Chinese T60 ute...a woeful story. Important to note....LDV vehicles are produced by SAIC Motor, at the time the largest Chinese vehicle manufacturer. In 2024 they lost that claim to BYD, a so called independent company. They should know a bit about cars, these two. Read on.
Timothy Rigby was signed into this challenge, too, back in 2018, when he bought a LDV T60 because it seemed like a suitable vehicle for someone who works at a surf club on the Gold Coast. You can read on here or you can read the court case judgement by clicking the link below;
Here’s the official ruling: Https://www.queenslandjudgments.com.au/caselaw/qcat/2021/316
In short, Timothy Rigby notices the rust eating away at his LDV over time. He takes it back to the von Bibra dealership, where LDV fobs him off. Tim (presumably) says to himself, ‘You cocks are not getting away with this’.
Beach hero Tim, who actually gives his time to keep people from literally drowning, finds himself being carried by an anti-consumer riptide. So he rings the dealer, at his wits end and asks if they could fix his shitbox T60.
And they tell him no, effectively said ‘See you in court’, and Tim takes them on. Proper arseholes, personal opinion. Suddenly it’s ‘pistols at dawn’, entertainingly. But then something happens: Facts (and logic) inform a verdict.
The court appoints an assessor, who finds:
It might have been quicker simply to list the areas that were not rusty.The CSI-type court assessor dude also identifies several other non-rust defects. So, it’s a proper lemon-scented shitbox.
And, of course, the dealer had already quoted repairing all that rust. Cranwell, the judge, (they actually call them ‘members,’ which is vaguely pornographic now that I think about it). Anyway, he noted:
That quality manufacturing. To me, this case orbits the mother of all intended dealer/carmaker brush-offs, to the effect of putting the problem back on Tim. They suggest that working at a surf club is not a task for which the LDV T60 is designed to cope with. The rust is, according to the LDV dealer, therefore entirely a consequence of the consumer operating the vehicle in these unduly arduous conditions.The problem with this position LDV has put forward, is that the website today (October 1, 2021) fully endorses that the T60 has the robustness needed to take you “anywhere”, especially near the beach or salt water. They’re even trying to further allege that the T60 is up to any challenge you care to take on (coastal car parks not included).
Tim even signed up for that bullshit rust protection at Von Bibra’s LDV dealership by the sea, for which he needlessly paid $1445.45 extra for. They couldn’t even round that figure down to $1400. Or zero, given how effective it ultimately proved to be.
In my view, this scientifically bullshit snake oil-style ‘rust protection system’ shamelessly flogged by at every car dealer today is disgraceful and should be illegal to promote, given the non-existent efficacy of the product.
Now, thankfully the judge saw straight thought this ‘surf club’ defence for the utter bullshit that it is:
Tim is probably thanking his lucky stars on this, that somehow sanity prevailed here.
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