Defective Car or Two-Wheeler: Consumer Complaint and Remedies

Can you file a consumer complaint for a defective car or bike?

Yes. A vehicle is "goods" under the Consumer Protection Act 2019, and a "defect" under section 2(10) means any fault, imperfection or shortcoming in quality, quantity, potency, purity or standard that the law, a contract or the seller's own claim requires the goods to meet. A car that stalls on the highway, a scooter whose battery fails in months, or a bike with a gearbox that slips all fit that definition.

The dealer's workshop also provides a service. Poor repairs, unexplained delay in returning the vehicle, charging for work covered by warranty, or refusing to record your complaint on the job card can be a "deficiency" in service under section 2(11). One complaint can raise both the defect in the goods and the deficiency in service.

You must be a consumer. Someone who buys a car for personal or family use is one. A business that buys vehicles for its commercial operations generally is not. But section 2(7) protects a person who buys goods exclusively to earn a livelihood by self-employment, so an individual who drives his own taxi or delivery two-wheeler can usually still file.

Manufacturing defect or a problem that can be repaired?

This is the question that decides what you can get. Commissions order replacement of a vehicle or refund of its price where there is an inherent manufacturing defect: a fault built into the vehicle that repeated repairs have not cured, or a defect in a major assembly such as the engine, gearbox, chassis or battery pack. For a defect that the workshop can and does fix, the usual order is repair at no cost plus compensation for the trouble.

Manufacturers know this, so their defence almost always says the problem was minor, was fixed, or was caused by the owner: poor driving, bad fuel, water entry, aftermarket accessories or missed services. Your evidence must show that the same fault kept coming back under normal use, within warranty, at the manufacturer's own authorised workshop.

A single breakdown, however frustrating, rarely leads to a replacement order. Five job cards recording the same noise, warning light or failure over a few months, each closed with "checked and rectified", tell a very different story. That pattern is what you are building from the first workshop visit.

Common vehicle complaints and what commissions usually consider

Who is responsible: the manufacturer or the dealer?

Usually both, for different things, which is why both should be named. The manufacturer is responsible for defects in design and manufacture. Chapter VI of the Act on product liability, and section 84 in particular, makes a product manufacturer liable where a product has a manufacturing defect, deviates from its specifications or does not conform to the express warranty. A clause in the warranty booklet cannot take away that statutory liability.

The dealer is responsible for its own acts: pre-delivery inspection, the condition of the vehicle at delivery, the quality of repairs at its workshop, billing, registration and any promise its sales staff made. Manufacturers often say dealers are independent businesses dealing on a principal-to-principal basis, and that is correct as far as it goes. It means the dealer answers for its own service, not that the manufacturer escapes responsibility for the vehicle it built.

If the vehicle was bought in one city and serviced in another, name the selling dealer and the servicing workshop where the job cards came from. In practice, where a replacement or refund is ordered, commissions often make the manufacturer and the dealer jointly and severally liable, which simply means you can recover from either.

Why the job cards are your case

Every visit to an authorised workshop produces a job card or repair order, and that document is the backbone of a defective vehicle complaint. It records the date, the odometer reading, the complaint in the customer's words, the work done and the parts replaced. Ask for a copy every time, and check before you sign that your complaint is written down as you described it, not reduced to "general check-up".

When Advocate B.K. Singh reads a defective vehicle file, he puts the job cards in date order and looks at the customer complaint column first. If the same complaint appears four or five times with different "work done" entries, that sequence often proves more than any expert can. If the cards are vague, he goes to the emails and messages the owner sent the dealer the same day, which often fill the gap.

Supplement the job cards with your own record: short videos of the fault happening, with the date visible, photos of warning lights, screenshots of the vehicle app for connected cars and electric scooters, and a simple log of breakdowns with dates and kilometres. An independent mechanic's inspection report is useful, but it carries less weight than the manufacturer's own workshop records admitting the fault.

Will the commission get the vehicle tested?

It can. Section 38(2)(c) of the Act allows a commission, where a defect cannot be determined without proper analysis or testing, to have the goods examined by an appropriate laboratory, and the complainant may be asked to deposit the testing fee. With vehicles, commissions often appoint an independent automobile engineer or a government technical institution to inspect, or allow each side to file its own expert report.

Ask for an inspection only after you are sure what it will show. If the fault is intermittent and the vehicle behaves perfectly on the day of inspection, the report may hurt you. In that situation the job cards, videos and the workshop's own admissions may be stronger evidence than a one-day test.

Keep the vehicle in the same condition until the case is decided or the inspection is done. Do not fit aftermarket parts, remove the defective component or get the fault repaired at a local garage without recording it, because each of those gives the manufacturer an argument that the evidence has been changed.

