Check Your Legal Rights When It Comes To Warranties
Sunday, 18. July 2010
Warnings have been issued about dealers and manufacturers who refuse to carry out warranty work because the vehicle hasn’t been serviced by a main dealer. This is illegal and flies in the face of the revised EU Block Exemption rules that came into force in 2002. In a case taken up by What Car a lady, Nocola West, had a Vauxhall Astra that developed a radiator fault that ended up putting water in the gearbox. The dealer told her she needed a new radiator and gearbox which should have been replaced under the warranty. However, Vauxhall pointed out that as her last service was carried out by a service agent outside the dealer network the warranty was invalid. After creating a fuss she was told that there was a known fault with the radiator that would have been repaired by a ‘Customer Satisfaction Programme’ had the car been taken to a main dealer for service. As a result the failure would not have occurred and the gearbox would not have been damaged. They suggested that they would pay for the radiator replacement but not the gearbox (a cost of £2,000). After the intervention of What Car, arguing that she was being penalised for exercising her legal right and besides, if there was a known fault she should have been advised, Vauxhall agreed to foot the bill although they said they sent a letter out in 2009 to warn of the problem. Nicola denies receiving such a letter. I’m hearing more and more of these refusals. My advice is to stick to your guns and fight the manufacturer, get the finance company involved if the car is on finance, keep all your bills relating to services carried out on the car and don’t ever assume that what the dealer says is gospel. Have you had any warranty problems – let me know? By Graham Hill
