| Your car warranty, simplified
Warranties on cars simplified!
Standard Vehicle Warranty, Extended Warranty, Tyre Warranty, Battery Warranty, Spare Parts Warranty! Understanding each one of them could be difficult for car owners. With improper knowledge, one can even get fleeced. I have tried to simplify them for your understanding. I have written a small article on Standard Vehicle Warranty. Would write on Extended Warranty and tyre, battery & spare parts warranty later.
Standard Vehicle Warranty:
Every vehicle comes with a standard warranty. Earlier it used to be largely manufacturer specific, Eg. Maruti and Honda offered 2 year/40,000 km standard warranty while Toyota and Chevrolet offered 3 year/1,00,000 km standard warranty. Everyone else was in between. However, now it is observed that different vehicles from same manufacturer can have different warranties. While purchasing your car, please check what is the standard warranty. It is mostly given in the brochure.
One misconception that is largely present in our country is that the warranty is only for engine. In fact, I have even seen many Sales Consultants telling customers, ‘Sir, this car comes with 2 year/40,000 km “Engine” warranty’. The warranty is not just for Engine but in fact for your whole car.
Also, please note that for eg. in 2 year/40,000 km, your car’s warranty is whatever occurs before. So if your car has run just 10,000 km in 2 years the warranty is over, or if it runs 40,000 km in 6 months, your warranty is over.
What is covered, what is not covered?
It is actually very simple to understand what is covered and what is not covered in warranty even if you do not have much technical knowledge:
First, let us see, what is not covered:
1. Labour for regular service
2. All oils and fluids – Engine oil, brake oil, power steering oil, gear oil, coolant, A/C refrigerant etc.
3. All filters – Oil filter, air filter, fuel filter, A/C filter etc.
4. All rubber parts – Wiper rubbers, hoses, pipes, bushes, belts, seals, gaskets etc.
5. All bulbs and fuses
6. Spark Plugs
7. Tyres and Batteries (They have separate warranty, which would be discussed later)
8. Wear and tear parts – Brake pads, Brake Liners, Brake Discs, Brake Drums, Clutch components etc.
9. Parts failure due to physical damage (accident, water seepage, rat bites etc.)
As we can see other than Brake and Clutch components, other parts that are not covered under warranty are mostly inexpensive.
These are broadly same for all manufacturers. For detailed list, you can check your car manual.
What is covered:
Other than the parts in “Not covered” list, everything is covered in warranty! Including but not limited to Engine, gearbox, all parts of Power Steering System, Brake System, A/C system, Electronic and Electrical Systems, Safety Systems, Steering Systems, Suspension Systems etc.
It is not just parts but even labour to change that part is covered under warranty. I have seen dealers trying to pull a fast one by asking customers to pay for the labour to change the part. Don’t fall for it! Labour of parts changed or repaired under warranty is free.
Responsibilities of the customer to get Warranty coverage:
Customer has to follow some basic conditions to ensure they can claim warranty. They can differ from manufacturer to manufacturer but are broadly same as follows:
1. Get your car serviced as per OEM schedule: In your service book, your maintenance schedule is clearly given. You should get the car serviced strictly as per the schedule. If you are even 1 km or 1 day off from it, they can refuse your warranty claim. Mostly OEMs allow a buffer of 500 kms and 15 days but still it is better to be on safe side and get the service done on time.
2. Get the service done only at authorised service centre: Until your car is under warranty, get service and repairs done only at company authorised service centres. Servicing at same dealer from where you bought the car is not compulsory though. So incase you are in some other city and your car is due for service, you can get it serviced at any service centre of same manufacturer. Many dealers overnight can lose their dealerships due to many reasons. And they might not tell their customers that they are no more authorised dealer. A good practise would be to check whether the dealer shows on the company website before giving car for service.
3. Keep records of all service and repaid bills: While nowadays all dealers are connected to each other and any dealer in the country can check your service records, it is still better to keep a copy of service bills with you. There could be some technical glitch somewhere and you could get into trouble. With so many dealers closing down and news ones coming up, it is always better to have a copy of service bills.
4. No critical accessories or modification should be done from unauthorised places: You could be denied a warranty claim if you make any modification that are not from authorised dealers. Some examples below:
a. Fit an after-market music system and in case of any electrical issues, your warranty can be denied
b. Fit an after-market CNG and you could be denied warranty in case of any engine issues. You can also be denied warranty of your rear suspension due to fitment of a CNG cylinder in the boot.
c. Fit low profile tyres and you could be denied claims for steering or suspension parts
5. Not taking car to the dealer after observing anything wrong: Once you feel that something is not right, you should immediately take the car to authorised service centre. For Eg, you feel that there is a noise while steering on one side, do not ignore it and take the car immediately to service centre. You see one of the lights glowing in dashboard, immediately take the car to service centre. In modern cars, it can be found out how much the car was driven after trouble was observed. In case, you have driven a considerable distance after the trouble occurred, your warranty claim can be rejected.
6. Not Using car for organised racing: I don’t understand the logical reason behind this, but this clause is there with most OEMs.
Few additional points:
In the past, some OEMs were not giving warranty to cars run on T-Permit (Yellow Number Plate) or reduced warranty of T-permit cars. However, that clause is not there anymore as per my knowledge. All cars whether private registered or T-permit get same coverage. Just that T-permit cars run a lot and hence would cross the warranty km limit faster.
When you sell the car, warranty is transferable to the next owner and is not lapsed. Off course provided, that previous customer has fulfilled all conditions discussed above.
In case, you buy a second hand car, which has some period of warranty left, insist on getting the service history. If the owner does not have it, go with him to any authorised service centre and they will give a printout if he asks for.
Some dealers give their own warranty if you fit aftermarket CNG kit from them. One should avoid it. A dealer might close tomorrow and you would be nowhere to go incase anything happens to your car in future and new dealer denies giving you warranty as its aftermarket fitment for them.
Some CNG dealers would give you warranty for their CNG kit. Avoid that as well. Say, if tomorrow there is some trouble in your engine, the manufacturer might say, it is due to CNG fitment and CNG dealer might say, CNG kit is alright, something wrong in car. In addition, a CNG dealer can close down tomorrow.
I think I have covered most of the points in simple to understand language. Would love if some learned members can add more points incase I have missed anything. In case someone has any more clarifications, I would be happy to clear them as well.
Thanks!
Last edited by fazayal : 2nd September 2019 at 18:02.
Reason: punctuation, spelling
| 
2nd September 2019, 17:58
(14)
Thanks
