A new-car warranty spells out pretty clearly that any skipped services can jeopardise a warranty claim should something go wrong that might have been avoided with the recommended servicing. So I think you’re on pretty shaky ground with this one.
One thing you could do is go beyond the dealership and could contact Haval’s Australian customer service division and plead your case. But technically, a skipped major service on something like a transmission is very likely to be grounds for denying any warranty claim.
The exception might be if the car was recalled to fix an inherent transmission problem or fault. However, I can find no reference to such a recall on your make and model.
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You’ve hit the nail on the head when you confirm that the vehicle is still within its warranty period (provided the vehicle has been serviced correctly). That means you need to make this Haval’s problem and not yours.
There are many, many things that can cause a transmission to behave like this, starting with low fluid level and ending with complete catastrophic failure. But if you ignore this problem, it could easily morph into a bigger, even more expensive fault. Take the car to the dealership you bought it from and give the service manager the full run-down on what’s going on and when. From there, it should be possible for Haval to identify the cause and fix it as a warranty issue.
Even if it’s not fixed immediately, the fact that you’ve reported it to Haval means it’s then a pre-existing condition and remains a warranty issue even if the warranty was to run out in the meantime.
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I’m not sure the 'vents' you’re looking at in the luggage compartment are actually air vents. The five-seat Jolion has air vents in the rear of the centre console for back seat passengers, but since there’s no third row of seats, there’s no need for vents in the cargo area. Even if they were fitted, they’d direct air from the air-conditioning unit, not the outside where they could funnel rainwater inside.
A tail-light seal is a common source for boot leaks, though, so maybe it’s worth checking this again as the new seal may have been damaged when it was being fitted. But the real culprit is likely to be the rubber seal around the tailgate opening. This seal occupies a huge surface area, and even something is simple as a tiny scrap of fluff or a stray leaf or twig stuck to the rubber can cause a leak into the car.
The best way to chase a leak like this is to put somebody inside the cargo area with a torch, while you hose off the car’s exterior. Be sure to hose down the whole car (not just the area in question) as water leaks have a clever habit of starting in one spot and ending up in another. Hopefully, your observer will be able to spot where the water is entering the boot, and from there, you can home in on the leak.
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