Rubbish Kia Warranty - pay to check symptom.

14wrence

Hi,

I bought a Kia, and part of my buying decision was due to the longer than usual 7 year warranty.

Anyway, the Car is now 3 years old, and the clutch has started slipping (mainly only in second gear if any mechanics on here).

Apparently if the clutch is burnt out, this is classed as wear and tear as it is bad driving habits. However if it is a mechanical element of the clutch, then it is covered under the warranty.

This is all fine, I get this. The reason I am annoyed though, is to check if it is burnt out, or a symptom covered under the warranty will cost me £500.... Also how bad driving habits can I have when I have always had older second hand cars in the past and never burned a clutch out yet.

In my eyes - this is a very convenient way to dissuade you from claiming anything under he warranty.

Is this allowed?? Won't a mechanic know just by driving it??

Have I got any grounds to complain??

A local garage will do for £600 the full job. However Kia will charge a further £600 to fix after a £500 diagnosis.

So it seems I have the choice between just paying £600 or I could gamble, and either get it done under warranty, or pay £1,300.

Also does anybody know if there is an ombudsman for this kind of thing. although even if I go to an ombudsman, and they see it in my favour. What's stopping the Kia dealer then saying it is burned out and not covered under warranty now I've got them all peed off??

So that's it. I have posted this for 2 reasons, 1) to ask for any advice from anyone, and 2) If I am going to have to fork out £600 (which I can not afford) to name and shame, Kia and their warranty.

BeenThroughItAll

It's perfectly reasonable for them to expect you to pay for the time spent dismantling the vehicle to get to the clutch, on the basis that failure of clutch components due to manufacturing defect is much, much, much less likely than them wearing out due to use.

If once dismantled the failure was found to be due to manufacturing defect, typically the manufacturer would then refund or waive the charge for diagnosis.

How many miles has the car done? What kind of use does it get? What is the car in question exactly? Did you buy the car brand new?

n217970

You have not mentioned mileage or type of driving you do, mainly urban or motorways? But if it has failed after 3 years of use it will certainly go down as wear and tear - rubbish components to go with a rubbish warranty.

AdrianC

14wrence wrote: »

Won't a mechanic know just by driving it??

They will know it's slipping. They won't know why.

What's stopping the Kia dealer then saying it is burned out and not covered under warranty now I've got them all peed off??

The clutch will be out of the car, and you will be able to see it. You will be able to easily see whether it's worn out, burnt or whether there's been a mechanical failure.

You will not find ANY warranty that covers problems arising from wear - especially on consumable components.

To remove the clutch for inspection is not a trivial job. The gearbox needs to come out, at the very least. Once the gearbox is out, the car is going nowhere until it's put back together again. If the problem is found not to be covered by warranty, then who is paying for that work, if not you - the owner? A franchised dealer charge much higher labour rates than a non-franchise garage. This is not news. If your non-franchise garage replace the clutch, you can wave goodbye to any warranty coverage of any future issues on any components that may have been affected by that work.

photome

I had a Kia with a clutch problem was between 2 and 3 years old.

took it to Kia garage, Mechanic took it out for a drive with me in car. within minutes he said yes we will replace that under warranty.

was a very simple process

mr_accountant

this is totally standard from manufacturers as otherwise if it was open and the owner wouldn't pay for a wear and tear components where (pun intended) would that leave both the manufacturer and the owner of the car.

I recently had the same dilemma with my Hyundai i20 with a slightly notchy 2nd, luckily for me it turned out to be a synchro, thus warantee, otherwise I would have had to pay £340 just for them looking, plus repair on top.

had it been virtually any other manufacturer I'd have to pay myself for everything as the car is just past 3 years.

From my experience Hyundai warantee is very good, though I don't know about kia, and before anyone comes knocking on my door I know they're the same company, Hyundai Motor Group. So I would expect kia to be similar.

Though full main dealer service history is very important otherwise the manufacturer goodwill is lost

marlot

If you do a google on clutches under waranty, you'll find that just about every manfacturer has a similar policy.

Most makes exclude damage to friction material, pressure plates and clutch release bearings. But they pay up if the clutch has broken or the hydraulics have failed.

It's perfectly possible to burn out a clutch in a lot less than three years. Or damage the 'fingers' by sitting at the lights with the clutch down.

Jackmydad

AS others have said, it's not a small job to get at the clutch on most modern cars. And they're considered to be wear and tear parts.
One point is that normally the job is mostly labour, a clutch kit is going to be £100 (for the sake of argument could be more or less)
So how do they get another £600 to fit a new clutch when most of the work is already done?
Incidentally, £500 + £600 = £1100 not £1300

motorguy

14wrence wrote: »

Hi,

I bought a Kia, and part of my buying decision was due to the longer than usual 7 year warranty.

Anyway, the Car is now 3 years old, and the clutch has started slipping (mainly only in second gear if any mechanics on here).

Apparently if the clutch is burnt out, this is classed as wear and tear as it is bad driving habits. However if it is a mechanical element of the clutch, then it is covered under the warranty.

This is all fine, I get this. The reason I am annoyed though, is to check if it is burnt out, or a symptom covered under the warranty will cost me £500.... Also how bad driving habits can I have when I have always had older second hand cars in the past and never burned a clutch out yet.

In my eyes - this is a very convenient way to dissuade you from claiming anything under he warranty.

Is this allowed?? Won't a mechanic know just by driving it??

Have I got any grounds to complain??

A local garage will do for £600 the full job. However Kia will charge a further £600 to fix after a £500 diagnosis.

So it seems I have the choice between just paying £600 or I could gamble, and either get it done under warranty, or pay £1,300.

Also does anybody know if there is an ombudsman for this kind of thing. although even if I go to an ombudsman, and they see it in my favour. What's stopping the Kia dealer then saying it is burned out and not covered under warranty now I've got them all peed off??

So that's it. I have posted this for 2 reasons, 1) to ask for any advice from anyone, and 2) If I am going to have to fork out £600 (which I can not afford) to name and shame, Kia and their warranty.

There are separate entities at work here - KIA UK who the warranty is with and the dealer.

KIA UK will pay the dealer for time spent & parts used on valid, approved warranty claims.

What they wont pay for is

(a) something that is wear and tear
(b) the diagnostic time when it turns out to be wear and tear, not a fault.

That is not an unreasonable stance - why would KIA UK pay for a diagnostic that turns out to be wear and tear?

Also from the dealers perspective, if they have a mechanic pulling your car apart to get to the potential failure, and it turns out to be wear and tear, they've wasted a days revenue earning for that mechanic.

I guess what you need to do is get a fixed price for the dealer for the clutch replacement, on the proviso that if its found to be faulty they recover the cost from KIA UK. OR if its premature failure then at that point get the dealer to push KIA UK for a part refund.

That WILL cost more than your local mechanic BUT you've a chance of a refund or part refund, but at least it will be a KIA clutch fitted by a KIA dealer thus protecting your future warranty.

debtdebt

Pay the local garage £600 to fit a new clutch.

photome

debtdebt wrote: »

Pay the local garage £600 to fit a new clutch.

Why would you do that if Kia will pay, as I posted in post 5, they paid for mine