I orator may shut: I arms new vehicles
Page 17
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lOU WALES meat
her xpects to go into datio over brake faults in ford M tractive units .th h ye meant that the has n laid up — but xhall disagrees with the. patty complaints. tilip ucker of Tom Harty ats) Ltd, at Mayhill, ,nse told CM that the pany ordered 10 TM3800s, has aid for nine of them cost if £24,000 each.
iults began to appear last 'ch, and the company ed s purchasing pro gramme after the eighth lorry was delivered.
The ninth vehicle has still to be delivered, while the dealer from whom Harty bought the vehicles is suing for payment for the tenth lorry.
Mr Tucker told CM that a typical fault was one on a TM which had a braking effort of 5,000 units on one side and 7,300 units on the other.
He said that a local garage had tried to cure the faults, but they recurred within a few days of being repaired.
He added that he had con tacted Bedford and Girling over the faults and ,"in exasperation' had sent 14 telexes to General Motors' Madison Avenue offices in New York.
Mr Tucker said: "I have personal experience of these brakes being deadly, especially in wet conditions."
He felt that Vauxhall was being hostile towards him, and added: "Do I have to kill somebody and prove that it is the brakes which are at fault before anyone will take notice?"
Vauxhall has spent consid erable time in the last few days examining the vehicles which, according to Mr Tucker, have cost his company 125 days' downtime.
A Vauxhall spokesman told CM: "We have carried out an investigation on five of the vehicles and are satisfied that the vehicles need not have been taken off the road."
He added that the matter was still receiving urgent attention, but meantime Mr Tucker said that he expects his company to go into liquidation "within the next 10 days".