Car gearbox repair

Siemo

Hi I'm looking for some advice for my dad - hope this is the right board.

Basically, he has a 3.5 year old Meriva that he got 2nd hand from Vauxhall dealer about 18 months ago. 24000 miles on the clock, automatic gearbox. Recently it started making noises etc so he took it back to the dealer to look at it, they plugged it into the computer to find out what's wrong then said the car had 'locked down' and couldn't be moved as it had gone into safe mode. So basically, he had to have it fixed by them without getting any other quotes as he couldn't drive it. 2 days later he got a bill for £650+ as (and I quote) "first and second speed gear synchromesh hub fork was excessively worn causing poor gear selection" (whatever that means). He paid the bill as he would be without his car otherwise.

Where does he stand on this - a) given the age and mileage of the car you wouldn't expect such a serious and costly fault to occur, and b) that he had no option but to let them do the repairs as they had 'conveniently' managed to lock down the car, presumably he could have got a cheaper quote elsewhere.

Thanks for any advice you can give, none of us know much about cars and are not sure where he stands legally or otherwise.


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jase1

Does it have full dealer service history?

Vaux should be paying for a percentage of the cost if so IMO.

bigjl

I didn't think an automatic had syncros?

Or is this one of the Vauxhalls with the semi auto box? Somebody said these where a manual box with auto functions added, like those selespeed boxes on Alfas.

We have had Vauxhalls as work for years, several of the older 1.7 DTi Corsas had new gearboxes at under 20k, but the autos see, reliable, as do the manual boxes as fitted to the Astra vans that the fitters and training school use.

As above, I would ask for some contribution from Vauxhall. It is onyl 6 months outside the warranty, but has very low miles.

bob_a_builder

then said the car had 'locked down' and couldn't be moved as it had gone into safe mode. So basically, he had to have it fixed by them without getting any other quotes as he couldn't drive it.

whats that all about - some form of entrapment surely ?

Siemo

Thanks for the replies. He's been talking to the garage today and they said Vauxhall have agreed to pay half - that sounds reasonable to me but I don't really know. What would you think?

The thing that really riles me is that he had no choice but to let them fix it - I can't see how that's legal?!

(btw yes it's the semi-automatic version)

jase1

Making the customer get the car fixed there seems a bit sharp, but if it really did lock on-site it's unfortunate. There wasn't anything stopping him from getting the car towed elsewhere.

But 50% seems reasonable enough. You could try arguing for a bit more under the circumstances but that is a fair offer.