A taxi man told a judge yesterday the smoke emission from his new diesel Mercedes Vito was so bad he sometimes could not see traffic behind him.
Peter Gleeson, of Muskerry Road, Ballyfermot, Dublin, was awarded €13,000 damages against Mercedes importers Motor Distributors Ltd, Naas Road, Dublin.
Judge Petria McDonnell heard the importers had indemnified co-defendants MD Motors Ltd, Harolds Cross, Dublin, and Motor Services Ltd, trading as Grange Motors, Deansgrange, Dublin.
Mr Gleeson told his counsel Mairéad Carey he bought the car for €33,350 from MD Motors in August 1999 and had continuous emission problems with it even after a reconditioned engine had been fitted with only 41,000 miles on the clock. He said he had difficulties with black smoke emissions from the time he had bought it until he sold it on six years later, and had revisited Grange Motors on 14 occasions in attempts to have the problem solved.
He said the wheelchair-accessible taxi had been off the road on 27 different days while the garage tried to trace the emission fault.
Judge McDonnell included compensation of €3,000 for loss of earnings in her award.
Motor engineer Colm O'Connell told the court that Mercedes diesel engine vehicles in 1999 were renowned for smoking but the technology had improved since then.