Quote Originally Posted by Cyclops View Post
Some may be interested to know the outcome of this situation.
My friend negotiated with the selling garage at Salisbury. They arranged for him to drive to a halfway rendez-vous where they provided a car and took the Mazda to a garage for a complete replacement of the clutch and an anciliary part. A week later, they swapped cars at the same spot. The work was completely financed by the garage and my friend has his car back in full working order.
Then he was a very lucky chap indeed! I was once caught in a similar situation but with a semi-automatic car. I now know differently but in my naivety I assumed an automatic did not have a clutch as such but a semi-automatic does and as others have said, clutches are considered to be consumables. The car was bought in Reading and we had to take it all the way back there to be fixed. A very expensive outing all round.

Moral(s) of the story: 1. Don't buy a semi-automatic car. 2. Always buy locally if you can.