|
Case of billion-dong Toyota with terrible stench
A Land Cruiser worth 2 billion dong imported and distributed by Toyota Vietnam gives off a smell like a rotten egg when driven at high speeds. No interior hygiene measures have helped.
Le Lan Huong, Assistant to the Gia Dinh Bank’s General Director, related that on January 2, 2009, the bank signed a contract on purchasing a Land Cruiser imported by An Thanh Trading Company, an official agent of Toyota Motor Vietnam (TMV). The car was delivered to the bank on January 9, 2009.
Huong said that no abnormal phenomenon occurs if the car runs on roads in the city. However, the car gives off the terrible smell when it runs for long distances at higher speeds.
“All efforts to clean the car interior failed to make the terrible smell disappear,” Huong said, adding that the smell has seriously inconvenienced those riding in the car, including the bank’s guests.
On April 28, Gia Dinh Bank brought the car to Asta for regular maintenance and complained about the bad odour. Asta confirmed the smell and treated the car, but the situation did not improve. Two subsequent attempts by the dealer within the next week to fix the problem also resulted in failure.
On May 6, Asta poured 20 litres of A95 petrol into the vehicle which it purchased from a filling station of Petrolimex. Surprisingly enough, the smell disappeared.
TMV on May 28 sent a letter to Gia Dinh Bank, affirming that there was no technical problem with the car, and that the smell had been caused by the fuel.
However, Gia Dinh Bank did not accept the explanation.
On July 1, Gia Dinh Bank sent a document to TMV, asking it to refund its money for the car, pay expenses for leasing another car while the Land Cruiser was being checked and expenses for travel, totalling $119,000.
No solution found yet
NSC inspection company on May 14 stated that TMV’s conclusion on the culprit being the quality of fuel is unreasonable. Even if bad fuel caused the smell, people inside the car would not have been able to detect it because the exhaust fumes go out through the exhaust pipe. In this case, the smell could only have been detected outside the car.
Meanwhile, Deputy General Director of Petrolimex Vuong Thai Dung has also rejected the theory of poor quality petrol.
Gia Dinh Bank’s Deputy General Director Nguyen Duy Phu said that the bank is following necessary procedures to petition concerned agencies and is considering the possibility of bringing the case to court.
VietNamNet, VnMedia
|
