Best Way to Deal with a Car Manufacturer?

[gtd2000]

I'll keep this fairly short.

 

My mother owns a KIA Picanto - which has been a fantastic little car but they have an achillies heel in the form of crankshaft pully bolt failure.

 

This is a factory manufacturing defect and KIA will offer goodwill repairs in some instances, in our case they will only provide the replacement parts free of charge but the labour has to be paid to effect the repairs.

 

So the car is not yet repaired but it's getting there...

 

Once the car has been repaired - what's the best tactic to shame a car company into refunding the cost of labour for their fucking defect...?

[Guest]

 

Once the car has been repaired - what's the best tactic to shame a car company into refunding the cost of labour for their fucking defect...?

 

Sue for compensation under the Sale of Goods Act 1978. The car is not of merchantable quality and they have admitted this in public by describing the faulty pulley as a 'manufacturing defect'. Apply the pressure by writing to Which? Watchdog, What Car - publications like those. Half the battle has been won - they've shot themselves in the foot by admitting their design is below standard.

[gtd2000]

Which would be a good start to write to! They voted it the UK's most reliable small car in 2010!

[Guest]

Which would be a good start to write to! They voted it the UK's most reliable small car in 2010!

 

That has 'consumer rights feature' written all over it.

 

Unless Kia buys advertising space from Haymarket.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Better still, refuse to allow them to touch it. Send them a letter giving them a couple of weeks to get it fixed free of charge, otherwise you're off to an independent garage to have the work done and suing them for parts AND labour.

[Guest]

Better still, refuse to allow them to touch it. Send them a letter giving them a couple of weeks to get it fixed free of charge, otherwise you're off to an independent garage to have the work done and suing them for parts AND labour.

 

Yeah, but then they'll retaliate by voiding the warranty and refusing to accept any further claims if other things go wrong in the future.

 

Although I'd probably threaten to do it, to shit Customer Services up a bit.

 

Or get M Bickle to write you a heavyweight letter.

[gtd2000]

I've got a rather long letter already drafted regarding this matter - it's great to hear a few more suggestions.

 

At this point in time I'm more inclined to get the car back repaired and my mother back on the road - then start the ball rolling with the potential refund of labour costs.

 

I understand that from talking to a KIA mechanic they would not want bad publicity....but right now I'd rather get the car back with part of the costs paid.

[Guest]

 

I understand that from talking to a KIA mechanic they would not want bad publicity....but right now I'd rather get the car back with part of the costs paid.

 

In that case, writing to What Car (and finding out if any other Picanto owners would back you up if questioned) would cause a lot of problems for Kia. See if you can get a group of 30 or so people together and write the letter with that in mind. Tell them you have a petition of however many disgruntled owners that are prepared to go to BBC Watchdog and \ or What Car if their parts and labour costs are not met.

 

If you shout loud enough they will cave in.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Better still, refuse to allow them to touch it. Send them a letter giving them a couple of weeks to get it fixed free of charge, otherwise you're off to an independent garage to have the work done and suing them for parts AND labour.

 

Yeah, but then they'll retaliate by voiding the warranty and refusing to accept any further claims if other things go wrong in the future.

 

They can't do that- as long as you buy OEM-quality parts and get them fitted by a professional mechanic.

[Guest]

Better still, refuse to allow them to touch it. Send them a letter giving them a couple of weeks to get it fixed free of charge, otherwise you're off to an independent garage to have the work done and suing them for parts AND labour.

 

Yeah, but then they'll retaliate by voiding the warranty and refusing to accept any further claims if other things go wrong in the future.

 

They can't do that- as long as you buy OEM-quality parts and get them fitted by a professional mechanic.

 

Well Citroen did with me. They claimed that Lemforder track rod ends and Brembo discs were 'inferior to OEM parts' (funny, they've lasted a damn sight longer than the originals) and became even more unhelpful when those parts were discovered. Got a very shitty inspection sheet back from them on one occasion with 'non OEM parts fitted by another garage' written all over it.

 

Ah yes, and a refusal for any 'more' work to be done under warranty. The fact they'd refused point blank before anyway mattered not.

[autofive]

id send them a solicitors letter demanding the full cost fo the car, plus extras incurred because of their shoddy design and workmanship. the cars not fit for purpose and they can have it back, once the costs have been reimbursed, or you will have no choice but to publicise this inferior and misdescribed contraption claiming to be a car in every possible way of publication, written, on TV and via the internet plus your legal team will contact various consumer pressure groups and government agencies to make sure they lose the right to sell this skip in the Uk and europe

and if Hank Lee comes round here

 

[oldford]

You need to be sure who you're dealing with first, the dealer or the manufacturer. Dealers are usually independant businesses who sell the cars on behalf of the manufacturer. Any claim under the sales of goods act will be against the seller of the car, not the manufacturer.

 

If you already haven't done so, contact the manufacturer directly, give them them the vehicle details, VIN, purchase date, service history, the nature of the failure, the cause of the failure and any other relevant facts.

 

Try and keep emotion out of it and tell them exactly what you like them to do to resolve the problem. We as a garage had a problem with an out of warranty Honda FRV with worn camshafts which were nearly £1000 a pair, we phoned Honda customer services and mainly due to our polite professional attitude, Honda agreed to pay for the parts.

[gtd2000]

The real problem is that KIA appear not to have given the dealers full and complete information for the crankshaft pulley bolt failure.

 

KIA originally deemed that only certain chassis numbers were affected - mainly 2004 models - but all years have been having problems.

 

In our case two dealers had no knowledge of the problem (this is back in 2008) and said there were no recalls on the car (but it's actually called a campaign).

 

When the car went in for diagnosis of the problem - they said it was the sparkplugs to blame.....this was despite being booked in for crankshaft pulley bolt failure.

 

Something like 6 steps were required to finally verify that the pulley bolt had failed...

 

KIA C.S. now informs me that the previous information that only certain chassis numbers were affected is now no longer considered to be correct - no shit sherlock!

 

I'm going to attempt to gather up a list of folks that have suffered the same problem, then, if KIA are still not interested in refunding the labour charges, I'll send this information to Which to ask why they think the Picanto is the most reliable small car in the UK? This snippet will of course be relayed to KIA before I send the letter to Which.

 

Any other suggestions appreciated

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Well Citroen did with me. They claimed that Lemforder track rod ends and Brembo discs were 'inferior to OEM parts' (funny, they've lasted a damn sight longer than the originals) and became even more unhelpful when those parts were discovered. Got a very shitty inspection sheet back from them on one occasion with 'non OEM parts fitted by another garage' written all over it.

 

Ah yes, and a refusal for any 'more' work to be done under warranty. The fact they'd refused point blank before anyway mattered not.

 

They will obviously try to fob you off, however they're likely to change their tune when presented with a final demand letter or the particulars of your court claim.

[andrew e]

Kia dealers in my experience of main agents are up there with Toyota on the fairness scale. Is this a big dealer chain, or a local dealership - you might get a better service from a smaller dealer. Worth a try at another agent. If not Honest John probally has more "threat" value than which or watchdog. There was a fella called Murphwiz onthe Kia forum's who posts little, but is a dealer tech and is pretty honest - might be worth a friendly pm?

[gtd2000]

I'll certainly see if I can find this Murphwiz chappy