When Is A Car Warranty Not A Warranty?

Thursday, 5. November 2009

In a recent case, exposed in What Car a lady experienced a sunroof leak in her 2 year old Mondeo. She made a claim on Ford under her warranty agreement but was told that water ingress was not covered by her 3 year warranty beyond the first year but they made an offer to cover 30% of the repair cost and the dealer was prepared to cut his labour rate. The suggestion from What Car was to push for a bigger contribution. A bigger bloody contribution, if this had happened to a customer of mine the leasing company as well as Ford would have had a mega rocket up their bottoms. First of all it beggers belief that the warranty doesn’t cover the sun roof leaking beyond the first year and it begs the question as to how widespread this is. Do 2^nd and 3^rd year ‘manufacturers’ warranties cover the same items as the main warranty. I would also call into play the Office of Fair Trading and, if on finance, bang off a letter of complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The car is clearly not fit for purpose and has suffered a manufacturing default or are Ford honestly arguing that a year is the expected non leaking life of a factory fitted sunroof! Good grief, no wonder I have customers who wouldn’t go anywhere else when they can expect me to fly off the handle on their behalf in order to get these sorts of problems solved! By Graham Hill