GWM Reviews

It’s not uncommon for owners of new vehicles with dual-clutch transmissions and throttle-by-wire to technology to feel a bit at odds with the way the car behaves. The feeling of a stilted, hesitant operation mirrors your experience to some degree. Over time, this sensation can be reduced. But it sounds as though your experience is a bit more dramatic than the norm.

In the first instance, give the dealer the opportunity to check the car out and make it right if there’s a problem. Modern vehicles like this can be scanned and the operation of their major functions graphed to show whether they’re within tolerance or not. There may be a software 'patch' in the works at Haval to address this.

If that doesn’t satisfy you, you can contact Haval Australia’s customer service department and lodge a complaint. Finally, if none of that does any good, you can contact the ACCC as a car sold brand-new that is not fit for purpose falls within the commission’s sphere of influence. You may find an independent test report of the vehicle’s behaviour would be a handy thing to have if you go down this route.

A $200 aftermarket throttle controller may, indeed, produce a vehicle you are happier to drive, but you should definitely check with Haval first to see if there are any warranty concerns in fitting such a device. Some advertisers of these devices claim there is no warranty issue, given that Haval would need to prove the throttle controller was the cause of any mechanical issues in the future. We’d still check with Haval before committing, however.

Car makers have responsibilities in this scenario, but so do car owners. In a nutshell, the law says that you have to give car maker ample opportunity to make things right when there’s a catastrophic failure like yours. And, to be honest, it sounds like that’s what’s happening here with Haval agreeing to replace the entire engine, presumably at its own cost as a warranty job.

The tricky part is making everybody happy and, sometimes, that is difficult if there are not enough loan cars to go around. Perhaps you could approach Haval Australia’s customer service department and suggest a hire car until yours is fixed, but in most cases, there’s no specific warranty-claim allowance for this.

Sometimes, all it takes to inject a bit of gearshift movement into a car is a slightly worn gear-selector linkage. Wear in one of the many joints can translate as movement or vibration, along with a rattling noise as company. Is it possible the ticking noise is this rattle? If this is the case, then the linkages can be replaced usually quite easily without touching anything else on the transmission.

Another possibility would be a worn engine or transmission mount that is allowing the entire transmission to flail about under the car (particularly when the driveline moves from loaded to unloaded - ie; when the driver is on and off the throttle) when it should be held firmly by the mount. Again, this is not a huge problem to fix in most cases.

If you’re unlucky, the problem might be something actually inside the transmission, at which point the repair gets a lot more complex and usually involves removing the transmission for a mechanic to check inside. The fact that both fifth and sixth gear are the problems, suggests you may have internal gearbox wear on those two gears or the shaft that carries them, but a check up at a transmission specialist should be your next move.