Toronto, Ontario – In an economy as uncertain as it is today, keeping the lights on is at more of a premium than ever before—car headlights included, as a pair of Ontario drivers are being forced to break the bank for costly repairs.
Nicole Bouwmeester of Brampton, Ontario went to a collision shop when she discovered a headlight on her 2017 Subaru Impreza Sport was out.
“My mechanic told me that I should sit down and I was glad that I did,” said Bouwmeester.
They told her that they could not simply replace the bulb, but that she must instead pay for a whole new headlight to be installed at the cost of $2,000.
Subaru Canada responded by saying that, “This particular LED headlight assembly (not just a bulb) contains steering response technology, which includes motors, sensors and related to move the headlight beam according to steering direction. These lights are designed to last a long time, unfortunately, with no history on this vehicle, we do not know why the headlight failed, or the diagnostics surrounding it. We would be more than happy to investigate further with this customer to see if we can help.”
In a separate event, Monica Rok of Mississauga was told that the cracks in the headlights of her leased 2017 Mercedes E400 would cost her $3,500 each to replace.
“They had quoted me over $3,500 per headlight to replace them because they are considered to be all in one units,” Rok said.
Mercedes Canada has declined to comment on the matter publicly.
For Bouwmeester, the bottom line is, “As cars get fancier, repairs need to be affordable for the general public.”
