Land Rover accused in gearbox expose
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, March 16, 2015
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Faulty gearboxes in Land Rover's Evoque cars in China were highlighted by China Central Television's annual "3.15" program last night. [File photo] |
Faulty gearboxes in Land Rover's Evoque cars in China were highlighted by China Central Television's annual "3.15" program last night.
Owners of Evoques throughout the country have encountered malfunctions such as sudden loss of speed and reverse gear faults.
The problems emerged again even after the gearboxes were replaced, the program said, and maintenance workers at different Land Rover dealers could not identify the fault.
The consumer protecting show said Land Rover (China) had denied there were problems with the gearbox, claiming that buyers "drove too fast," Xinhua news agency said.
However, CCTV's investigation showed that Land Rover had identified the problem some time before and issued confidential notices only to the company's engineers.
So far, Land Rover has not announced any recall of Evoque cars in China.
Also exposed last night were Nissan, Shanghai Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz dealers falsely reporting or exaggerating problems with vehicles so they could charge high repair fees, the CCTV program claimed.
CCTV reporters disconnected an ignition coil in a Nissan Teana and sent the car to a Nissan shop on Tianmushan Road in the eastern city of Hangzhou.
The "fault" should have been a simple fix after a mechanic had spotted it, said Zhang Wenli, an auto expert with the China Association for Quality Inspection.
But the shop charged around 1,000 yuan (US$160) for the repair, with a staff member surnamed Ma suggesting a number of problems.
"More serious problems will occur if it is not fixed immediately, like cold may lead to pneumonia if it is not cured," Ma said.
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