Steps to take before and while filing the complaint

This is the usual sequence. The early steps are what commissions look at when they ask whether you gave the company a fair chance to fix the problem.

1. Collect every job card

   Gather all job cards, invoices, warranty booklet, sale invoice, delivery note and payment receipts. Request copies of any missing job cards from the workshop in writing.

2. Write to the dealer and the manufacturer

   Send a dated email to the dealer and to the manufacturer's customer care and regional office, listing each job card number, date and the recurring fault. Ask in clear words for replacement or refund, or at least a written diagnosis.

3. Use the National Consumer Helpline

   A complaint to the National Consumer Helpline (1915, or its online portal) sometimes gets a senior response from the company. It is free and creates a record, but it does not stop the limitation period.

4. Send a legal notice

   A legal notice setting out the defect, the repair history and the relief you want, with a short deadline, often brings the company to the table. It also frames the dispute for the complaint that follows.

5. Get an independent report if needed

   Where the workshop records are vague, an inspection report from a qualified automobile engineer helps. Ask the engineer to describe the fault, its likely cause and whether it is a manufacturing defect.

6. Draft and file the complaint

   The complaint sets out the purchase, each failure in date order, the company's responses, the relief claimed and the documents relied on. File it online on the e-Jagriti portal or at the commission's counter, with the fee if the price paid is above ₹5 lakh.

7. Follow the hearings

   After admission and notice, the manufacturer and dealer get 30 days, extendable by 15, to reply. Evidence is by affidavit, and the commission may order an inspection before final arguments.

For the mechanics of online filing, see filing a consumer complaint on e-Jagriti.

Should you keep using the vehicle, park it or sell it?

Keep using it only if it is safe. If the defect affects brakes, steering, airbags, wheels, or there is any sign of an electrical fire or battery overheating, stop using it, inform the dealer and the manufacturer in writing, and keep it parked safely. Driving a vehicle you have reported as unsafe gives the company an easy argument and can endanger you.

For defects that are inconvenient but not dangerous, many owners keep using the vehicle carefully and log every failure. That is acceptable and often unavoidable, because people need to get to work. The company may argue that high usage shows the vehicle is fine, so your log of breakdowns matters.

Do not sell the vehicle before the case is decided if you are asking for replacement or refund. Once it is sold, there is nothing to inspect and nothing to return, and the commission is left with compensation as the only remedy. If you must sell, have it inspected and photographed first, and accept that you are changing the relief you can claim.

Which consumer commission, and where to file?

The forum depends on the price paid for the vehicle, including what you paid for the goods themselves. Under the 2021 jurisdiction rules, the District Commission hears cases where the consideration paid is up to ₹50 lakh, the State Commission above ₹50 lakh up to ₹2 crore, and the NCDRC above ₹2 crore. Almost every two-wheeler and most cars go to the District Commission. A luxury car costing ₹70 lakh goes to the State Commission.

You can file where you live or work for gain, where the dealer or manufacturer carries on business or has a branch, or where the cause of action arose. A Noida resident who bought from a Delhi dealer can file before the District Commission at Gautam Buddh Nagar. Our post on which consumer commission to approach sets out the calculation.

Electric scooters and cars: battery, range and fire complaints

Electric vehicles bring their own disputes. Battery packs usually carry a separate warranty with its own terms on kilometres, years and the level of capacity loss that counts as a defect. Read those terms first. A battery that loses capacity much faster than the warranty allows, a motor controller that keeps failing, or a charger that damages the battery are all manufacturing defect claims.

Range complaints are trickier. Manufacturers advertise range figures achieved under test conditions, and real-world range is always lower. A claim succeeds where the gap is large and consistent and the advertising promised a figure without fair qualification. That can also be a misleading advertisement, which the Central Consumer Protection Authority can act on; see our post on misleading advertisements and complaints to the CCPA.

If a vehicle catches fire, put safety first, then preserve everything: photos, the fire brigade or police report, and the remains of the vehicle. Inform the manufacturer and your insurer in writing at once. A fire caused by a battery or electrical defect can found a product liability claim, including for damage to other property, and the remains are the key evidence.

Old stock or a demo car sold as new

Buyers sometimes discover that their "new" vehicle was manufactured many months earlier, or had been used as a demo or test-drive vehicle. Check the month and year of manufacture on the VIN plate, which also appears in the registration documents, and compare it with what you were told. Note the odometer reading at delivery; a new vehicle should show only the few kilometres of transport and inspection.

Selling an old or used vehicle as new, without telling the buyer, is an unfair trade practice. Commissions have awarded compensation and sometimes the difference in value, and in clear cases of a used vehicle passed off as new, replacement. Raise the issue in writing at once, because accepting delivery and driving for months without objection makes the claim harder.

