NSW Car Engine had been Seized - Still on 3-year Warranty

[Rushik]

Purchased an i45 2012 a year back from a dealer. Now the car engine has been seized but the car still had a 3 years warranty.

 

[JS79]

As long as the car has been driven in a normal fashion then you should be protected by the Australian Consumer Law and should be able to request the dealer/manufacturer to replace the engine.

 

[Sophea]

Hi JS79,

If the engine seized because you failed keep it topped up with oil or otherwise failed to maintain it adequately, then no remedy will be available however, if you have maintained it adequately and the engine seized due to some other manufacturing fault then you may be entitled to have it fixed or compensation paid.

The ACCC has put out a booklet dealing specifically with the Australian Consumer Laws with regard to purchase and servicing of vehicles.

The ACL provides that manufacturers and retailers of vehicles must stand behind any guarantees or warrantees that they offer with their products. They must also guarantee that their vehicles must be of acceptable quality and reasonably fit for purpose.

 

[Rushik]

Thanks for your reply. Hyundai did not honour me the warranty because the previous owner missed servicing, but I was saying I purchased from dealer. They said they are not gonna do anything because of missing servicing not by me but by the previous owner.

Can you suggest what I need to do next?

 

[Sophea]

That's fair enough since they are the terms of the warranty, and they are within their rights to refuse warranty if conditions are not met. Servicing history is probably something that you should have asked for at the time of purchase to see if warranty could still be valid.

If dealer represented to you that it came with manufacturer's warranty then they may have misrepresented that fact if they had servicing history that showed it did not comply with warranty requirements.

As I said earlier, whether you can get compensation for the seized engine will depend on why it seized. If it was because it was not serviced regularly enough or not maintained adequately you will get nothing from either Hyundai or the dealer. If it was serviced adequately and cared for properly, and it seized because of some other mechanical fault that was not your fault - but rather a manufacturing fault then you may be able to get Hyundai to fix it. If you want to take the matter further I would first get a mechanic's opinion as to why it seized.

 

[Rushik]

Hi, Sophia. The dealer said the vechile got 3 years more warranty and he gave me a vechile protection plan also. I did servicing on time and never misuse the car. I asked Hyundai why the engine was seized. They said they couldn't diagnose anything first. They thought of a faulty starter motor and then said it started for few seconds and the engine seized again.

 

[Sophea]

I would take it up with your dealer then. Read through the terms of your vehicle protection plan to see if they cover you for this type of failure. Is the warranty an extended warranty given by Hyundai or by the dealer?

 

[Rushik]

Yeah, Sophia. Hyundai got 5 years unlimited kms warranty, so I purchased the car on 2014 November. The dealer said, "you got 3 more years factory warranty and as you got from our car dealer, you are getting 2 years of dealership warranty which starts after the manufacture's warranty expires". In the book, I can see that we can ask for compensation if there major failure.