District Consumer Forum fines Tata Motors

Hari Om Gupta, a resident of Heera Colony here, had filed a complaint to the forum against Tata Motors, Cargo Motors Pvt Ltd, Jalandhar, Malwa Automobiles, Karnal and JK Automobiles, Hoshiarpur alleging that his Tata Indica car purchased on August 19, 2005 used to consume excessive oil, a release issued by the forum said yesterday.     

Tata Motors had taken the plea that there was no manufacturing defect in the vehicle and that as far as Indica cars are concerned, they can consume 400 ml of engine oil per 1000 km.     

However, the forum headed by P D Goel held that from the car record sheet, it is clear that on October 5, 2005, the km reading of the car was 2,420 and on October 7, 2005, the km reading was 2,475. But the car had consumed half a litre of engine oil for covering the distance of 55 kms.     

The car service record had not been properly rebutted by the Tata Motors and therefore, it appears that the car in question consumed excessive engine oil, the forum said.     

Since the car of the complainant had covered about 50,000 km in total, the forum said it would not be appropriate to give a direction to Tata Motors to replace the engine, but the customer was entitled to compensation.    

And as the company had failed to rectify the defect in the engine of the vehicle in question, Goel said, it amounted to deficiency in service on their part.