AUSTRALIAN CONSUMER LAW CHANGES - CONSUMER EXPECTATION
There was a change to Oz law in Jan 2011 that embodied the concept of consumer expectation. (Google "Broken but out of warranty ABC" as a starting point). In essence it states that if you fork out serious coin for a piece of kit that you expect to last for a long time then whether or not the item is still under warranty and it fails, you have recourse to the supplier/manufacturer. I used it to my advantage when i bought a $1500 oven in Perth and the digital display failed about 6 months out of warranty. I became aware of the above law change partway thru my protracted negotiations with the supplier and when i quoted the law to them, low and behold i had a new $600 digital display within two days at no cost to me. Not sure if there is a vehicle ombudsman in Oz but you might find that a statutory authority might give you some support. Having said that maybe nine years old is possibly stretching it!!!