New car owners all long for a joyful first journey, but many of them end up being annoyed by the car warranty problems. In recent years, the Consumer Council received rising complaints about new cars, such as late delivery resulting in paying more than expected due to the increase of the first registration tax; and repeated malfunctioning that requires frequent repairs.
In many cases, consumers assumed that new car was similar to ordinary consumer products in terms of warranty, and they were allowed to enjoy free maintenance and replacement within the warranty period. But in reality, the warranty coverage is limited by certain terms and conditions, for example car owner has to take the car to designated auto service center for examination at regular intervals or within certain mileage as set out in the warranty brochure, which may cost them a few thousand to over ten thousand dollars, otherwise the warranty will be voided.
In the first eight months of this year, the Council has already received a total of 55 cases of complaints in relation to new car purchase, as compared with 67 cases in 2014. In one of the cases, the complainant bought a brand new 7-seater car at HK$280,000 from Company A. When the car had yet to do a mileage of 2,000 kilometers, the complainant found that it failed to start properly after short halt. She had to try 5 to 6 times to restart the engine. Thus, she had to take her car to the designated garage twice for checkup and replaced the battery and starter of the car. However, the same problem appeared again just a day later. She was dissatisfied with the frequent performance failure that happened within such a short period after purchase. She requested Company A to replace the car but in vain. So she decided to seek help from the Council.
Upon conciliation, Company A proposed to settle by giving the complainant complimentary fuel coupons and extended warranty. But the problem of spare part had not been addressed. After persistent conciliation efforts, Company A finally agreed to offer the complainant a replacement of the same model.
Another case is related to the cost for repairing components and spare part within the warranty period. The complainant bought a brand new private car from Company B in November 2011 at HK$230,000. In October 2013, he took the car for regular checkup as scheduled. However, one month later, the LED light at the front was found broken. As this did not affect the car performance, he decided to fix it in the next half-yearly service checkup. During the checkup, however, he was told that he had to pay HK$14,000 for the repair as the 2-year factory warranty period had already expired. The complainant argued that since the warranty lasted for 5 years and he had followed the checkup schedule, the repair should be made free of charge. But the staff explained that upon expiry of the 2-year basic warranty, the company would extend the coverage for the key parts to 5 years which, however, did not include LED lights.
At the point of making the purchase, the complainant was only told that the car came with 5 years of warranty but the salesperson did not mention that different parts came with different warranty periods. After negotiation, Company B agreed to reduce the repair costs by HK$4,000. However, it was not good enough to pacify him and he sought the assistance of the Council.
Company B explained that the terms and conditions of the warranty coverage were set out in the maintenance booklet, which clearly stated that wear and tear items would not be covered. After the Council's conciliation, Company B offered to charge HK$3,700 only for replacing the LED light.
The last case to be mentioned was about late delivery of a new car. The complainant bought a private car in October 2014 at HK$480,000 from Company C with deposit paid and was informed that his car would be available in January 2015. In mid-January, he was informed that there would be a delay in shipment and it might incur extra car tax. When the car was finally delivered in early April, the complainant was asked to pay an additional vehicle tax of HK$30,000. He considered that the additional tax was too high and Company C should be responsible for the late delivery. He reiterated that he would only pay in accordance with the sales contract. Company C insisted that he had to pay the new car tax or the deal would be cancelled with a refund.
Upon receiving the complaint, the Council looked into the case with Company C and found that the increase of car tax was due to a termination of the Tax Incentive For Environmentally-friendly Petrol Private Car. Finally the complainant accepted the proposal to choose another car of different model but with the same brand as settlement.
The Council advise consumers to pay attention to the following when buying a new car:
- Ask for warranty details such as regular car checkup fees. Remember to look into the terms and conditions to ensure they fit your needs and budget before placing an order.
- Read the warranty booklet carefully in order to get a full picture of the warranty period and coverage, parts not covered and costing details of maintenance service.
- The delivery time set out in the contract is most likely for reference only and that may affect the actual cost of purchase. Consumers should carefully check the clauses to see whether the contract can be terminated and the deposit returned in case of the increase of purchase cost due to late delivery.
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