, and seeing as you specifically mentioned that circumstance, it is pointing towards driver error.

Hintza

Definitely pay up and then fight it if you have to.