Is my Hyundai i30 reasonably durable?
QUESTION
Hi John,
I would like your opinion on what you would consider "reasonably durable" in relation to a motor vehicle.
My elderly mother purchased new a top of the range Hyundai i30 almost six years ago. It now has 180,000 on the clock and the engine has developed a bad noise at start up that continues for an uncomfortably long time, long after it has reached operating temperature, but does eventually go away.
I can't decide if it's a big end, a valve, the cam or lifters or what it is. It's never been hot and it has never used oil.
It has always been serviced at the Hyundai dealer it was purchased from.
The head mechanic can not tell my mother what the noise is and, in short, told her he wouldn't be able to tell until he takes the head off and by then, "you're committed" and the only price he could come up with is, $5,000 to $10,000.
His ongoing advice was to keep driving it and see what happens. Unfortunately, that is going to happen because my mother lives in rural Victoria and only has one vehicle. We will be getting a second opinion.
The Hyundai mechanical warranty was five years.
Firstly, I think the Hyundai head mechanic should be able to diagnose the problem and provide a real price to fix. Please correct me if I'm wrong there.
Secondly, I would have expected such a vehicle to travel at least 300,000km before the engine or transmission begins to fail.
Does "reasonably durable" have a strict definition in this case.
Thanks,
Adrian
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ANSWER
Adrian,
‘Reasonably durable’ is not defined in the legislation. (Because the law covers everything from pencils to cars.)
Okay, 180,000kms is a long way - 4.5 laps of the planet. It’s reasonable to expect major repairs in this timeframe. And 300,000km is quite unreasonable, in the domain of expectations.
If it’s a bad noise that goes away, it’s probably a part warming up. It could be anything. They can’t diagnose it clairvoyantly - some investigation is going to be required. That means a teardown.
Me? I’d decide whether to pursue them for a remedy (get a solicitor’s advice on this, because it could be a shot duck). If not, minimise cost by getting an independent mechanic to do it - a good one who knows his shit. That’ll probably come in at about half the cost of the dealer doing it.
Get that second opinion (an independent one). Changing the oil to a thicker spec might make a difference. But if it’s something critical it could lead to a far greater failure problem if it fails completely. I think therefore that the ’see what happens’ suggestion is absurd. (It just tells you the mechanic doesn’t want to know about it.) Nothing like this ever gets better. Best case: It stays the same. Worst case: It delivers a much bigger repair bill when it fails catastrophically.
Hope this helps.
JC
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