VF SS 2016 Passengers Side Carpet Wet- Holden Confirmed Recall Done

[stooge]

Stooge, agree to all your points however I consider the 'drain seal' to be a manufacturing/component defect as per my earlier post and believe it is Holden's responsibility to replace the item at their cost regardless how it was purchased. The car has not been serviced at a Holden Dealership hence why the remedial work was not carried out prior. I only detected the problem by accident because I was bored one night and decided to clean the car and removed the carpet mat. The following is an excerpt from the ACCC media release.

“Holden acknowledged that it misrepresented to some consumers that it had discretion to decide whether the vehicle owner would be offered a refund, repair or replacement for a car with a manufacturing fault, and that any remedy was a goodwill gesture,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said.

“Holden also accepted that some consumers were told that a remedy would not be provided because the vehicle had not been serviced by a Holden dealer or with sufficient regularity, or as the vehicle was purchased second hand.”

it is a manufacturing defect but if you purchased the vehicle privately the consumer guarantee does not apply and if their is no factory warranty left they can refuse to fix it at their cost.

The Fair Trading Act (Australian Consumer Law) creates ‘consumer guarantees’.

A consumer guarantee does not need to be written down in the contract. It is 'guaranteed' by law.

Consumer guarantees are ordinary contract terms that are automatically added into any contract between a seller and a buyer - regardless of whether the seller and buyer actually agree on the term. They impose minimum standards of quality on dealers and manufacturers.

They make sure that consumers who buy seriously defective vehicles can go back to the manufacturer or dealer and have the defect fixed regardless of whether they were given a written warranty.

In most circumstances, these guarantees are imposed equally on dealers and manufacturers and apply regardless of what manufacturers state in their written warranties.

Consumer guarantees also apply to second-hand vehicles, but in this case any claim will be against the dealer only. A consumer guarantee will not apply to defects shown to the buyer before the sale.

Consumer guarantees require vehicles sold to:

1. Be of acceptable quality;
2. Be fit for the purpose for which they were acquired;
3. Correspond to any description attached to the goods prior to the sale; and
4. Correspond to any sample of the goods that was offered to the consumer prior to the sale.

The main guarantees are those relating to the acceptable quality of the goods, and their fitness for purpose.

A used vehicle is of 'acceptable quality' if for a reasonable period after purchase you can drive it from A to B in reasonable safety.

For a new vehicle to be of acceptable quality it should be free from manufacturing defects for a reasonable period.

If a vehicle is not of acceptable quality or a manufacturing defect has become evident during a reasonable period after purchase, the manufacturer has an obligation to remedy the defect. A reasonable period is usually regarded as the warranty period provided by the manufacturer.

If you buy a vehicle, planning to use it for a particular purpose, you should tell the seller about the intended use. If you do this and it turns out that you cannot use the goods in the way you intended, you can enforce the consumer guarantee of 'fitness for purpose'.

If a vehicle is unsafe or substantially unfit for the purpose for which it was bought, and incapable of being easily remedied within a reasonable time, you may be entitled to a replacement vehicle or refund.

Buying your first car

If you’re buying your first car, here’s a few things to consider:

www.commerce.wa.gov.au

Buying a used car

You can buy a used car through a:

www.commerce.wa.gov.au

 

[Skylarking]

The Australian Consumer Law provides a statutory warranty which covers product sales made by business operating in Australia. That’s the case for the sale of new items but also for the sale of used items. The only thing that differed is the length of the underlined duration statutory warranty. Yes that’s correct, the ACL doesn’t define the length of the statutory warranty, rather it’s based on price, type of product and what is expected from it within the market and other factors... Best to read the legislation itself... I’ve provided links

The way the law is structured means your first point of redress is the seller. The seller must resolve your issue and they can’t require you to go to the manufacturer for support. Often it’s easier for a consumer just to go to the manufacturer especially if the product has failed during or soon after the manufacturers warranty. But your first point of call should always be the seller.

I’d the fault isn’t a major fault, then the seller chooses the redress but usually they repair the item unless replacement if easier for them. The seller then has an ACL claim against the manufacturer or importer for the loss they suffered due to the defective product. It sounds bureaucratic and convoluted but that’s how law is structured...

The ACL specifies that with major product faults the purchaser can choose their remedy, be it repair, replacement or full purchase price refund. Unfortunately car dealers and the manufacturers muddy the waters as to who is responsible to the consumer. In law it’s the seller... but the manufacturer has run roughshod over how ACL should be interpreted, especially in the motor vehicle industry.

The court enforceable undertaking Holden made to the ACCC was basically for Holden and it’s dealers to not to misrepresent the consumers ACL statutory rights, especially with major faults and the purchasers right to choose their remedy. I suspect the reason it was done this way is that the car manufacturers have franchise agreements and provide lots of business processes and training to their dealers ... If the manufacturers process don’t follow ACL, the dealer (seller) won’t follow law...

