大象传媒

If you fork out for a brand new car, you鈥檙e paying a lot of money for something you hope will keep you on the road for years.

So we decided to investigate why Margaret Price鈥檚 brand new Ford has been spending so much time back at the garage.

Independent expert Gareth Rees with X-Ray's Rhodri Owen

Mrs Price from Caerphilly handed over 拢12,000 for her C-Max in June 2009, but with the first sign of rain came the first sign of trouble, as she noticed she was getting wet seats and foot wells.

Then in January 2010, after a particularly bad bout of rain she found the inside of her car soaked with water. The seats, the wells, the carpets, everything was drenched. 鈥淭he only thing dry was the boot! This isn鈥檛 right鈥�, thought Margaret.

She called Evans Halshaw in Treforest and asked them to take a look, but several phone calls and four months later they returned her car with mould on the seats.

So she sent it back again. It was returned in June, but the same problem was still happening. Evans Halshaw had now her car for six months. It has spent half its life in the garage and still wasn鈥檛 fixed!

Margaret felt short-changed by the way she鈥檇 been treated by Evans Halshaw. She told us, 鈥淭heir attitude was, well you鈥檝e bought the car, that鈥檚 it. They really haven鈥檛 given me the service I deserve鈥�.

And it鈥檚 not just Margaret who鈥檚 been in contact with X-Ray. Taxi driver Stewart O鈥橲hea bought a brand new Chevrolet from Evans Halshaw in Cardiff last April.

Within weeks hazard lights started to appear on the dashboard. He told us, 鈥淭hat worried me as it means there鈥檚 something wrong with the brakes.鈥�

Stewart鈥檚 car also started flashing the service light even though it wasn鈥檛 due for another five thousand miles.

With the car back at Evans Halshaw they carried out a service anyway and asked him to come back to have the other problems looked at.

Stewart took the car back but again was told that they couldn鈥檛 sort it. In fact Evans Halshaw didn鈥檛 fix his car when he left it overnight for a third time or a fourth time - when he left the car at the garage for a week!

As a taxi driver, Stewart told us it鈥檚 been hard for him, 鈥淔or me it鈥檚 no car, no pay鈥�.

X-Ray asked Gareth Rees, a consultant vehicle examiner to look both cars over.

First he told us about Stewart鈥檚, 鈥淲hen Stewart took it to Evans Halshaw they鈥檝e carried out a ten-thousand mile service at five-thousand miles. They鈥檝e returned the car to Stewart and lo and behold they haven鈥檛 addressed the problems of the illumination of the breaking and antiskid lights.

And then Margaret鈥檚, 鈥淚 looked at the vehicle myself and used a common garden hosepipe and within 10 minutes found the source of where the water was coming in. It wasn鈥檛 rocket science鈥�.

In its response Evans Halshaw says it is aware of the issues raised in both cases, 鈥淲e regret that these situations have arisen but we will continue dialog directly with both customers and we will use our best endeavours to resolve these matters satisfactorily鈥�.