Vauxhall lifetime guarantee scam

bigjl

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Again, you are labouring under another misnomer, the vehicle only has to be "inspected" at the franchised dealer, or an authorised repairer. It can be serviced at any VAT registered repairer.

Unless they have a specific clause in the "lifetime warranty", in the same way as some manufacturers used to do with the 3rd yr of the warranty, when they made it a dealer warranty, rather than a manufacturers warranty, if you hadn't serviced it at main dealers from new then the standard (EU wide) warranty period was two years, Full Main Dealer History and you qualified for the 3rd year Dealer Warranty. A very clever way to keep the cars in the main dealer network when the EU allowed any VAT registered garage to do your servicing without invalidating the warranty, can't remember the official term off hand.

Inactive

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Again, you are labouring under another misnomer, the vehicle only has to be "inspected" at the franchised dealer, or an authorised repairer. It can be serviced at any VAT registered repairer.

But is this annual inspection chargeable to the customer, and how much?

shaun_from_Africa

It kind of reminds me of the "unlimited" texts offered by many mobile phone companies, and the unlimited internet downloads offered by some ISP's

They are "unlimited" but still subject to a "fair usage policy" Go over a prescribed limit then you start getting charged extra. Not exactly what I would call unlimited.

Flyboy152

bigjl wrote: »

Unless they have a specific clause in the "lifetime warranty", in the same way as some manufacturers used to do with the 3rd yr of the warranty, when they made it a dealer warranty, rather than a manufacturers warranty, if you hadn't serviced it at main dealers from new then the standard (EU wide) warranty period was two years, Full Main Dealer History and you qualified for the 3rd year Dealer Warranty. A very clever way to keep the cars in the main dealer network when the EU allowed any VAT registered garage to do your servicing without invalidating the warranty, can't remember the official term off hand.

No, when the block exemption rules changed in 2001, that ended the ability for warranty providers to dictate where cars were serviced (as long as it was a VAT registered repairer and they used OE parts), regardless of whether it was a dealer or manufacturer supplied warranty.

Flyboy152

Inactive wrote: »

But is this annual inspection chargeable to the customer, and how much?

And that is going to be the crux of the matter, I think.

vikingaero

Thing is Vauxhall fixed price servicing isn't that expensive - £112 for a Corsa when my independent wanted £130.

property.advert

vikingaero wrote: »

Thing is Vauxhall fixed price servicing isn't that expensive - £112 for a Corsa when my independent wanted £130.

People buying new cars are so proud that they factor in depreciation, savings due to a new car, warranty etc. all going out for the complete period of ownership but they seem unable to also add in the other costs of ownership such as servicing.

I know that were I buying a second hand car, I would favour a car serviced by a main dealer. Why ? because I must presume a main dealer knows what they are doing but whereas the previous owner may know that little Jonny down the backstreet was a 30 year trained mechanic on that model, I have not way of telling. To me, he could simply be a figment of their imagination, a speedo clocker extraordinaire and their service history was printed out on a template googled into existence.

Thus, if main dealer is not much more than elsewhere, it would seem foolish to increase the depreciation of your vehicle and a false economy to go elsewhere.

AlexisV

The phrase is "COULD last a lifetime".

If it was 100 miles, I could drive it one mile a year!

The whole Vauxhall campaign is a bit lame. They're back to selling boxes on wheels, attempting to compete with Kia and Hyundai.

Mind you, the Insignia ad was hilarious, so maybe they're better with their approach of selling cars as if they were washing machines, instead of something special.

bigjl

Flyboy152 wrote: »

No, when the block exemption rules changed in 2001, that ended the ability for warranty providers to dictate where cars were serviced (as long as it was a VAT registered repairer and they used OE parts), regardless of whether it was a dealer or manufacturer supplied warranty.

This isn't what it said in the warranty for my Subaru, I did mention getting it serviced anywhere and the warranty still being in force, the dealer confirmed that the third year was a dealer warranty and wasn't an EU wide warranty, apparently the EU only get a two year warranty.

Though my information is over 3 years old so things may have changed.

There are plenty of loopholes in car warranties.


Volvo had a similar kind of warranty scheme a few years ago I think, but this was only valid with Full Main Dealer History, this being long before the EU block exemption.

thenudeone

This is slightly off-topic, but interesting nevertheless.
I've just done a lot of research before renewing warranties on two cars, one a Vauxhall.

Their extended warranty for cars under 5yrs and 60,0000 miles at the time of purchase, has wider terms of cover and fewer exclusions listed, than any of the other warranties I looked at. It is also quite expensive (£659 for 2 years) but IMO worth it for peace of mind.