So if you bought your vehicle from a dealer, heck even a Ford dealer, go back to them and claim the repair costs for fixing the product defect. The selling dealer can go after Holden or take a hit on tne cost of fixing the defect, it’s not your concern. Obviously it would be easier if you went to the selling dealer first as they’d say Tney could have fixed it cheaper but they can’t really deny a claim based on you going to a(nother) Holden dealer.

The ware and tear angle is bullshite but largely irrelevant as it’s either a known defect or it isn’t. The fact there was a service bulletin on this grommet is telling. The fact the bulletin is closed is irrelevant as I think in law you have quite some years to ask for legal redress once the fault became known to you...

What’s critical is how you bought the car at a dealer (and car dealer doesn’t make a difference whether it’s Holden, Ford or Skoda...), public auction or private sale...

If you bought it at a dealer, the worst case scenario is that you end up in small claims court. The selling dealer would be crazy not to simply pay your $170 as a day in court would cost them more (while you’d loose a day of annual leave).

But if you bought the car privately or at public auction and the vehicle has no factory warranty left, ACL statutory warranty does not apply. In such cases Holden can tell you to take a hike and you’d be peeing in the wind if you tried to take Holden to small claims court or tribunal (as in law they have nothing to answer for and in fac5 are not the correct party to the action - it should be the selling dealer)...

Sucks having such issues that should have been rectified already but Holden has no market presence to protect and as such don’t care any more about customers... After all, us Holden owners are purely seen as a cost cause we only interact with Holden for warranty claims...

 

[Sam_100]

Hi Stooge and Skylarking,

Thanks for taking the time and effort to provide advice/feedback. I purchased the car interstate (Melbourne) and live in the ACT. When I look at the cost of the repair, $171, against the time and effort I expect to expend to pursue cost recovery through the purchasing dealer, it's not worth the time and effort for me. The thing that annoys me the most is the response from Holden that the failure of the component was due to wear and tear. Do these muppets really think we are that stupid!!!!

On a positive note, I don't have a leak anymore in the cabin and the smell of damp carpet is slowly going away.

Fully concur with your point that GM (Holden) now sees Holden owners as a cost and would like us to go away as quickly as possible so they can leave the country.

 

[Skylarking]

When I look at the cost of the repair, $171, against the time and effort I expect to expend to pursue cost recovery through the purchasing dealer, it's not worth the time and effort for me. The thing that annoys me the most is the response from Holden that the failure of the component was due to wear and tear. Do these muppets really think we are that stupid!!!!

On a positive note, I don't have a leak anymore in the cabin and the smell of damp carpet is slowly going away.

Doubt Holden think people are stupid, rather, they hope people’s lives are hectic enough that going through a tribunal process isn’t worth their effort. At less than a couple of hundred dollars for the repair, I’d not bother either (unless they really got up my nose and I wanted them to pay).

(Businesses have an even higher threshold before they chase people for $$ through the courts... Heck my insurance company wouldn’t chase the at fault driver for a $3500 repair to my car because it was not worth their effort... )

It’s great that the grommet doesn’t leak any more and that the smell of damp carpet is going away.

But such a smell can be an indicator of mould and some moulds can be rather damaging to health, especially black mould. Me, I’d be unhappy about mould as it affects me (I have a mild allergy to mould). Others it may not bother at all...

On a side note and probably mentioned it earlier, if you have a mouldy carpet, then the whole interior needs to come out before the one piece carpet can be removed. You could possibly use mould killer on the old carpet (once removed) and give it a good wash on a hot day but a dealer would never do such as they’d just install a new carpet for efficiency. No idea what a new carpet with its bonded underlay actually costs but doubt it’s cheap... The whole remove and replace process is also lots of man hours and a new carpet just slugs whomever pays the bill that bit more IMO, Holden simply wanted to avoid such costs so failed grommet causing leak, in their view, then become simply wear and tear

In some cases it’s easier for ones state of mind just to move on. If the wet carpet smell is reducing and doesn’t make you wheeze, just move on and don’t worry about it. life’s too short

 

[Niomie]

Sometimes I‘m left feeling like it’s time to cash in and sell while prices are high... If I do that, the problem then becomes what to buy that has similar performance and wont cost almost double

 

[Skylarking]

Sometimes I‘m left feeling like it’s time to cash in and sell while prices are high... If I do that, the problem then becomes what to buy that has similar performance and wont cost almost double

My comment to Sam_100 about “moving on“ was in relation to him not worrying about chasing the $171 repair cost that he spent on fixing the leak… not in relation to getting rid of his car as such

But as more people seemingly find nothing is easy with Holden warranty claims these days, which is only going to get worse with passage of time, then i may not be the only one who occasionally feels that the best solution is to “upgrade” to a more upmarket problem

 

[Fu Manchu]

To what… ?