Dealer problems that are not about defects

Many vehicle complaints are really about the dealer's conduct. Common ones are forcing the buyer to take accessories or an extended warranty as a condition of delivery, insisting on the dealer's own insurance, adding charges not shown in the quotation, failing to register the vehicle or supply number plates on time, delaying delivery after taking the full price, and refusing to refund a booking amount when the dealer itself cannot deliver.

These are deficiency in service or unfair trade practice claims against the dealer. Keep the written quotation, the booking form, every payment receipt and the messages from the sales executive. A promise made only on a phone call is hard to prove; ask for it on WhatsApp or email and keep it.

Extended warranty and service package claims

An extended warranty bought at the time of purchase is often not provided by the manufacturer at all. It may be a manufacturer programme, a product sold by the dealer, or a contract underwritten by an insurer or a third-party warranty company. The certificate names the provider, and that provider is the party to name if a claim under the extended warranty is refused.

Refusals under extended warranties usually rely on exclusions: wear and tear parts, consequential damage, a missed service by a few hundred kilometres, or a pre-existing fault. Commissions read these exclusions strictly against the provider, and a refusal that does not point to a specific clause and a specific fact is weak. Ask for the refusal in writing with the clause relied on, and ask for the inspection report on which it was based.

Prepaid service packages and roadside assistance plans raise similar issues. If the dealer closes down, changes hands or simply stops honouring a prepaid package, the buyer can claim a refund of the unused value from the dealer and, where the manufacturer ran the programme, from the manufacturer as well.

Recalls and safety defects

Since the 2019 amendment, section 110A of the Motor Vehicles Act allows the Central Government to order a recall of vehicles with a defect that may harm the environment, the driver or other road users, and many manufacturers also run voluntary recalls. The Central Consumer Protection Authority can separately order recall of goods that are dangerous or unsafe. If your fault matches a recall announced for your model, keep a copy of the announcement; it is strong evidence that the defect is a manufacturing one.

A recall fixes the problem for future owners, but it does not by itself compensate you for months of breakdowns or a vehicle off the road. You can still file a consumer complaint for your own loss, with the recall as part of your evidence.

What can the consumer commission order?

Section 39 of the Act lets the commission order the opposite party to remove the defect, replace the goods with new goods of similar description free from defect, return the price paid, pay compensation for loss or injury, pay punitive damages in suitable cases, and pay the costs of the complaint. It can combine these, for example replacement plus compensation.

Where a refund is ordered after the owner has used the vehicle for some time, commissions sometimes deduct an amount for use or depreciation, and sometimes do not, depending on how long the vehicle was actually usable. Interest on the refund from a fixed date is commonly awarded. The order usually requires the owner to return the vehicle when the refund is paid.

If the company does not comply within the time given, you can file for execution and the commission can attach property or start proceedings for non-compliance. Our post on enforcing a consumer commission order explains that stage.

Mistakes that weaken a defective vehicle case

• Not collecting job cards. Without them, you have only your word that the vehicle kept failing. Ask for a copy at every visit.
• Accepting vague job card entries. "General inspection" instead of "jerk while starting" erases your complaint. Get it written correctly before you sign.
• Going to a local garage mid-warranty. It lets the manufacturer blame the outside repair and can void the warranty.
• Waiting until the warranty is over. Raise the defect in writing during the warranty, even if you plan to file later.
• Suing only the dealer. For a manufacturing defect, the manufacturer must be a party or the commission cannot order it to replace the vehicle.
• Selling the vehicle first. It ends any claim to replacement or refund and removes the evidence.

Documents to gather

What to do this week

• Ask the workshop in writing for copies of all job cards you do not have
• Make a one-page table of every failure: date, kilometres, job card number, what was done
• Email the dealer and the manufacturer's regional office with that table and the relief you want
• Record the fault on video the next time it happens
• Stop using the vehicle if the defect affects safety, and say so in writing
• Do not modify, repair outside or sell the vehicle without advice
• Note the date two years from the first failure as your outer deadline

How long it takes and getting advice

A defective vehicle complaint in a District Commission in Delhi NCR commonly takes one to two years, longer if an inspection or an appeal is involved. Many cases settle earlier, often once the manufacturer's regional office sees a well-documented complaint, and commissions can refer cases to mediation. We cannot promise a timeline or an outcome, and an honest assessment of the job cards at the start saves time later. Our page on consumer court practice in Delhi describes how the Delhi commissions run their hearings.

If you want the job cards and correspondence read before you send a notice or file, the team of Advocate B.K. Singh at B.K. Singh & Associates can review them and tell you what relief the evidence supports. Send the details through our online enquiry form.