JFB

MY00 Euro import regd Sept 2000. At 15000 miles within 1 year warranty period, I queried a buzzing noise with the garage who could not diagnose the noise. After a couple of months, it turned out to be bearings in the gearbox and the warranty claim was rejected as the claim was registered outside the 12 month warranty period. The gearbox was replaced at my expense having also had to pay a surcharge of £650 plus VAT to keep my original box to support pursuit of claim! Total cost £3518.

A goodwill gesture of £400 has been offered ie cost of replacement crown and pinion parts but no labour refund as claim registered outside warranty period (which starts from date of registration in Holland and not when registered in UK) =1 month difference in my case. £400 offer subject to final inspection of gearbox to be couriered to Holland at my expense and returned ex the faulty parts.

The Dutch Warranty agency disputed the necessity of changing the gearbox despite a formidible argument put forward by the garage (main Subaru dealer) eg "shrapnel in the oil/heavy scoring etc". I have finally written to Fuji Heavy Industries in Japan with a CD of photos of the gearbox internals in the hope of a sympathetic response but I'm not holding my breath.

So, would it be worth pursuing the claim in the courts? I thought warranty covered fault so long as it arose during the warranty period regardless of when it was fixed?

Finally, the Euro import option is fine so long as no serious faults arise because all claims have to be approved by the Euro warranty agency with sight of the "broken" part before sanctioning payment!

Anyway, just a sobering tale for the record.

Jerome

scoobyskid

How MUCH!!!!! Could you claim on your insurance? You could try pursuing it through the courts but get some advice from a specialist lawyer first (you get the 1st hour free with some companies). You can argue that a gearbox that fails so soon was not fit for the purpose it was inteneded.

Does this mean that all MY00 cars that have gearboxes from the same "batch" as your car will fail at 15K miles too? Maybe Subaru won't do anything unless there is a higher percentage of failures. Have you contacted Subaru UK?

Once a car is out of warranty, the manufacturer has no legal obligation. I had a drive shaft break on my Toyota Celica GT4 due to metal fatigue. Toyota were unwilling to do anything because the car was out of warranty. They were not interested in recalling & inspecting cars from the same "batch". It's not much fun having a wheel keel over at speed, I can tell you (saved by the brake caliper)!

Peugeot's warranty states that any fault must be fixed within the warranty period. This means that if you identify a fault on the last day of the warranty and it can't be fixed until the next day, then you have to foot the whole bill! How cr*p is that!!!

The SMMT warranty is useless to. I had a faulty master cylinder which an engineer verified, however, they would only honour the claim on complete failure of the brakes ie. drive it around until you have a BIG accident!

Anyway, good luck!

X SOOOBY

hi mine is a my00 registered sept00 and purchased from holland and yes i have had terrible gearbox problems fortunatly the first problem was 2 months before the end of the warranty the car wouldn`t shift into 2nd or 4th it did get sorted even though i had to find a simpathetic dealer allthough they did have trouble getting there money from holland
and then less than 4 months later and out of warrenty the gearbox started to whine been told it is not worth doing until it stops working alltogether
but have to say i would never get another euro import becouse of these problems

tntsystems

:O I cannot believe i have finally found someone else. I had the master and lay shafts in my gearbox on a 97P 2000uk model part comnpany and spit teeth everyhwhere whilst (bombing) round moss side against a cozzie. The hour waiting for the RAC was scary, with an old shape Volvo 240 with blacked out windows ) crusising round waiting for me to leave the car (yeah right). Anyway, after a £350 towing bill home to glos. I was informed that the extended warranty i had purchased from the main dealer, would not cover as the car showed signs of abuse when the inspector came out. (due to the fact i visit a few working farms and the underside of the car was covered in ****!!). Anyway, the guys at cleave motor salvage in glos found me a box with 25k for £500 quid and i fitted myself rather than pay the wallies at the local dealership, anyone got any ideas? I still have the pieces of the original box....

JFB

Thanks foe the replies Guys. It seems the general consensus is warranties are CR4P!

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