Should Fiat make a contribution towards a bearing failure on our five year old Fiat 500?
How long should a gearbox main shaft bearing be expected to last? Our Fiat 500 (with full main dealer service history) has just reached five years old and 27,000 miles. Following some horrendous rattling, the main dealer has diagnosed a main shaft bearing failure with an estimated cost of £700 to rectify. Should we expect to achieve any goodwill contribution from Fiat for the cost of repair? Our argument is the part has not provided reasonable durability as described by the Sale Of Goods Act. It should be reasonable to expect a critical part to last much longer.
Like small Volkswagen transmissions, small Fiat transmissions have always been of variable quality. Usually a main shaft fails because the transmission has lost some oil. You are within you rights to expect six years use before major problems, but whether the supplying dealer and Fiat will willingly cough up is another matter. You may be able to negotiate because it makes no sense to take the gearbox out and put it back without replacing the clutch, so you could offer to pay for that. If you want to try Small Claims, this is the procedure: www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/overview/
Answered by Honest John on
