I see car warranty problems on a daily basis, yet most consumers don’t seem to know their consumer rights. Car dealerships, albeit with the odd exception, tend to rely on tried and tested fob offs instead of treating their customers fairly. These are some of the most common questions motorists face with car warranty problems.
CAN YOU RETURN A CAR UNDER WARRANTY?
If a car develops a fault within the first 30 days of purchase, you are entitled to reject it under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and seek a full refund.
WHAT IS THE MINIMUM CAR WARRANTY ON A USED CAR?
Most car dealerships offer at least 1 – 3 months warranty on a used car. In reality, a car warranty is not worth the paper it is written on. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives you better cover for free.
DOES A CAR WARRANTY RESET AFTER REPAIR?
A repair under warranty does not reset and give you a new warranty. The original warranty will expire on the purchase of the vehicle.
If something goes wrong within the warranty period and the same fault occurs outside of the warranty period, the warranty would extend for that same issue.
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 applies as the fault was not repaired properly.
COMMON FAULTS
Most cars have a common fault that is unique to that make and model. Some faults are so well-known that they are subject to recalls.
Always Google the make & model for common faults on faulty items.
This motorist had a well-known problem, he tagged in Hyundai and Evans Halshaw on Twitter, it travelled far and wide and caught my attention.
BACKGROUND
This customer spoke about a Hyundai I40 with a vibration under load at 50mph. His car has 62K miles on the clock but the issue was reported at a 60K service. The dealership wanted £600 to remove the gearbox and investigate. Any thoughts?
Hyundai responded by saying that under warranty, a diagnosis charge applies if no fault is found or is not a manufacturing defect. If you can DM (‘direct message’) your full contact details, registration number along with dealership details we can look in to this further.
ACTION
I replied to the thread by saying that given that the issue was reported at £60K and not resolved, is there any leeway here? I made a point of putting in #CustomerExperience and #CustomerService on that tweet so it would be picked up and spread much further to raise awareness of this customer’s problem.
The customer replied by saying that he would have hoped so. The main thing for him is being asked to pay £600 for removal of the gearbox to investigate a reported vibration.
I pointed out that the Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives you more rights than any warranty. Shambles.
Hyundai clutch issues are well documented. Auto Express have actually covered it in a feature. This customer has always had his car serviced on schedule and adhered to all recommendations. He asked me what the best way was to play it with the dealership?
I responded by saying that given that this is a well-known problem and (you) have adhered to all schedules. Make your problem theirs by saying just that.
CONCLUSION
I concluded by saying, “I am sick and tired of seeing customers being fobbed off and unfairly treated by firms hiding behind legalese and jargon. Please do the right thing here. A happy customer is a loyal customer and ambassador for you all”.
If a car has inherent faults since inception and you have adhered to all service schedules, the onus is on the manufacturer and dealership to remedy the issues under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
You do not need an independent report as it is evidenced in the public domain.
You can find out more about how to resolve complaints and motoring disputes in my book.
What are your thoughts? Have you experienced car warranty problems? How did you resolve it?
I bought my Audi A1 2022 plate, through Cinch and collected the vehicle on the 28th January. On the 19th March, the RAC had to recover my vehicle and take it into the Audi garage as it had broken down. A couple days later, the garage sent me an invoice with over 2k of repairs needing done! Cinch agreed to pay for this as ilthe vehicle was under the 90 day warranty. They finally agreed to give me a courtesy car in the meantime, after me fighting for it, as i have 3 children, one of which has a disability so having a car is essential for our day to day lifes. These repairs have now been completed by the garage but they have found a ECU fault keeps appearing on the dashboard. They have tried everything from re wiring to removing the engine itself, amongst other things but nothing seems to be resolving the issue. My problem is, the finance company now want to reject the car but because my car is on finance, il only receive the deposit back and have to wait on my credit score going back up before I can look elsewhere for a car. So i have asked them to give the garage a chance to repair. They said if i cancel the rejection, they wont be able to reject in the future. Ill have to return the coirtest car immediately, leaving me without a vehicle. Iv also put a private number plate on this vehicle which il have to remove myself costing me more money, so rejecting it feels like a huge hassle. I still have the courtesy car through Cinch and they say I will have this until my car is fixed and even though the garage says they are confident they will get to the root of the problem, im still having to pay the finance payments in the meantime.
My questions is, if the garage turn around and say they cannot fix the issue, Can I ask for a replacement vehicle? Will my car still be under warranty even though the 90 days has now passed? It is now the 12th May, thats nearly 8 weeks without my vehicle. Im not sure where to go from here so any help would be appreciated. Thank you.