Holden warranty coverage + Recall question

[Reaper]

Fact is that Australin Consumer Protection laws warrants manufacturing faults and defects in any product for the LIFE of the product. Given that Holden has identified a manufacturing fault, it is case closed, it is to be repaired under warranty at the manufacturers expense under Australian Consumer Protection Laws for the lift of the product.

Then you move into what the definition of that "life" actually is and what becomes a service item and what doesn't.

 

[Michael-08-VE]

Ok let's say the 70% of the alloytecs that weren't affected last past 300,000ks "the majority". Would you say that their timing timing chains have exceeded the expected life three times over? If you UNKNOWINGLY bought something(which shouldn't be your responsiblilty to research because if it's released to the public it SHOULD be deemed fit for use) and it fails early from a KNOWN manufacturing fault, why should you pay for it...? Was the screw up your fault...? In this day and age you should be able to walk into any dealership, buy any car and drive it.
That's the whole point of these magical things call manufacturing standards. MAJOR faults should be rectified seeing as the timing chains are pretty important, I'd say it's a major fault.

 

[Sean880]

Then you move into what the definition of that "life" actually is and what becomes a service item and what doesn't.

http://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Consumer Guarantees A guide for consumers_0.pdf

 

[Loaded Dice]

For starters, the law has been around for donkeys.

Next is fairly simple, Holden has already identified and published findings of a defect in the manufacturing process for this particular engine component, therefore they have acknowledged the manufacturing defect and as such are required by law to replace affected vehicles. They may however argue age or kms on a vehicle, dependent on published life expectancies of that particular component, which should be fairly easy to find where it falls in the scheduled servicing to be checked or replaced as part of routine maintenance. Also other vehicles that have presented with the same problem that have been repaired under warranty set a precedence and give you good leverage if you want to press the issue.

Deteriorating or past service life (ie your cracked radiator cap example) are totally different from a part, product or component thereof that has an identified manufacturing defect, and are not covered by the same statute liabilities warranty as a defect.

HTH.

 

[tandawwg]

I realise this thread is quite old but I'm hoping that my recent experience with Holden and my own timing chain problems may offer help to other distressed owners who can't afford the money to fix it nor should they.

Firstly, before I share my story I just want to express how disgusted I am that some people need to pollute this thread with their pessimistic mind set when all some people ever wanted was some help as they obviously had no where else to turn to and felt that the Just Commodores community may be able to shed light on an unjust situation. Unless you have first hand knowledge for an answer to a question, then everything you're saying is speculation and hearsay at most, you are neither qualified nor experienced in the matter to give your opinion. For those people I'm speaking of, you know who you are.

Ok so let's get into it:
Date: 3/3/17
Model: 2009 VE Calais V
Kms: 101,158

As you can see by todays date and the MY of my car it is 5 Years out of warranty. I'm writing this post as I have just returned from the Holden dealer where they have just fixed my timing chain at no cost! (yes 5 YEARS after warranty!). Out of respect for the dealership and the extremely friendly gentleman from Holden's service department I won't be mentioning any names, but as he clearly explained to me this should be the same for any dealer.

Having been rejected by most Holden dealers and them telling me it was a $3000 job I was just about ready to take my car to local mechanic here in Adelaide when I thought I might give one more Holden dealer another try. So I called up and explained what code I had and the year/make/model/fault code of my car. He said none of those things should be a problem and to bring it so they could inspect the car and look at the fault codes themselves. I brought it in the next day and spoke to the guy from the service department where he explained it would cost $99 to inspect the car and another $120 to install the new software if it needed it. I expressed how reluctant I was to pay this as I already had somewhere else organised to fix it for a fair price and didn't want to pay all of this money only to have it not work. I had already heard that it wasn't a guaranteed fix and only really a 'band-aid' for the problem. He explained that he couldn't guarantee Holden would approve the claim but he said it was more than likely and that Holden would not let them do any work on the car until these two things had been done initially. I was still very reluctant and skeptical and this point until another person from the service department who was listening nearby turned around and said "Look, we can't actually guarantee it, but honestly, Holden WILL approve it". So I agreed and let them take the car (1/1/17).

They called me later that day to tell me they had inspected the car, checked the software (software was up to date) and got a response email from Holden saying the work had been approved and should only take a day to fix. I left the car with them until today (Friday 3/3/17) when I could get someone to take me there but the actual work was finished yesterday afternoon (2/3/17).

Now this next part should answer most peoples questions:

I arrived this morning to pick up my car and when I got there had a conversation with the guy from the service department. I asked him that because my car was so far out of factory warranty was the deciding factor in the approval from Holden my full service history? He said "Because this is a known design fault for Holden, service history, kilometres and year of manufacture do not apply. This should have been a recall. There isn't a certain year the chain was revised basically any model VE could have this problem. We've done a few cars around the same year as yours in the last 6 months. We've even had cars that have done up to 180,000 kms and still been approved for repair". I also asked why other dealers never mentioned it was able to be fixed at no cost and wanted to charge so much? Which he replied "Some other dealers will try and charge you, as they make more money from it than they would getting a claim approved from Holden. They shouldn't actually do this and they can get in big trouble if they get caught."

So as you can see it CAN be done. Contrary to what some people on here might think you SHOULD NOT have to pay for it. Don't take no as an answer, don't listen to the naysayers and don't be discouraged. I know I don't like spending money on things I neither want to nor should have to. Do you? If one dealer won't do it find another one that will, you'll get there in the end. I realise some people have had a bad experience, but I'm hoping that for others who have just recently come across this problem like myself, reading this post may give you a solution and a little bit of hope to. I never write posts, but this was something that obviously hit quite close to home for me and after reading such negativity on multiple threads I felt like I needed to step in and share my piece.

Before my encounter with this particular dealership I was angry and frustrated with Holden, I even told my girlfriend I'd never buy another one. But after this, I told the dealership they would have me as a customer for life.