Silvia Club of NSW

Last december I purchased my pride and joy... a 1989 180SX CA18DET. Now while I wanted an SR20 I was happy with this for a first car. When I went to pick the car up, a full tank of petrol was supposed to be included... the car was damn near empty! Further, the wheel nut wrench did not fit the sockets on the wheels, as they had changed the tools in the boot! The A/C was also not working during a test drive, so they "guaranteed" to have that fixed. It worked for 2 weeks before dying. Ever since I've been trying to claim on my warranty but they refuse to fix my problem. After 5 months of asking them to fix it they have cancelled payment on my warranty, after only 6 months of a 1 year warranty!

What do you think I should do?

Are they a member of the MTA, if so maybe try them? also maybe the warranty company? theres probably some sort of onbudsman too. try and ring as many of those type people and make life as hellish as possible for the company. you might not get your shit fixed but at least it some sort of revenge. i rkn its always a good idea to get an nrma check, that way you have someone to support you if something breaks. the thing is with those warranties they usually only cover shit like mechanicals and if something they can claim has had undue stress placed on it (99.9% of shit) then they usually try and get around it. and you cant really claim otherwise. basically those warranties count for shit

what is the MTA?

I'm with a QLD insurance company called ASWN insurance. I called them and they are keeping my insurance alive for a week or two, so I can try and get the A/C fixed, and get the place I bought the car off to pay up. The insurance company said that if they didn't pay up, as long as I have documentation stating I have the warranty for 1 year, the Department of Fair Trading will force them to pay it. Hopefully everything works out... damn dodgy car salemen!

As was said those warranties are usually useless. Just read the fine print to see what is and what isnt covered.

On my old Silvia I rang up the warranty company and they just quoted lines of fine print to get themselves out of it.

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S13 Silvia Tuning - The Definitive SR20 Modifying Site

MTA = motor transport association all god car yards will be members as will all good mechanics and repairers if they are not a MTA member dont go there

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There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

In the fine print of my warranty it covers all things which "do not wear out" like fuel injectors, A/C gas etc but does cover things such as turbo, A/C compressor, condensor, fuel pump etc. But from what you've all said I'm guessing that even if I do make a claim they will give me the "finer print" and stuff me over that way.

Dodgy bastards =)

The moral of the story is to buy privately with an NRMA or similar, so that way you know everything wrong from the start. THen use the money difference between dealer to private price to fix problems / do mods.

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S13 Silvia Tuning - The Definitive SR20 Modifying Site

Too true.

How much does an NRMA inspection cost? I'm wondering cos as soon as I get the cash (in about 2 months) and I get the A/C fixed I'm going to sell this car and buy a 1996-7 180SX and I dont want to have any problems with this one. =)

We called the mechanic today and I got the "I've been trying to call you!" scenario, telling me he has the compressor and will swap it over tomorrow.... I wont be holding my breath.....

yeh i hate dealers, you always end up getting stuffed around and inconvienced because of them

all car dealers are dodgy, its like a requirement for the job..

after you get an NRMA test, try to take the car to a mechanic and get them to do an engine compression test...

I didnt do this, and 4 days after I bought my silvia found out the head gasket was blown, then going down mt ousley @ high rpm it pretty much overheated the car bigtime..

I did get the car towed back to the dealers mechanic, typical.. they found nothing, guy said if I have a problem again they will just replace it.. then they closed up, so I was stuck with the bill... ( quite a large one at that, considering the radiator had to be replaced also ..also was off the road for 8 weeks)

so yeh, great first car buying experience for me........

well, an update on the story of my life!!!

I took the car in AGAIN for the third time for the A/C and fuel gauge to be fixed. Left it with them for 2 days, went to pick it up and got the "ahhhh yeah, we've found a compressor, but we're missing some parts that'll take a week to get for you". Then I'm driving home (at night) and the car starts making this loud ringing noise whenever its above idle.... the pricks hadn't tightened the belts and they were slipping. The gauge cluster lights weren't working and the next morning when I saw the car in the light, I found they had scratched the passenger side of my car! Plus they haven't called me back about the missing parts.

Word of advice..... ALWAYS BUY PRIVATELY!!!

Shit man, sorry to hear that.

shit man thats no good at all

but i dont think NRMA inspections are really worth it....id get a mechanic mate to check it out instead , theres a lot the nrma doesnt check.

but definetly go the compression test

nrma inspection is $400 (i think)

a mechanic mate costs the price of a slab of beer....

u do the maffs

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[≡≡≡≡≡] \silvia/ [≡≡≡≡≡]

nrma inspection is around $100.00 isnt it?

im from nsw by the way.

however, we may be talkin about different levels of inpection

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You know who we be, N.A love for the S one three
S R twenty DE yo, will f**k on vtec like i f**k them hoes

More for sports / luxury cars.

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Airzone
The difference between genius and insanity is the trembling of a leaf