Monday 21st February 2005

Misinformed

What Car accuses main dealers of misleading customers

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Thousands of motorists are being misled when it comes to maintaining their cars’ warranties, a special undercover investigation by What Car? magazine reveals today.

BMW came out worst in What Car?’s survey. Seven of its 20 dealers quizzed claimed the warranty would be invalidated by getting a BMW serviced outside the main dealer network. Next worst was Citroen (6 out of 20) and Ford (5 out of 20). The best brand was Toyota, where only one dealer made the same mistake.

What Car? Investigation Results

We asked main dealers: "Can I get my new car serviced at a local independent dealer, or will that affect the warranty?"

Rank	Brand	It would invalidate warranty	It’s risky and might invalidate warranty	You can take your car anywhere
Worst	BMW	7	4	9
	Citroen	6	5	9
	Ford	5	2	13
	Volkswagen	4	6	10
	Vauxhall	4	3	13
	Peugeot	3	1	16
	Honda	2	9	9
	Nissan	2	4	14
	Renault	2	6	12
Best	Toyota	1	3	16

In the past, owners of cars still covered by the manufacturer’s warranty had to take them to the main dealer for servicing – often paying over the odds for the privilege.

Now, however, as a result of a campaign by the Office of Fair Trading, car owners have the right to shop around for competitive servicing prices, and can take their cars to their local independent garage. Warranty cover will not be affected, so long as cars are serviced to manufacturer schedules and standards using manufacturer parts.

What Car?’s investigation found that not only do few members of the public realise this, but very few dealers are helping to clarify the situation.

Mystery shoppers contacted 200 dealers from the 10 top-selling manufacturers in the UK. Posing as car owners they asked whether the warranty would be invalidated if the car was serviced outside of the franchised network.

Of the dealers questioned, 36 said the warranty would definitely be invalidated and a further 43 said it would put warranty cover at risk. If a car loses its warranty, an owner is unable to claim for repairs if things go wrong in the first three years of ownership.

[jamiet]

Its good that buyers are able to take advantage of cheaper independants without voiding their warranty. However, it does make me think that you may be saving in the short term only to find your depreciation costs increase because buyers may pay more for a car serviced by a main dealer. There is still the common misconception that main dealers are always better at servicing their own cars. On the plus side, over time the increased competition may persuade main dealers to lower their servicing costs.

[joephandango]

You have to be sooo careful with the documentation you get from your local indy too!!!
Some warranty providers will scrutinise everything to try and find a way to avoid payouts. I made that mistake a few years back and had to pay over >1k
when the warranty co. refused to pay out because the garage didn't note the milage on the last service docket. No good getting a scrawled reciept from a docket book, you need a decent note of ALL the details.

[DavidCane]

When I bought my Alfa a month ago I was told specifically (I didn't ask the question, this piece of info was part of the standard sales routine) that the car must be serviced by an Alfa/Fiat main dealer in order not to void the warranty.

I didn't bother correcting the guy cos I work in the car industry and know full well that he was wrong. With that said, I'm still going to take the car to the main dealers. As I said before, I work in the car industry and realise that only main dealers have access to the specific diagnostics kit to look and see what electrical issues might be lurking in one of the zilions of ECUs on the CAN networks. There may also be service bulletins that main dealers have the details of (in other words an unofficial recall without the panic caused by directly informing customers) but independants may not know about.

Just my 2p worth.

DC

[adrianr]

Depends on the manufacturer, David. I have a VW and I know they make all service bulletins, technical information and diagnostic kit available to independents (and individuals for that matter - www.erwin.volkswagen.de)

OK you still need to ask whether your chosen garage has the kit, but interrogating the on board diagnostics isn't rocket science these days.

Besides, knowing the a**e up a VW main dealer made of diagnosing MAF failure on a friends GTI, it's obvious that having access to the kit is not the same as knowing how to use it.

AdrianR

[Plotloss]

Result of OFT pressure?

Isnt this part of the EU Block Exemption ruling?

[edc]

A lot of manufacturer ECUs can be interrogated/diagnostics/faults cleared etc by tools not supplied by them. For VAG cars there's Vag-com with good support too.

[dcb]

joephandango said:

You have to be sooo careful with the documentation you get from your local indy too!!!

Not just indies, main dealers also.

More than three times now, the service book hasn't been stamped when various of my cars have been to the main dealers.

If they can't get the simple stuff like the paperwork
right, what chance with the oily bits ?

Also, it makes a main dealer look slightly foolish if,
within two minutes of accepting a car back after a service, you are back in the dealers asking questions.

Don't talk to me about radio settings or chair settings - usually trashed.

[J500ANT]

DavidCane said:

When I bought my Alfa a month ago I was told specifically (I didn't ask the question, this piece of info was part of the standard sales routine) that the car must be serviced by an Alfa/Fiat main dealer in order not to void the warranty.

What you may find is that the third year extension over and above the EU mandatory 2years IS totally dependant on having the car serviced at an approved dealer. I'm sure I read that Fiat insist on it, anywhere else and your 3rd year is gone. Don't recall if that means you can go to an independant for years 1 & 2 but must go to Fiat for year 3 (which is a Mechanical Breakdown Insurance anyway)

Tony

[900T-R]

Plotloss said:

Result of OFT pressure? Isnt this part of the EU Block Exemption ruling?

Short answer - yes. Furthermore, under the new block exemption rules (EU 1400/2002) it's mandatory for car manufacturers to make their technical info needed to service, daignose and repair their cars available to parties outside their dealer network 'at a reasonable price'.