Morris Minor Owners Club

If they pitted within a week, the question that has to be asked is, were they of merchantable quality, and fit for purpose?

Kirsten,

That was my question to my main supplier, the answer because the majority of customers want cheap parts. you get what you pay for ,in this case so don't complain when buying cheap, however for panels my attitude changes.

Cheap or not Jonathon, they still have to be of merchantable quality and fit for purpose.

For further information see,

http://www.berr.gov.uk/consumers/fact-s ... 38311.html

I quite agree Bill

it would really appear that a lot of parts are not fit for the purpose

has anyone tried to make a claim against poor parts i wonder

Yep

With regards to chrome parts, I replaced my front & rear bumpers around two years ago. One bumper was 'superior' quality and the other was 'standard' as the 'superior was out of stock. I have noticed no difference between the two in terms of pitting. Both are still ok but presumably because my car has been garaged. I wonder if there would have been any difference in deterioration between the two if the car had been parked outside?

has anyone tried to make a claim against poor parts i wonder

First port of call is the place you bought them from. I've only got that far and been told it was "my fault for buying them".
The next port of call is small claims court, which is rarely worth the effort for parts that were not costing hundreds, hence thousands of people are left to buy the same not-fit-for-purpose rubbish as the last person.

jonathon wrote:Kirsten,

That was my question to my main supplier, the answer because the majority of customers want cheap parts. you get what you pay for ,in this case so don't complain when buying cheap, however for panels my attitude changes.

What I think is the issue here is that there are no definitions for what you get if you buy a cheaper product compared to what better 'thing/s' you get with a more expensive one and this confusion makes it almost impossible to make a decision about what product to buy.

To my mind, a bonnet/boot hinge only has to 1) mechanically hinge and 2) Shine; two very simple functions which should both be covered in standard guise! Are suppliers saying that with cheaper ones you only get the hinge element and only when you pay for the superior you get both? I just don’t understand (and I guess no-one else does) what it is that defines a product as superior when I would have hoped a standard version of a hinge should have covered both the very simple requirements!

In that particular case, I imagine it's the quality of the chrome plating
a

See if this helps,

http://www.tutor2u.net/business/gcse/pr ... uction.htm

boot and bonnet hinges pitted after 3 months,Split screen rubber that doesnt fit and needs sticking down to hold the glass into the frame,Ive started to look for Original secondhand bits of chrome for the rest of the car,no confidence in spending good money on repro chrome

We had the same trouble with the split screen rubber. We had to have new glass (you can only get it laminated these days) which of c
course is thicker - hence the rubber does not fit around the new glass. Trying to fit the chrome surround over this is a joke!

I think it fair to say that many of you seem to have had problems with replacement parts. The question I would like to ask is, how many of you took this up with the suppliers of those parts?

In the case of the panels, me - though that was just to say that I wouldn't be buying any from them again
a

As regards the rubber glass problem we were told that most people put back the original glass so they had never heard of this one. Our glass had been very badly scratched and wouldn't have passed an MOT.

In that particular instance I do not think that there was any argument. However the point I am trying to make is that unless the supplier is made aware of any product problems, and also their legal obligations in respect of these, I doubt very much that things will change.

Judge wrote:I think it fair to say that many of you seem to have had problems with replacement parts. The question I would like to ask is, how many of you took this up with the suppliers of those parts?

Well for one, I have no bones about complaining if I feel the parts are naff, and probably not fit for purpose. I bought a Diff and it was as noisy as the old one, so sent it back and got a replacement. Same thing with a gearbox, and all credit to the supplier, they changed the items with no questions asked, they even paid the return postage. The only down side for me, was swapping out the gearbox twice, not exactly a quick job.

There have been times were I have had to modify parts to bring them up to scratch, the boot seals on front sidelight/flashers for instance. The boots dont make a water tight seal, so I had to use some silicon seal between boto and cables. Not ideal, but things like that I can live with.

I've complained several times about pitted chrome and have been supplied replacements on these occasions. The only trouble with this is that there is little point in fitting replacements if the replacement is going to be as poor as the first set. It's a never ending circle and is frustrating because re-fitting things like bonnet hinges is a pain in the backside, especially if you are trying to do it yourself and so you end up damaging the paintwork!