A case of constant defects that have been ignored by one of the leading car manufacturers in the country, General Motors (GM), has appeared in the limelight. One of GM India's old vehicles, the Opel Astra was purchased by a New Delhi-based advocate from an authorised GM dealership way back in 2000 and has been giving problems ever since. According to Lalit Bhasin, the vehicle has to be taken to the dealership for repair on more than 20 times, following which it completely stopped working in 2008-09. Reportedly, the vehicle had to be taken for repair within the very first month of purchase. A complaint was filed by the advocate in a consumer forum, which has now asked the company to either replace the old vehicle with a new one or refund its price to the owner, around Rs. 8 lakh.
The South West District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has asked the dealership to pay Rs. 3.67 lakh for the constant defects that required repair in he Astra Club. The forum bench presided by Narender Kumar said, “From the record, it is observed the vehicle in question was repaired by the opposite party 2 (dealer) on more than 20 occasions. According to us, the continuous recurrence of the problems in the vehicle was very serious matter and should not have been taken casually. We come to the conclusion that the vehicle in question is having some manufacturing defects due to which it continuously gave problems and lastly stopped working.”
Apart from not being thoroughly examined every time, GM India also asked for undue money for repairs on every trip to the dealership. However, the auto maker has denied any manufacturing defects with the car, but this plea was rejected by the consumer forum, stating that problems faced were of unusual nature for a new vehicle. One would need to wait and see the result of this complaint, but as of now, it appears that the decision should go in favour of the advocate.
