Canadian Motor Vehicle Arbitration Plan Releases 2004 Stats: Consumers Reimbursed $81K for Repairs

Jim Savary, Chair of the Board of Directors for the Canadian Motor Vehicle Arbitration Plan announced the release of CAMVAP’s annual report for 2004 on July 31st. Among the highlights, “CAMVAP handled 598 cases in 2004. Of these, 42 cases were conciliated or settled before arbitration; 48 resulted in consent awards where the manufacturer and the consumer agreed on the direction to be taken and 468 cases went to full arbitration where the arbitrator had to make a decision based on the evidence presented by the manufacturer and the consumer. Overall, the 2004 results favoured consumers in 60% of the matters that were handled by CAMVAP and in 57% of the matters that went to full arbitration.” Savary emphasized that “CAMVAP is a neutral dispute resolution program; it is the responsibility of the parties, the consumer and the manufacturer, to make their case to the arbitrator.”

Vehicle manufacturers were ordered to make 110 repairs at their expense; and to reimburse consumers $81,948 for repairs that the consumer had previously paid to have completed. In addition, the manufacturers were ordered to buyback 109 vehicles at a total value of $2,391,494. Overall, CAMVAP cases were handled in an average of 71 days. In more than one half of the arbitrated cases where technical inspections of the vehicle were not required, this dropped to just over 55 days from start to finish. CAMVAP assists consumers in resolving disputes about manufacturer’s defects with their vehicle or about how the manufacturer is implementing the new vehicle warranty. Vehicles from the current plus 4 model years (2001 until September 30, 2005 and 2002 thereafter) that have travelled less than 160,000 kilometres are eligible. The vehicle may have been purchased or leased and acquired either as a new or used vehicle.