How to Get Warranty Work Done at the Dealership

A great way to ruin your day is to have your diesel engine parts or diesel injectors go out on you. It's even worse when the parts aren't warrantied; or worse still, when the parts ARE warrantied by the manufacturer but your local dealership doesn't want to warranty the parts for you.

It's sometimes difficult to realize that dealerships are not directly related to the brand of vehicles they sell. Though you hold high regard for the automaker of the car you purchased, the dealership can fall short of those high standards. Automakers try very hard to get their dealers to be honest and good to their customers (it affects their brand image a great deal), but still sleazy dealerships persist.

Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times

 Here are some tips to get warranty work done on your vehicle:

1. Know Your Warranty: The owner's manual for your vehicle will have a warranty section, or a separate warranty pamphlet. There are often separate warranty terms for different parts of your vehicle; an example is a Drivetrain Warranty. Make sure that the part in question is covered under the manufacturer's warranty, and that your vehicle is within the warranty parameters.

2. Be Polite But Firm: If a dealer argues with you that the part is not under warranty when it clearly is, ask politely if you can check the warranty section of your manual. If they are still being resistant, nicely ask if they would like you to call the automaker to get authorization for them. Maintain an attitude of trying to work to solve the problem, not trying to accuse the dealer. Unfortunately your best bet of getting the problem fixed lies with the dealer, so make sure to remain polite and genial but firm.

3. Call The Automaker: If the dealer still refuses, you can always repeat the process at a different dealer in hopes of getting better service. If not, however, it may be necessary to contact your automaker and let them know of your experience. They often have national and regional telephone numbers; check your automaker's main website and search for the regional telephone number (if you can get it). Once on the phone, still remain polite and calm and do not badmouth the dealer. You do not want to be labeled as one of those "insane customers" so it's best to keep your cool and emphasize you are just trying to resolve an issue with your vehicle, and you need help.

Think this is a warranty issue?

 4. Lemon Laws: If all else fails, you might need to get help from a lawyer. There are different laws for manufacturer's warranties in each state; finding out how many issues, and what kind of issues, you need to be experiencing to qualify could be useful to you. At this point you need to weigh the cost of lawyer's fees with the cost of buying a new part at your expense.

Hopefully, you will never need to follow all of these guidelines to get warranty work done on your vehicle. It can be an extremely frustrating experience but hopefully, armed with the facts, you'll get your vehicle taken care of.

How Do I Know if I’m Covered Under Warranty?

If you have a Saab you now know the answer to this question. But how do the rest of us know if we’re covered under warranty? Usually a vehicle is covered under warranty for a certain amount of time or a certain amount of miles driven, whichever one comes first. If your oxygen sensors or mass airflow sensors turn out to be defective, a base factory warranty will usually cover parts, labor and cost of towing. But what if these parts went bad due to an accident?

A part going bad due to any external damage is not going to be covered under warranty. If you’re cruising home from work, someone rear-ends you, and then you start having problems with your a/c compressor, you’re probably not going to be covered. Most manufacturers offer different warranties for different amounts of time. A bumper-to-bumper warranty usually will cover most items on your vehicle but last a shorter amount of time, while a power train warranty usually covers fewer parts but lasts longer. Whichever warranty you have on your vehicle is determined by the agreements between the dealer and the manufacturer.

Whether or not you are covered under warranty isn’t as black-and-white as we’d all probably like. When you take your car to a dealership they not only look for the problem, they look for the cause of the problem. If the failure is due to lack of maintenance, an accident, misuse, or any other fault of the driver (and they will look for reasons), you will not be covered. For this reason it is important to check your manual and online resources to find out details specific to your vehicle before taking it into the shop. And for all of you holiday & end-of-year shoppers this December read the fine print! No one likes surprises that can cost a few thousand dollars down the road. Oh, and if you own a Saab, ignore the above. Unfortunately you’re not covered.