GWM Australia (head office & administration) — Local services in Melbourne

If There Was an Option for Zero Stars, I’d Give It – My Honest Experience with GWM Haval Australia

If you're thinking about buying a GWM Haval vehicle, I strongly recommend you read this first. I've been dealing with GWM for nearly 5 years after purchasing a brand-new Haval H9 in 2021 from a dealership in Perth. Since then, the experience with their after-sales and customer service has been nothing short of exhausting, frustrating, and extremely disappointing.

The Core Issues I Faced: After moving to Melbourne, I took my car to Astoria GWM in February 2025 for the 55,000km scheduled service. I paid $965, plus loan car fees—for what was basically a standard oil & filter change, safety check, and spark plug replacement. No major repairs or complex work. That alone felt like a rip-off.

At drop-off, I reported two issues:

A ticking/clicking noise from underneath the car when stationary (suspected exhaust issue).

The indicator light on the dashboard wasn't working.

Even after a test drive with a mechanic who acknowledged the ticking noise, I picked the car up only to find:

The indicator light was not even checked, let alone fixed.

I was told the ticking noise was just the exhaust expanding when hot—but no proof of actual work or fix was provided.

And It Gets Worse… Second Visit: I had to return again. After keeping my car the whole day, I was told:

The indicator bulb couldn’t be replaced individually and the whole instrument cluster needed to be changed.

They had “distressed” the exhaust, and that “should” fix the ticking noise (it didn’t).

Third Visit: They finally replaced the cluster but: Reset the odometer to 0km – now I have a vehicle that reads 0km, which could seriously impact resale value.

The dashboard was left in Chinese, and the mechanic couldn’t be bothered to switch it to English.

Service & maintenance intervals were not updated correctly.

Fourth Visit: Returned again to correct the above:

The dashboard language, clock/time, and maintenance KM were STILL not fixed.

I was told the ticking noise is “just how the exhaust sounds” and not a mechanical issue.

And now, they can’t even fix the time/clock on the new cluster, and I need to return again.

What Kind of Customer Service Is This?

This is now FOUR separate visits, a ridiculous amount of wasted time, fuel, and energy for what should be basic fixes. The lack of competence from the mechanics, combined with a complete absence of urgency or care from GWM, is honestly shocking. These are the kind of problems and excuses you’d never expect from established brands like Toyota or Mazda.

While I must acknowledge that Stuart at GWM Astoria has a calm and polite manner and tries his best to keep things smooth when customers are frustrated, no amount of politeness can make up for GWM’s systemic service failures. The mechanics seem incapable of diagnosing or resolving even minor issues properly.

Final Advice: If you're considering buying a GWM Haval, please take my experience into account:

Don’t just look at the initial price or features.

Consider what happens when something goes wrong. Ask yourself if you have the time and patience to keep returning to a service centre again and again for things that should’ve been fixed the first time.

And consider the frustration of dealing with a brand that doesn’t take responsibility, doesn’t follow up, and doesn’t deliver the service you paid for.

My Message to GWM Australia: I'm extremely disappointed, frustrated, and angry at how this has been handled. Why does a customer have to fight so hard just to get basic support on a new car—especially when they’ve paid nearly $1,000 for a basic service? This is not acceptable.

GWM, your customer service has wasted my time, my money, and my trust. This is not how any company should treat their customers—especially those who’ve spent good money on your...

