Wednesday, June 10, 2009
LDV in warranty warning
Fleets operating LDV vans have been warned that they are unlikely to have warranty work honoured by dealers.
An LDV spokesman said: "We are no longer in a position to honour warranty payments - we can no longer pay our dealers - but our dealer network is working to support us on this."
There have been no Maxus vans produced by the company since December 2008. However, existing stocks of the Maxus light commercial van have still been selling adding to the number of LDV vans and minibuses (based on the Maxus) being run by fleets.
All of the vans have been sold with a four-year/120,000-mile warranty. This was reduced from a five-year warranty in 2007.
There are no accurate figures on how many LDV vans are still out with fleets but with yearly sales running at an estimated 6,000 a year, there could be as many as 30,000 vans now on the road without warranty cover.
Now, with the manufacturer in administration, LDV's 132 dealers are facing the prospect of meeting the cost of any new warranty work themselves or charging for work that should be free.
David Lewis chairman of the LDV dealer committee, said: "In these circumstances the advice to dealers is that they are not obliged to end-users to carry out repairs and replacements under the manufacturer's warranty given by LDV."
In an earlier statement, the manufacturer said that the build quality of its Maxus van has been 'continually improved' which should keep warranty costs down.
DATED: 10.06.09
FEED: AW
