That’s a frustrating lack of care and attention provided from Mazda. Thanks for letting us know how you went, and if anyone else reading this thread at any point has similar issues, we’d like to hear about it.
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Did you see this yesterday? https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/volkswagen-undertakes-to-fix-consumer-guarantees-approach
Well overdue, I’d say!
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And what compliance checking will there be?
Based on VW Australia’s previous lack of willingness to accept responsibility, I am sceptical about their enthusiasm to undertake restitutions and resolutions.
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So VW “undertake” to “fix”… which really means nothing… it’s a very vague position… The ACCC appears to have gone to VW with their hands on their hips and VW has said “OK, ok… we know there are laws in place and we’ll try to do better”.
It’ll take a lot more than that to get me excited 
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I’m inclined to agree - but I’m trying to remain optimistic!
There are more details here if you’d like to check it out:
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Perhaps I am being cynical @AliceRichard, but there are holes big enough to drive a combi bus through.
- There is nothing in there about VW abiding by the ACL.
- Who is going to monitor that the selected ‘independent experts’ truly are?
- There’s lots of reviews, but where is the undertaking that they will follow through any recommendations.
- Where are the milestones for the listed actions?
- What is the deadline for remediation for customers who have complained?
I think that this is not enough. If the ACCC are going to accept enforceable undertakings, they need to be much more robust than this.
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A step in the right direction.
The ACCC ACL review also got some exposure in last weekend’s Weekend Australian…John Connolly article in the business back page. It is worth a read.
As a general rule, it seems that car companies don’t beleive in the term ‘major fault’ as they think everything can be repaired (from something simple to whole engines/transmissions etc). It would be good if the major fault definition for vehicle was defined under the ACL to bring clarity.
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The ‘major fault’ issue was something I came up against in my battle against Volkswagen. (See my post higher up in this thread.)
As you say, they kept trying (and failing) to fix things, even after I’d told them that I believed the many, many minor failures constituted a major failure. In the end, they conceded - I think partly because it was a health issue (mould) and there was a small child affected and partly because I knew which terminology to use. (I actually sent them a copy of the ACCC’s ‘Motor vehicle sales & repairs - a guide to the Australian Consumer Law’ with relevant sections highlighted to state my case.)
It took considerable pushing on my part to achieve a satisfactory result - I hate to think how many consumers who don’t know their rights are continuing to be given the runaround by dodgy car retailers. My parents’ Amarok had a major transmission failure one month outside the factory warranty, and they just accepted the retailer’s word that they weren’t covered because it was outside warranty. It never should’ve been like that.
A clear definition of how many minor failures constitute a major failure would be fantastic.
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Our son bought a brand-new Nissan Pathfinder around 2012. It started to fail to drive off from traffic lights.
The auto transmission failed on his first camping trip with his young family to remote North of WA due to defective manufacture. A screw wore through a transmission oil line causing loss of fluid. A local mechanic in the nearest outback town that vehicle was taken to fixed the leak and topped up the fluid.
He took the vehicle to the dealer who sold it. The dealer and Nissan refused to fix it under warranty on the pretext that non-genuine fluid had caused transmission to fail. They wanted $14,000 to replace the transmission.
After lawyers intervened, my son paid around half that amount as his wife desperately needed the vehicle to transport their 3 children.
He sold the piece of junk before moving to PNG as an operations manager and will never buy Nissan again.
He is now back in WA and is the GM of an ASX listed mining company. I expect that the company will not be buying any Nissan rubbish but Toyotas as he has done so himself.
A quick Google search revealed the same problems in other countries including USA where a group of owners filed class actions against Nissan.
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I am with all the rest who say that this is just smoke and mirrors, ACCC trot out these Court Enforceable Undertakings even with Banks etc who then go on to do similar “unethical” practices and no action is taken. We just have to look to the Banking Royal Commission to see the lack of effective oversight by ACCC, ASIC etc and the blatant illegal breaches by almost all those called to account by the Commission.
We now have NAB advertisements that are playing the humanistic song and how some life decision that has no bearing on Banking practices is made so much better by NAB… I almost puke each time they air.
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The Shonky quotient is directly proportional to the absence of relevancy in any ad. When they are selling lifestyles rather than their product it is a dead give-away every time.
Our consumer oversight is well described by, with credit to the theme from Mash (Suicide is Painless)
Through early morning fog I see
Visions of the things to be
The pains that are withheld for me
I realize and I can see
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What’s that definition of stupidity: “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome”?
While the ACCC is in its current form and without adequate funding, this is what we will continue to get from them. It is futile to hope otherwise.
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I’d simply ask that the state motoring clubs start acting as genuine advocates for their members and provide direct support to their members in taking on the $100 billion plus automotive and related services industry.
That’s instead of building their own billion dollar banking, insurance and travel agency empires. Why not an RACQ line of petrol stations? Why not RACQ owned and operated vehicle service centres? Why not a public register of all vehicle defects remedied under warranty by brand and model?
There is little transparency in the industry, while the vested financial interests are all powerful in an industry they sells nearly 1.2million new vehicles every year. After rent or a housing mortgage our motoring costs are the second greatest personal consumer expense. Don’t we deserve better?
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Another article regarding Nissan’s junk vehicles and their disgusting lack of service.
Amazing how the grubs changed their tune once A Current Affair became involved.
Pity our son did not have time to have contacted A Current Affair back when their Nissan failed.
Also surprising how the car can be locked with a set of keys inside it. Our Honda CRV can only be locked with the keys inside it by the buttons on the driver’s and front passenger’s doors.
