"Soon after
I qualified as a surgeon, in April '03 I bought a Holden Monaro, which
I used to commute from Sydney to Goulburn.
I enjoyed driving the car but I believe this particular car and the
experience I have with Holden was bad luck.
The car was delivered to me with a block of wood in the right front
wheel suspension. It was also missed when the car was inspected at
1000km. It was discovered at approximately 2500km when my car broke
down and I called NRMA to fix it. The dealer at Sutton Homebush admitted
that they forgot to remove this and the block of wood was used for
transporting the car and should have been removed prior to delivery.
My other reasons of unhappiness are: The telephonic reply from Holden
Customer Service was quite arrogant and unhelpful: nothing could be
wrong with your car and even if it is the faulty part will be replaced
when discovered as long as the car is under warranty. There were no
checks or replacement of the spring or other parts that could have
been affected by this negligence. My argument was: driving in a top
performance V8 car for 2500km with a block of wood in the suspension
was certainly detrimental to the trimming and mechanics of the car
and dangerous to driver and occupants. Otherwise, all cars would be
delivered with pieces of wood in the suspension springs.
The relationship with the dealer was also a bitter experience: When
I bought the car I was given a price on the phone for that particular
vehicle and a couple of hours latter when I went to purchase it I
was told that the price could not be possibly right. In a Turkish
style I was stripped off from the free services and other freebees
that come with a new car, in spite of the fact that I was paying cash
for it. When I went to pick up the car I discovered a dent that was
acknowledged immediately by the dealer when pointed and promised that
it will be fixed during the next car service. I was also told that
they did not have enough time to get the car detailed and this will
be done at the next inspection, too. However, when I had my car serviced,
although I left it there for two days and I was prepared to leave
it as long as it takes there was no dent fixed and the car did not
even have a basic hosing, but the full detailing promised. The 20,000km
service was done in Goulburn. The manager there is a great bloke;
however, when asked if it was normal that the CD player interrupts
he offered to get it replaced as he had other complaints. Though,
he never got back to me. The event that made me finally unhappy was
the fact that last Thursday after midnight, in an emergency, my wife
delivered in the car and minutes later the right front wheel shattered
into pieces leaving us stranded on the highway with a newborn baby
attached by the umbilical cord to his mother. Fortunately we had another
doctor intercepting us and taking the mother and the baby to the hospital.
The Holden answer was arrogant again: we could do you a favour and
clean the car, but it was not our fault, you have a nail in the tyre.
I feel strongly that all the troubles started with Holden's' negligence.
Whatever they would say I have no doubts that the wood damaged the
car and it was just fortune that we did not have other major problems
that could have killed all of us prior to this event. I believe that
our lives were put at risk all the time since we bought the car. I
cannot trust that any of the inspections was in fact thorough as long
as the wood was missed on two occasions and the other problems and
promises were forgotten or ignored. I believe that continuing to drive
this car is a continuos risk and I would like to return it to Holden.
I am a successful surgeon working in the northwest Sydney and running
a practice with a predicted turn over in excess of a million dollars.
I would like to feel safe and secure so I can continue to support
my family, run the practice, employ staff and look after my patients.
My wife is a doctor and officer in the Australian Army with an impeccable
past record. I work very hard and sometimes I was doing 110hours a
week and driving 25hours on top of this. In twelve months I did approximately
81,000km. I would expect that after a long tiring day jumping in my
new V8 would rather be relaxing and comfortable than full of surprises
and stress.
I work in a field full of litigation and if I would forget an instrument
in a patient's belly I would be in court for compensation whether
this caused any complication or not. However, I would go over the
top and be extremely apologetic and helpful to sort things out and
make sure that the mistake will be repaired in a way that is satisfactory
for all parts. It would have taken Holden very little to make me happy
and fix their mistake; instead of checking the car and perhaps changing
the spring to make me happy they replied in a very arrogant way after
a considerable delay. This time I have the same unhelpful answer.
Whatever Holden would say I believe I was mistreated and betrayed
and I am happy to put my word against their word in a court of law."
Ovidiu, NSW
