Chandigarh: Dealership to pay

A Sector 27 resident who was sold a defective vehicle has been awarded a full refund of its invoice amount, and an additional ₹50,000 as compensation for mental agony and harassment suffered during the ordeal.
In her complaint, Neelam stated that she had purchased a white Mahindra TUV 300 car on January 7,2018 by paying a sum of ₹11,06,220 after availing a car loan. She said from day one, the vehicle had starting trouble and stalled very often. She reported the problem immediately to the dealer but instead of rectifying it, they advised her to run the vehicle continuously for 200 to 300 km in one go to solve the problem. Despite poor experience with her newly purchased car, she took the car to the dealership’s workshop but to no avail.
When the first job card was opened on June 6, 2018, the defects could still not be rectified. Thereafter, she took the vehicle to the dealer’s showroom many times to report other defects in the vehicle, such as engine vibration, faulty music system and reverse camera, leakage from rear suspension etc, but the problems still remained. Despite the dealership replacing part costing ₹56,074 in February 2023, the vehicle was still not roadworthy.
The UT Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum noted that the vehicle suffered from inherent manufacturing defects as the complainant could not use it properly even for a single day. While pulling up the dealer for selling an inherently defective vehicle, the forum noted that the complainant had spent huge amount on the purchase of the new vehicle to have a hassle-free ride for a good number of years, but it proved otherwise.
The consumer forum directed Harbir Automobiles, Industrial Area Phase-1, and Raj Vehicles, Mohali, to replace the vehicle in question with a new one of the same model and make or to refund the entire invoice price of the car, ₹11,06,220, along with an annual interest of 10% from the date of purchase. They were also directed to pay ₹50,000 for causing mental agony.