Do You Take Your Warranty For Granted?

Sunday, 23. May 2010

Service intervals have crept out with some cars not needing a first service until it is 2 years old. Some of the earliest first service intervals are still a minimum of 12 months but there is a problem with this. You see years ago, by the end of the first year, your car would have had 2 or 3 services with the first after just 1,000 miles to have an oil change and remove the swarf that had built up in the bottom of the oil sump. However, this also meant that if you had a problem with the car, the radio wasn’t working properly or the central locking opened just 3 doors you would have these dealt with at the time the service was carried out but these days, knowing that your new car comes with 3 years warranty, if the problem isn’t major some people are waiting till the first service in say year 2 to have the work done only to find that the problem is no longer covered by the warranty although it would have been in the first year. The problem is that in the first year the car is covered by the manufacturer but after that the warranty, in many cases, is provided via the supplying dealer and you will find that items drop off the list of items covered. The warranty will still have the appearance of a manufacturer’s warranty and may still be administered by the manufacturer but it is much weaker, so if you have a problem you should have it dealt with immediately and certainly before the first year is out. By Graham Hill