By Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterBUSINESSWOMAN AND former host of the TVJ's programme "Man Talk", Christene Hewitt, is now engaged in a dispute with GM Challenger, the dealer in Jamaica for Chevrolet motor vehicles.
According to Miss Hewitt in July 2002 she purchased a 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche pickup truck for $2.1 million from GM Challenger, 26 Molynes Road, Kingston 10. Miss Hewitt said she received the vehicle on July 26.
She said on July 30, whilst driving the vehicle on the Ferry main road, she applied the brakes and the vehicle slid for a distance before stopping. She went home and applied the emergency brakes to the floor. After she removed her foot from the regular brakes, the vehicle rolled for a good distance before stopping.
She said, in court on Friday, that on July 31 she went to GM Challenger and reported the matter and was told that the brakes needed adjusting. She said she left the vehicle for the adjustment to be done and was assured that the brakes were fixed. She said in September she still had problems with the brakes and when she went back to GM Challenger and complained she was sold a pair of rear disc pads for $11,679.73 despite the fact she had a two-year warranty on the vehicle.
The truck was serviced at GM Challenger on October 22, 2002 and Miss Hewitt said she was presented with a bill for $3,468.98 and was told that the amount included oil and filter change. She said when the vehicle was serviced in August, she was informed then that there was oil and filter change.
Miss Hewitt is claiming that due to faulty brakes the vehicle was involved in an accident on December 22. The vehicle was taken to GM Challenger and the repairs cost $490,000. When she received it on January 17, 2003, she realised that the indicators were not working, the horn was low and the vehicle was stuck in four wheel drive. She said since that time she has been having problems with the ignition switch.
According to Miss Hewitt since she purchased the new vehicle less than a year ago, it has been to GM Challenger 31 times for repairs and she had been without the use of the vehicle for 60 days.
"Since May 12 the vehicle shut down completely while I was making deliveries in Trelawny and I had to use a wrecker to take it in to GM Challenger. Right now the vehicle is still with GM Challenger and I am now demanding that the vehicle be replaced," Miss Hewitt said.
LOSING BUSINESS
She claims that the action of GM challenger has depreciated her vehicle. Miss Hewitt, who is in the business of selling wholesale clothes and shoes islandwide, told The Gleaner Friday that "right now I am losing business because I have no vehicle to deliver the goods". She said she was very "distressed" over the whole incident. She said she borrowed money from the bank to purchase the vehicle and had to be paying $45,000 monthly to the bank while the vehicle was of no use to her. She said she has since engaged the services of attorney-at-law Linda Wright.
Mr. Nigel Pagon, chief executive officer of GM Challenger told The Gleaner Friday that the vehicle had a problem with the ignition switch but that had since been fixed. He said Miss Hewitt's truck had been fixed and was now ready to be collected.
"There is no way General Motors would send out a truck with major defects", Mr. Pagon said.
He pointed out that General Motors did not replace vehicles but under the two-year warranty it replaced defects from "bumper to bumper."
He emphasised that Miss Hewitt needed to get an engineer to examine the truck to prove all her claims of defect and he would then take the report to General Motors which would then take it from there.
