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I recently purchased a 1996 Nissan Terrano from a LMVD, which I have now found has very bad shocks to the point where the I can feel the wheels leave the road and have momentary loss of control when going over bumbs like railway lines and small ridges in road seal etc. It also swerves left and right under heavy breaking. I have contacted the dealer who checked it and confirmed that the shocks are pretty soft and for just over $1000 they will replace them along with the warn sway bar brushes.

Do I have any rights in this matter or am I stuck with an old faulty vehicle?

Thanks

Peter

If the Dealer is admitting the vehicle had defective safety related suspension components fitted at the time of sale, then you should be asking them to carry out the necessary repairs at no cost to yourself.

It’s up to you whether you push this to a Motor Vehicle Dispute Tribunal or are prepared to accept betterment with new parts fitted, and negotiate some sort of financial contribution from the Dealer to have the required repairs carried out.

The only grey area is the exact time you have owned this vehicle and the distance travelled before these issues surfaced.

At the time of sale the vehicle would have been given a new Warrant of Fitness and badly worn suspension components should have been noted at that time.

They are saying that it's still warrentable as it is.

If it passed its last warrant with no comments on the shock absorbers then their comments are hard to argue with and to be fair to the Dealer, a WoF is an independent check which they should have no influence over.

You could however seek another opinion if you feel there is a safety concern if you continue to drive the vehicle in its current condition.

I should have probably mentioned that the WoF came from their own garage.

I'll get an independent assessment done and go from there.