Warranty help
Author
Discussion

Remote Control

Original Poster:

4 posts

195 months

Wednesday 7th July 2010
quotequote all
Hi All,

Friend has pointed me in Pistonheads direction, in the hope I could get some advice

I bought a car 1 year ago, with 9k miles on it, having been registered in Jan 2008. Since then I have put a further 4.5k miles on it. The car is now roughly 2.5 years old and has 13.5k miles in total on it. The manufacturer’s warranty ran out at the beginning of the year, so I got the approved manufacturer’s extended warranty for another year.

Unfortunately the air con recently stopped working, not a problem as the car was due in for a service, so I asked them to have a look and fix. They have come back stating that after getting it to work, and then it stopping again (whilst still with them) the compressor is broken. In total it is £1600 to fix.

The warranty company will not fix the component, stating it is not covered under the extended warranty. Considering the car is only 2.5 years old with hardly any miles on it surely this cannot be right? Or does the fact that it is out of the original warranty mean that much?

Any insight would be most appreciated

RC

Dracoro

9,026 posts

275 months

Wednesday 7th July 2010
quotequote all
Most new cars have 3 years warranty. What is the car?

Check your warranty documents to see if the part is excluded.

Remote Control

Original Poster:

4 posts

195 months

Wednesday 7th July 2010
quotequote all
Its a Lotus

No where is stated that it does cover, but then there is no where stating it does not...

pimpin gimp

3,319 posts

230 months

Wednesday 7th July 2010
quotequote all
All warraties I've ever had on a car state explicitly what is covered, so if it's not mentioned then it's not covered. However these were all aftermarket warranties on used vehicles, so I'm not totally sure the same principle applies to new cars.

Hope you get it sorted though, and apologies that this post was mostly no use...

Neil1300R

5,769 posts

208 months

Wednesday 7th July 2010
quotequote all
You need to read the warranty document very carefully - sorry don't mean to sound patronising. There are two basic types of warranty document, one which lists what is included and one which will list what is excluded. It will depend on the manufacturer / warranty company as to how they word it. If as you say it is not mentioned, does the document refer to air conditioning / heater / controls etc.

Have you phoned the warranty company yourself or did you leave it to the garage? Had an issue myself earlier in the year with an extended warranty, where it was not clear what was and what was not covered. The main dealer said it wasn't covered on the warranty, phoned the warranty company myself, had an argument with them, two minutes later they agreed it was covered

Remote Control

Original Poster:

4 posts

195 months

Wednesday 7th July 2010
quotequote all
So the warranty I have does not list the component, the next grade up does!

Is that it, I have to accept that a 2.5 year old car has to have a £1600 component replaced?

Engineer1

10,486 posts

239 months

Wednesday 7th July 2010
quotequote all
Speak to Lotus they may help, failing that swallow the cost or ditch the AC.

edo

16,699 posts

295 months

Wednesday 7th July 2010
quotequote all
Is it an Exige or Elise? If so they have had problems with heater matrix/Air COn for years. I bet most of the labour is removing the front clam.

Ask the lotus dealer to speak to the factory. I agree after such a short time and low miles that is pants.

Neil1300R

5,769 posts

208 months

Wednesday 7th July 2010
quotequote all
Remote Control said:
So the warranty I have does not list the component, the next grade up does!

Is that it, I have to accept that a 2.5 year old car has to have a £1600 component replaced?
yes



Remote Control

Original Poster:

4 posts

195 months

Wednesday 7th July 2010
quotequote all
Yep it seems that its around £600 for part and £1000 for labour!!

Pretty annoyed to say the least if it is just a case of bending over...