FAULTY CARS

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33454, 8 February 1974, Page 5

FAULTY CARS

The condition in which new cars are delivered to British customers has been criticised in an article in the “Sunday Tinies.” The newspaper had five near-new cars checked by the Automobile Association. returned to dealers for rectification, then rechecked. The re-check showed that much of the rectification work had not been done properly by the dealers. The newspaper said that the five cars—Ford Cortina, a Fiat 127, a Morris 1800, a Chrysler Avenger and a Reliant Scimitar—had an average of eight faults each. With the exception of the Avenger. all had bad brakes: so bad on two cars that they would have failed to meet minimum Ministry of Transport standards. The Avenger came out of the test the best. The newspaper said the Consumers’ Institute testers for “Motoring Which” found an average of 18

faults in each of their new test cars. Only one car (a Mercedes) had ever had as few as two faults, and a Morris Marina TC tested last year, which had 39 faults, was described as “not unusual.” The “Sunday Times” said the faults started with poor quality control and workmanship in the factories, and then reached customers because garages did not carry out predelivery inspections properly. The newspaper said that the British motor trade was clearly not prepared for forthcoming British con-; sumer protection legisla-i tion, which will give buy-i ers the right to claim com-; pensation for defects in the) goods they buy.