3/6 month warranty on AutoTrader - sales puffery?

[aceofspades1]

Seeing lots of cars for sale from dealers advertised as having a 3 month or 6 month warranty online. It got me thinking, is this just sales puffery/talk?

Under the CRA 2015, any fault that arises within 6 months of purchasing the car has to be rectified, or the car refunded/replaced. How is a 6 month warranty different?

[davek_964]

Yeah - I always read it as "no warranty except what CRA gives you"

[Alex_225]

aceofspades1 said:

Seeing lots of cars for sale from dealers advertised as having a 3 month or 6 month warranty online. It got me thinking, is this just sales puffery/talk?

Under the CRA 2015, any fault that arises within 6 months of purchasing the car has to be rectified, or the car refunded/replaced. How is a 6 month warranty different?

I recently bought a car and it came with 3 months cover with some random warranty firm. When you read the small print, you'd be extremely hard pushed to make a claim even on the things they did cover. So for example, they'd cover there engine if there was a catastrophic failure but would likely be able to get out of paying if the cars service history wasn't exactly to the manufacturers spec. Anything they'd consider wear and tear isn't covered.

In reality, anything significant that occurs once you have bought a car from a trader is the responsibility of the trader and theirs to cover.

[aceofspades1]

Alex_225 said:

I recently bought a car and it came with 3 months cover with some random warranty firm. When you read the small print, you'd be extremely hard pushed to make a claim even on the things they did cover. So for example, they'd cover there engine if there was a catastrophic failure but would likely be able to get out of paying if the cars service history wasn't exactly to the manufacturers spec. Anything they'd consider wear and tear isn't covered.

In reality, anything significant that occurs once you have bought a car from a trader is the responsibility of the trader and theirs to cover.

Yeah, I agree tbh. That's the way I read it

[chrisman]

It's so the dealers can push you towards the warranty company if something goes wrong rather than have to fix it themselves under the CRA. I don't think a lot of people know about your rights under the CRA and the 'free' 6 month warranty plays on that.

[Nickp82]

aceofspades1 said:

Under the CRA 2015, any fault that arises within 6 months of purchasing the car has to be rectified

This is not correct. If your fuel pump dies after five months and 7000 miles, the dealer would be able to easily demonstrate the fault was not present at time of sale and therefore would not be responsible.

Depending on the warranty cover, it may be covered without any quibble over responsibility- though possibly some other type of quibble depending on how good the warranty company is

[Sheepshanks]

Nickp82 said:

This is not correct. If your fuel pump dies after five months and 7000 miles, the dealer would be able to easily demonstrate the fault was not present at time of sale and therefore would not be responsible.

Depending on the warranty cover, it may be covered without any quibble over responsibility- though possibly some other type of quibble depending on how good the warranty company is

Exactly - CRA 2015 is by no means a slam-dunk.

If the dealer plays hard ball your only option is to sue them - it's not like you can dial 999 and send the old bill round there.