Date:28/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/28/stories/2007122856680400.htm

New Delhi

Hyundai Motors fined for selling defective car

New Delhi: Car makers are liable to pay damages in case they negligently release defective vehicles from their units for sale through dealers, a consumer court has said while directing South Korean auto giant Hyundai to pay Rs.3.80 lakh to a consumer for a defective Santro car.

The Delhi Consumer Commission told the car company to refund Rs.3.55 lakh, along with damages of Rs 25,000, to Gopal K Sahi, whose brand new car turned out to be defective.

The Commission also directed the car maker’s Paschim Vihar-based dealer, Deep Hyundai, to cough up Rs.1.55 lakh received from Mr. Sahi a couple of years ago on account of replacing his accidental car with a new one. Observing that a consumer would not be satisfied with replacement of a car when manufacturing defects in the new vehicle had already left a bad taste in his mouth, the Commission President Justice J D Kapoor told the company to refund the cost of the vehicle to Mr. Sahi within a month.

Referring to similar complaints against other auto companies and dealers who allegedly pushed used vehicles as new after repairing and repainting them, the Commission said in a recent order that such acts amounted to highly “unfair trade practices”.

Mr. Sahi, a resident of Vikaspuri here, had bought a Santro car in 1999 after paying over Rs.3lakh. After his car met with an accident in January 2001, he approached the dealer with a complaint that the car was damaged completely despite it being a minor mishap, the complaint alleged.- PTI