Dealers and warranties, where do we stand?

Lil306

Hi,

To cut a long story short, my brother owns an Vauxhall Astra H with a warranty sold through the dealership he bought it from

One night when driving home his gearbox obliterated itself and the car was put off road. A short while later he received a call from Vauxhall that there was a recall on his model of car for gearbox / steering issues

The car has been taken into a dealership and they're now refusing to repair his gearbox under warranty because the car was not "serviced" within their 20,000 mile policy (something like 23,000 miles)

Yet the service information in the book says it was it received it's "main" services from dealers, but there are no ticks in the book against what was changed, there is only one "main" service and it only states the air filter was changed then no to everything else.

Every other "main" service is simply stamped by the dealer

- Where does he stand in his rights / arguments with regards to the servicing. Vauxhall have sold him a warranty that they have basically voided

- Is it possible to get a copy of service history from Vauxhall dealerships (i.e what was changed,etc) is the record kept on file anywhere for each model?

To say he's annoyed is an understatement because the warranty he paid for his car is being voided and he's now forced into the situation of paying £1000 for a recon gearbox or £2500 for the dealer to fix it.

fivetide

How long has he had it? That might help the case.

Who had the last service done? Did he wait until 23,000 miles when it says 20,000 in the book or was this done before he bought it?

5t.

Strider590

Lil306 wrote: »

Hi,

To cut a long story short, my brother owns an Vauxhall Astra H with a warranty sold through the dealership he bought it from

One night when driving home his gearbox obliterated itself and the car was put off road. A short while later he received a call from Vauxhall that there was a recall on his model of car for gearbox / steering issues

The car has been taken into a dealership and they're now refusing to repair his gearbox under warranty because the car was not "serviced" within their 20,000 mile policy (something like 23,000 miles)

Yet the service information in the book says it was it received it's "main" services from dealers, but there are no ticks in the book against what was changed, there is only one "main" service and it only states the air filter was changed then no to everything else.

Every other "main" service is simply stamped by the dealer

- Where does he stand in his rights / arguments with regards to the servicing. Vauxhall have sold him a warranty that they have basically voided

- Is it possible to get a copy of service history from Vauxhall dealerships (i.e what was changed,etc) is the record kept on file anywhere for each model?

To say he's annoyed is an understatement because the warranty he paid for his car is being voided and he's now forced into the situation of paying £1000 for a recon gearbox or £2500 for the dealer to fix it.

Chocolate gearboxes on some of the 1.8 Vauxhalls..... Main bearing collapses if driven at motorway speeds most of their life.

£1000 is steep, I paid £800 for a recon box and new clutch on my Vectra at a place in Birmingham, WHO do a lot of work for various main dealerships and taxi firms.

Nothing to look at on the outside, typical backstreet establishment, no posh signage, no tea/coffee waiting area, they just do gearboxes/transmissions.
If your local to Birmingham the chances are, the dealership will send the car to these guys and then shove a nice chunk of profit on top

Lil306

Strider590 wrote: »

Chocolate gearboxes on some of the 1.8 Vauxhalls..... Main bearing collapses if driven at motorway speeds most of their life.

£1000 is steep, I paid £800 for a recon box and new clutch on my Vectra at a place in Birmingham, WHO do a lot of work for various main dealerships and taxi firms.

Nothing to look at on the outside, typical backstreet establishment, no posh signage, no tea/coffee waiting area, they just do gearboxes/transmissions.
If your local to Birmingham the chances are, the dealership will send the car to these guys and then shove a nice chunk of profit on top

The car is an Astra VXR hence the high gearbox cost....

Strider590

Lil306 wrote: »

The car is an Astra VXR hence the high gearbox cost....

I'm spotting lots of recon M32 gearboxes around for £700-£1100.

But anyway, what rights does he have.... I'm not really finding this easy to understand..... Was it actually serviced within this 23'000 mile window? was the car 2nd hand? did he own the car during that 23'000 mile period?

vikingaero

Did he buy the car new or used? He could call up the garage that did the first service and get a re-print of the service. Most first services on Vauxhalls are oil, oil filters and air filter at the most.

If the service was carried out at 23k then it is technically outside of the manufacturers spec. But you could argue that they wouldn't look at the gearbox anyway on a first or subsequent service. Maybe call Vauxhall Customer Services and politely explain your predicament to see if any goodwill.

Lil306

vikingaero wrote: »

Did he buy the car new or used? He could call up the garage that did the first service and get a re-print of the service. Most first services on Vauxhalls are oil, oil filters and air filter at the most.

If the service was carried out at 23k then it is technically outside of the manufacturers spec. But you could argue that they wouldn't look at the gearbox anyway on a first or subsequent service. Maybe call Vauxhall Customer Services and politely explain your predicament to see if any goodwill.

It's a standstill.

Currently the car is sitting at Vauxhall, they're refusing to do the work basically because he's outside of the mileage policy in the warranty so they're arguing it's void.

Bad etiquette from Vauxhall imo, they sold an extended warranty on his car for 3 years and less than 20,000 miles since he bought it. It had 2 "major" services and one minor service with no mention of gearbox oil being changed on the last major serivce (only an air filter).


I've been thinking of the possibility of seeing if I can get a copy printed of the service history of the car from the dealerships to see what exactly was changed incase it goes to court.

My brother wants to do the work himself anyway, M32 gearboxes supposedly fit (from the diesels) although the ratios will be wildly out I think it would be pointless.

He just wants his car on the road but Vauxhall are refusing to fix it and want him to pay £2500 for it

Why I'm so glad I own a Volkswagen, mines on 178k and still going strong