Ask an expert

I sent this post in yesterday but no response - I am assuming it did not go through so I am attempting to re-do it and submit again.
Some 6 months ago I assisted by son to buy a 2013 Holden Cruze 1.8. It was a pvt sale - & car has only had 2 owners. It went well until the auto gearbox packed in a few weeks ago. Car had only done 68K kms so we took it to Holden dealer to ask for a warranty claim. We obtained some service history to support the PRA claim ut it was denied as car was too old (& Holden closing I suspect).
In the interim we had searched online & made phone calls to consider & cost our options. We also asked the Holden dealership for a quote.
In the end the Holden dealer quotes were about the same as other grearbox businesses whether it was to replace a bew or used gearbox. The Holden plac also advised us to replace the oil cooler & coolant reservoir as the two has been mixing. Because of this extra cost we decided to go for the used gearbox replacement as these 2 repairs were gpoing to be $5 500 and if it were a new box it would be more than we paid for the car.
The repairs were underway & I called the dealer for an update. I wass advised by the CS person that they had just finished the 2 jobs but that the service foreman was not happy with the outcome. I was told that the replacement transmission apparently did not have a computer component so as to allow the technician to program the car & gearbox to "accept" each other & rum smoothly. Consequently the car ran roughly through the gears. I was advised that my options were:
to accept the car and that in time the car & gearbox would learn each other and become smoother;
or they would return the gearbox to the suppliers (Eastern Korean, Mankau) and I could choose to have either another used one or a new one (and pay the price of a new one) but in either case I would have to pay nearly $1500 for the additional labour to have the 1st replacement box removed and another put in its place.
I rejected all options saying that if the gearbox supplied was not fit for purpose (it did not have the programmable component) then either Holden or the supplier screwed up in sourcing/supplying a sub-standard part and that one or both of them should bear the cost of the extra labour.
The CS person said that she would pass this on to the workshop foreman & he would contact me. Nothing happened for a few days & so I enquired as to progress, expecting the gearbox to have been replaced.
I then fot a call from the foreman saying nothing had been done except that they had been driving the car a lot & it was much better now as the car and gearbox were learning each other so to speak.
I again repeated my concerns & said that I would not accept this and expected them to enforce their consumer rights with the suppliers & get the gearbox replace with another at no extra cost to me. He said that EK would not do this if they tried because if EK tested the car it was running smoothly enough. He said that the gearbox had a 3 month or 5000kn warranty. I said that the car might might be better but I was not going to take the risk of something breaking down after 4 months when it was obviously so bad intitially that they suggested I replace the 1st replacement box!
A few hours later I get a call from the dealership manager who told me that the car was now running "perfectly" & that I should try it and collect.
I went through my concerns again and that I had originally brought the car in hoping for a warranty assisted repair & instead I have to pay for the repair/replacement and that is even below sub-standard service. Was the rough gear changes because it was an old worn gearbox (they are advertised online from $800 to $2500 for used ones so the quality varies!!) and even if not, this process of the box & car learning each other or the "shift points" was new to me & I was not sure if this was just spin to convince me "she'll be alright Sheila". But if I accepted it and paid I lost all the leverage I have to get this sorted properly... and if it did break down after 4 months I would have no recourse. I also don't think that if I drove it I could tell if there was something not quite right (unless v v bad). So I suggested to the manager that as an AA member I would like them to inspect & test the car to get their view & what they knew of this learning explanation. That suggestion did not seem to go down well with them. So it is v inconvenient to not have the car but t is till there & I have come to you for advice.
Is this explanation about the car learning the gearbox (despite no programming) an actual and credible thing? And whilst I would like to have & pay for the AA test drive it and check specifically on the state of the transmission - I don't know if this is a service you offer. Could you do it? There is the pre-purchase inspection you do but the examination of the transmission seems pretty thin with this option? if their explanation has merit & it drives well with an experienced mechanical person then I would be prepared to pay for the repair & accept the car.
Please advise. Thank you.
Please offer your views and suggestions of what I should do to progress this matter.

Hi there,
This can be an issue with modern vehicle electronics, the computer in the transmission needs to be able to communicate with the engine computer and the body control computer and so on. But if the transmission is the right one for the vehicle and doesn't have a programmable computer, then I imagine none will, so replacing with another used one may be the same. So sometimes there is a requirement for resetting the system before things operate as they should. The other point to note is that yes there often is a learning process as when the power is disconnected they can lose their memory of how to shift smoothly and also some modern transmissions learn driver behaviour and adapt to suit. So if after a few drive cycles the shifting improves, it might be working as it should, and with the cooler replaced the transmission should now be reliable if this was the fault that caused the transmission to fail in the first instance.
There is a risk with using second hand parts on a vehicle at any time, especially when there is a common issue that goes wrong- engine and transmission faults seem to be common on the Cruze. If you need an inspection or second opinion on it's operation, it would be best to obtain one from a dedicated transmission specialist.