[ericschand]

Family member had a similar issue. What saved him was he had
lots of paperwork. Hopefully your mother kept her paperwork.
If not, she can ask for a copy from the dealer, if they cooperate,
they will have recorded her bringing the car in, what was wrong, what
the "fix" was.

Number of things learned, but the paperwork is the important one.

Dealer was Subaru, he bought one new off the lot. Couple of years
later something funny with how the transmission shifted (automatic).
Took it in. Some repair, can't remember, minor, under warranty.
Works for a bit, then more problems, like you can redline under
NORMAL driving, and it just won't shift! Took it in, same deal.

Fast forward to the warranty is about to expire. Day before, he
takes it in, says, "I had my car here lots because of transmission,
can you check to make sure it is ok, warranty about expire."
They do. Give him a blank "transmission checked" on the paperwork.
He insists they write "NO PROBLEMS FOUND" on it, and signed
by the service manager.

Well, 3 months later, same deal, won't shift, early shift, loud bump
when shifting. Takes it in. THey say, "Oh! Need a new tranny!!!!
$3500 please!" He says bull. Argues, gets nowhere.

So, he goes to Mister Transmission, they charge $2500 or so, and
replace it.

He then goes to small claims court, pays the fee to file, and serves
their lawyer. If you don't have your paperwork, you can ask the
court about how to summons one from the dealership. They have
to give it to you if it's related to your case.

They phone, and begin threatening. So he says, "I dropped the summons
to your lawyer, I will only talk to him from now on." Lawyer phones,
threatens there's no way he can win, etc, etc. He says fine, I'll take
my chances. "BTW, I have a copy of this work order and it
says that one day before warranty expire, everything was ok.
Would you like to see a copy?" Faxes it to him, along with a number
of other "transmission requires minor repair".

Lawyer phones a couple of days later, and says, "Tell you what, we'll
pay half." He says, "Nope, full cost, plus car rental, plus court fees."
Lawyer gets annoyed and says, "I'm being honest, you can't win,
there's no point." He replies, "Oh well, I'll take my chances. I
have it in writing that supposedly everything was fine. 3 months
later it's all kaput?!"

Couple of days later, it's the lawyer phones again. "Ok, ok. How
about we just pay for the tranny?" "Nope, tranny, car rental, and
court fees. All of it." "Fine, we'll take the deal, but admit no
wrong-doing." So he took it.

Second thing learned is that the warranty period is *NOT ABSOLUTE*.
See, the warranty laws say they must offer some sort of "REASONABLE
warranty period." Define reasonable. In Canada for basic electronics,
it is one year that is "reasonable". In the USA you can find 30 day
warranties that are "reasonable".

However, if you buy a product and it fails one year + 2 days, is it still
reasonable? If you answered yes, you are correct. Most, if not all,
manufacturers will honour warranties after the period has expired, as
long as it's close.

On a car, 160,000 is the "reasonable" warranty that was purchased.
Is 162,000 still reasonable? To common sense it would seem so.
However, if it was 200,000, even common sense says no. In the
above case, even a judge would says 5 years + 3 months is close
enough to the 5 years on something as major as the transmission.

There should be consumer justice group in the Alberta Justice department,
you should be able to phone them, and they will tell you most of these
things.

Long winded, but hopefully it gives you some ideas...

ers