UN 'trusty STEED'

<p>We are the regretful owners of a 2012 GWM Steed5. It has just over 47000kms on the clock. It is our family car and not used as a recreational vehicle.</p> <p>Driving at 50kms/h in the Main Road of Somerset West the prop shaft detached from the diff causing the vehicle to come to abrupt standstill after skidding all across the road. I would hate to think what would of happened if my family was driving at 120kms/h on the N2 (on the way to Mossel Bay as we were going to do the very next day) when this happened.</p> <p>After having the vehicle towed to the GWM representative in Somerset West we got a repair quote close to R50000,00.<br />Our first reaction was to get hold of GWM regarding warranty and got told that the car is older than 3 years so they can't do a warranty claim. The fact that the vehicle has less than 50000kms on the clock and never drives on any off road tracks seemed to not be a concern for GWM.</p> <p>After a week of the vehicle standing at the local workshop we still have no clarity regarding the cause of the fault and the e-mail and phone communication between us and GWM brought no answers.I kept getting the same answer form Leon in customer care: "Paul will get back to you". despite the fact that Roman and Tony was cc'ed into every e-mail, I am yet to get any form of response from them and I certainly had no answer on the cause of the mechanical failure.</p> <p>As this vehicle is my husbands means of getting to work , we can no longer wait for any feedback from GWM .We have no choice now but to get an external company to give us their opinion as we were instructed by the Motor Vehicle Ombudsman.<br /> I have to assume that GWM is not making an effort to inspect the vehicle because when they do they will have to admit that the problem was not caused by driver negligence or by wear and tear. A bit of a catch 22 situation for GWM I suppose: admit it is a factory fault and they have to pay, admit it is normal wear and tear and they are basically admitting that their prodcut can only drive 47000kms before the diff shoots apart. Not good news for a company experiencing a shift in company management. You would think that they would like to protect their reputation and assist one of the few customers who believed in their product. I deduct by the way they are not showing any urgent interest in our case, that they really don't care about their customers or their own reputation. <br />I would like to make fellow GWM customers aware of this specific problem and urge them to have their vehicle checked out before some one gets seriously injured. Prospective GWM buyers - STAY WELL AWAY!</p>