Hyundai dashboards said defective

HYUNDAI MOTOR Company, the South Korean automaker, has instructed Key Motors, its Jamaican dealer, to replace the dashboards of Hyundai Accent cars made in the years 1995 through 1997, as well as some 1998 models. The replacements will be done free of cost because of manufacturing defects.

Key Motors would not say whether hundreds or thousands of motorists were affected by the faulty control panel, but said it was not unique to Jamaica. It said that Hyundai had decided that rather than recalling the cars, they would replace the dashboards.

However, some Hyundai Accent owners, infuriated by what they said was the prolonged wait on the dealer to get replacement of the instrument panels, have taken their case to the Fair Trading Commission, seeking redress.

According to some of the car owners who asked not to be identified by name, within months of buying their Hyundai Accents, the dashboards started to split in different places and as time went by they continued to "crack-up" resulting in an unsightly appearance to the interior of the cars.

They said that Key Motors, which imported the new cars, had been promising to replace the dashboards free of cost since 1996, but personnel employed by the company kept putting them off, advising that they would have to "wait on the next shipment".

"I am very frustrated now", said a female motorist who said she was advised that the dashboard for her 1997 model car would have been replaced from the last shipment which arrived in Jamaica on Friday, June 29; but it was not.

Contacted on Friday, Michael Walker, parts and services manager of Key Motors, said Hyundai Motor Company had acknowledged that there was a defect with the styrofoam material used to make the dashboards and had instructed its dealers worldwide that the manufacturers would replace them at no cost to the owners. "It's not a problem that is unique to Jamaica", Mr. Walker said.

He said Key Motors had sent a list of claims to Hyundai to have the dashboards replaced for the 1995, 1996, 1997 and some 1998 model of the Hyundai Accent. Recently, he said, "we got a limited supply of dashboards ... and we have gone ahead and tackled the first batch, the 1995 model". After they have exhausted replacing dashboards for the 1995 model, they will turn to the other cars, starting with the 1996 models, he said.

"People who have been waiting from 1995 are upset, and those who have been waiting from 1996, 1997 and 1998 are equally upset", he said. Mr. Walker said that while he understood the owners' frustration, "we can only make a claim on the manufacturers. We have no control over how many we get. As we get the dashboards we fit them".

He said they were expecting a much bigger shipment of the control panels, which they would be using to replace the faulty ones in the 1996 and 1997 model cars. However, he could not say when that shipment was expected and how many the manufacturers would be sending in that consignment. "We are waiting to get confirmation from the shippers", he said.

Lindel McDonald, complaints officer at the FTC, said the commission had received a significant number of complaints about the console of the Hyundai Accent car.

He said Key Motors had been responding to customers, in that some had received replacements for the faulty dashboards, although the replacements were not in the volume equivalent to the number of customers.

The FTC had discussed the issue with Key Motors and had been monitoring the supply of replacements, said Mr. McDonald, noting that "our investigation continues on the matter and if we have to change our course of action we will".

He said several persons had contacted the FTC after exhaustive negotiations with Key Motors. The commission could, in the circumstances, instruct the dealer to replace the dashboards within a specified period, "but I don't think it's a case where the company is unwilling", he said.

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