Consumer Court asks Hyundai Motors to pay Rs 2 lakh compensation after rear wheel on his one-month old i10 came off

We have lately been seeing a lot of cases where consumer court has been granting favourable judgement to customers and asking big brands to pay compensation and resolve the issue. The recent one comes from Delhi, where the Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has asked Hyundai Motors to pay Rs 2 lakh as compensation to a customer who had bought a brand new i10 hatchback in 2009. Within a month after buying the car, the customer faced an issue where the rear wheel and the tyre got detatched from the car while he was driving.

This incident happened in 2009 and after the wheel got detached, the driver lost control and this caused an accident. Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal and Pinki (judicial member) of the consumer court in her judgement said, “…it is clear that the appellant/complainant got delivery of the car on 04.09.2009. Thereafter, the car suffered accident due to the tyre alongwith its rim came out of the shaft which shows poor workmanship on part of the respondents (Hyundai) on 03.10.2009 i.e. on the first month of the purchase of the car”

The customer P.R Meena had bought the i10 hatchback in September 2009. His car had only covered around 6,200 km when this happened. As per the reports, customer told the court that he was driving the car at a speed of around 65 kmph. Hyundai Motors argued in the court that they did not sell a defective unit and the car did not have any manufacturing defects. The manufacturer even said in the court that the accident occured because, the customer was driving the car in a rough and negligent manner.

The consumer court however after considering all the factors and evidence told that the complainant or customer has suffered a lot of inconvenience and misery as his brand new vehicle had stopped working for no fault of his own. The court said, “No purchaser of a new vehicle would ever think that he would be going to a garage/service station to get the vehicle repaired so often even if the repairs may be minor”

The district commission in 2015 had also given a similar judgement and held Hyundai guilty for poor workmanship. Back in 2015, the commission had announced a compensation of Rs 80,000 to the customer. P.R. Meena who was not satisfied with the compensation amount took things to the next level and approached Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission for the same issue. The State Commission reviewed the case and has now revised the compensation amount to Rs 2 lakh.

This is not the first time, a car manufacturer has been asked to pay compensation to customer in India. Last month, we came across a report where consumer court has asked luxury car brand Jaguar to pay Rs 42 lakh as compensation to customer whose engine got seized not once but twice. Consumer court also asked Honda to  refund customer Rs 9.27 lakh for selling old WR-V. In another incident, Hyundai was asked to pay Rs 1.4 lakh cash and compensate the customer with a brand new Hyundai Santro after the hatchback that customer bought caught fire while he was travelling.

We have lately been seeing a lot of cases where consumer court has been granting favourable judgement to customers and asking big brands to pay compensation and resolve the issue. The recent one comes from Delhi, where the Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has asked Hyundai Motors to pay Rs 2 lakh as compensation to a customer who had bought a brand new i10 hatchback in 2009. Within a month after buying the car, the customer faced an issue where the rear wheel and the tyre got detatched from the car while he was driving.

This incident happened in 2009 and after the wheel got detached, the driver lost control and this caused an accident. Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal and Pinki (judicial member) of the consumer court in her judgement said, “…it is clear that the appellant/complainant got delivery of the car on 04.09.2009. Thereafter, the car suffered accident due to the tyre alongwith its rim came out of the shaft which shows poor workmanship on part of the respondents (Hyundai) on 03.10.2009 i.e. on the first month of the purchase of the car”

The customer P.R Meena had bought the i10 hatchback in September 2009. His car had only covered around 6,200 km when this happened. As per the reports, customer told the court that he was driving the car at a speed of around 65 kmph. Hyundai Motors argued in the court that they did not sell a defective unit and the car did not have any manufacturing defects. The manufacturer even said in the court that the accident occured because, the customer was driving the car in a rough and negligent manner.

The consumer court however after considering all the factors and evidence told that the complainant or customer has suffered a lot of inconvenience and misery as his brand new vehicle had stopped working for no fault of his own. The court said, “No purchaser of a new vehicle would ever think that he would be going to a garage/service station to get the vehicle repaired so often even if the repairs may be minor”

The district commission in 2015 had also given a similar judgement and held Hyundai guilty for poor workmanship. Back in 2015, the commission had announced a compensation of Rs 80,000 to the customer. P.R. Meena who was not satisfied with the compensation amount took things to the next level and approached Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission for the same issue. The State Commission reviewed the case and has now revised the compensation amount to Rs 2 lakh.

This is not the first time, a car manufacturer has been asked to pay compensation to customer in India. Last month, we came across a report where consumer court has asked luxury car brand Jaguar to pay Rs 42 lakh as compensation to customer whose engine got seized not once but twice. Consumer court also asked Honda to  refund customer Rs 9.27 lakh for selling old WR-V. In another incident, Hyundai was asked to pay Rs 1.4 lakh cash and compensate the customer with a brand new Hyundai Santro after the hatchback that customer bought caught fire while he was travelling.