vauxhall lifetime warranty

worried_jim

Kwik Fit! !!!!!!. Madness.

spacey2012

You will pay for this warranty many many times over at vauxhall prices and nothing is free.
They make it back ten fold as soon as anything happens and you need to claim, they have a book of excuses as thick as a telephone book.

jase1

harveybobbles wrote: »

Not sure why the OP is making a fuss by going into VX.

Car has been serviced with OE spec bits. End of.

If that can be demonstrated, absolutely.

One of the problems with this deal is that it's dealer-backed. Always easier to get a manufacturer to stand by a warranty than a dealer network; the latter being little more than a warranty insurance policy like you get with used car dealers.

Jamie_Carter

Foxy-Stoat wrote: »

Arrr you mean the 100,000 mile warranty that COULD last a lifetime. JOKE !

Most people do 12,000 miles a year, so the lifetime warranty is more like 8.33 year warranty.....or if you do 25,000 miles a year....4 year warranty.

If you want the warranty to last a lifetime of driving, say a 20 year old to when they are 75 then they must only travel 2,500 miles a year.

Lifetime of the vehicle, not the driver!

jase1

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

Lifetime of the vehicle, not the driver!

Actually no, in this case it pretty much is lifetime of the driver.

The warranty is non-transferable, so has little to do with the vehicle itself -- it is tied to the first owner.

If they happen to own the car for 25 years, and only travel 4000 miles/year, in theory at least Vauxhall will keep it on the road for the full two and a half decades.

In practice, they'll either worm out of the deal, or buy their way out of responsibility after about 10 years by declaring the vehicle unviable and offering the owner £1000 to go away.

Jamie_Carter

jase1 wrote: »

Actually no, in this case it pretty much is lifetime of the driver.

The warranty is non-transferable, so has little to do with the vehicle itself -- it is tied to the first owner.

If they happen to own the car for 25 years, and only travel 4000 miles/year, in theory at least Vauxhall will keep it on the road for the full two and a half decades.

In practice, they'll either worm out of the deal, or buy their way out of responsibility after about 10 years by declaring the vehicle unviable and offering the owner £1000 to go away.

It is the expected lifetime of the vehicle with the first owner. It is a marketing ploy to get people to buy new vehicles from them, and not to buy second hand Vauxhalls.

Vauxhall are a business, and just like all businesses they are not going to give anything away that doesn't benefit them. The fact that they do allow you to use non Vauxhall garages is quite surprising really. So the only way they can ensure that all parts and materials used are the same standard that they would use in their own dealerships, is to make sure that other garages use only their own parts (including fluids).

You wouldn't expect Sony to guarantee a TV if you had it repaired by someone else, who could have used sub standard parts would you?

Prothet_of_Doom

If you understand the "Reliability Bathtub Curve" you'll understand why Extended Warranties do not cost manufacturers a great deal if anything.
Once you get beyond a year, the true random failures drop to a very low fairly constant level. So if you force the customer to use overpriced parts, you are making more than enough mark up to cover the few failures.
Also you'll sell more cars (jam today).
And as you move towards the wear out phase, you'll find that most owners have become bored and have moved on, so very few cars get to the point of wearout and are still covered.
Plus if you discount those things that do wear out, you'll be quids in.

jase1

This is true, and it's why there has been a move to 3, 5 and even 7 year warranties.

7 years is just about the point at which the aforementioned bell-curve starts to ramp up again.

As has been said, the "lifetime warranty" is more of a marketing gimmick (more so than the fixed warranties) as there will not be very many cars (and certainly not many Vauxhalls as a percentage of the numbers sold, given their sales to fleets) that are still with the first owner at 7 years.

And of course most of the cars affected will be smaller ones, with cheaper parts and lower liabilities. The ones that run the risk of being ruinously expensive to repair (high-spec diesel Insignias particularly) are almost certainly not with their first owners at 6 or 7 years old.

oscarward

I did put up a thread elsewhere asking about the lifetime warranty when I read on the VX web site it said 'Consequential damage not covered'. I took that to mean if the cam belt snapped and trashed the engine then they would just replace the cam belt......

And then when it got too expensive to repair they would just give you the car current valuation to go away.


To the OP isn't there a EU directive prohibiting the manufacture forcing you to use their servicing by refusing warranty claims?

As others have said so long as the car is serviced in accordance with the manufacturers schedule and specification then the warranty should stand.

BobQ

Krach wrote: »

Madness, just for the sake of £100 I wouldn't be using anyone other than a main dealer for a cars first service.
What happens when its time to sell the car?
If I was looking to buy it and saw it had its first service by Kwickfit I'd run a mile.

Well yes I take your point and agree some services are cheap (never been to Kwik Fit for a service). But bear in mind that when they sell you the car (at least in my case) they made a big point about saying the LTW did not require Vauxhall Servicing, only Vauxhall approved parts.

The LTW is a great idea but I can see how they will want to minimise the costs of honouring it ......