Sharing from a friends Facebook post, as this is not acceptable service and people should be made aware: "I am not usually one to rant on social media, but I have had enough! I have had enough of my concerns not being taken seriously. I have had enough of my family’s safety being brushed off. And I’ve had enough of being left with no options except to comply with the unjust decision of a company. So buckle up, and I’ll tell you about the month we’ve had. Back in March we purchased a brand new 2022 Haval H6 Ultra Auto 4x4 from Village Motors GWM Haval Dealership. On the 5th of July (with less than 5000km on the odometer) our car suffered a mechanical failure. Whilst I was driving and approached a roundabout I attempted to brake. However, I physically could not depress the brake pedal as it was jammed. The car was clunking and tremoring and all I could do was let the car keep rolling until finally the brake pedal unjammed and I was able to brake again. I was extremely lucky that there were no other cars approaching the roundabout and that I was only around the corner from home. I am even luckier that I had been unwell and did not go to work that day, for if I had been driving down the mountain from Maleny after work, I would probably not be here right now. GWM Roadside Assistance was contacted and a technician from Brisbane Roadside Assistance arrived and inspected our vehicle. He informed us that he had found a fault code with the car which correlated to the experience I had and determined that the car should not be driven and required towing to the dealership. For over two weeks we have gone back and forth with the dealership who continues to deny that there is anything wrong with our vehicle but can also not give us a reason why the brake pedal was jammed. Our concerns have not been taken seriously and our requests for the internal components of the gearbox to be inspected have been denied. With the noises that were heard from the car it is likely that the gearbox will have damage which would prove that the car did suffer a mechanical fault, which is probably why they are refusing to examine it. They have said the car does not show any fault codes and they will only investigate an issue once they have a fault code. We have sent them the full technicians report conducted by Brisbane Roadside Assistance which included photo evidence (below) of the fault code that was found, but they have said it’s “irrelevant”. In our last correspondence with the dealership they wrote “We have concluded our inspection of the vehicle and request you collect the vehicle”. Therefore, we have had to pick up the car, even though they have admitted to not fixing anything since they “have been unable to identify any faults”. We reached out to the manufacturer (GWM Australia), which resulted in a phone conversation to a brick wall of a woman who just repeated “no fault codes were found”. We had hopes of taking the car to a third party to have the internal components of the gear box inspected by a mechanic. Unfortunately, we have been told by both the dealership and the manufacturer that this would void our warranty. And if we are already having issues less than 5000kms in, we are definitely going to need that warranty for the future. The only consolation we received from both the dealership and the manufacturer is that if it happens again they will be happy to ‘investigate’ it. Neither of them is bothered by the fact that if it happens again it could result in a fatality. So for now we are just expected to carry on and drive a car which may suddenly not brake when needed. Unfortunately, there’s not much else we can do at this point except share our experience and hope that this post will prevent other people from buying a Haval and save them from going through the same hell...

I bought a Haval 6 in 2022 after delivery delay of several months. The problem begin after 1 month of delivery ,the car couldn't start and i called for mechanic service and when the mechanic arrived after 25 minutes he managed to start the car without doing anything. My second experience was a week later, it could not start after trying several times I called for mechanic services again, he came after approximately half an hour, and the car started without any him doing any repair. Told him my problemwith the car before he tested and checked and he changed the battery saying this could be the cause. Reported to dealer and they checked and couldn't find any fault and could not trace the problem. And this problem continue to persist and with patience i have to wait for 10-15 minutes and it get started. I have reported to the dealer unfortunately they are helpless to this problem. I called for another mechanic service after several incidents then when almost 30 minutes and when mechanic arrive after half an hour he started the car without any repairs. He advised me to record in video whenever the car couldn't start in which I did. I have reported these incidents to the dealer and showed the videos as usual they couldn't fix it. After almost 14 months with about 27 times of such incidents i approached the dealer that i am very unhappy with this defective car and proposed to sell it back to them. I was told they will get back to me but no news after 3 weeks. In between the 3 weeks while i was oversea my wife told me , there was an emergency with her father and she was forced to call an ambulance as she couldn't get the car started. I tried calling GWM office to highlight my predicament of having to live with a defective car but to no avail, the dealer does not seems to handle my issue with this defective car with concern or urgency for more than a year , their answers were always awaiting GWM response. I paid faithfully for a brand new car but i was given a defective car with no solution of rectifying the problem, not even offer to buy back the car from me. This is unethical, unfair, uncaring practice of a business entity especially putting me through so much inconvenience, stress and anxities ,cost and frustrations. I have lost confidence in the manufacturer, the quality of their cars and their dealership response. My next step is to report to consumer services ,fair trade commission and to make sure all manufacturers are fair, be responsible and quick to address consumers complaints , i will highlight this to the media, and Today Tonight as to ensure consumers will be protected fairly. I would advise all GWM consumers who encounter problems as such to step up and do the same. We have the right to demand a product which is...