Car waranty just expired by 5 days and now has a fault

john3:16

My wife's car had a 3-yr warranty which just expired last week. Suprise, suprise a fault was detected this morning. The part that failed shouldn't fail this early in its life but it has.

The bill will be £400.

Is there anything I could do to have the car dealership waive or discount this bill as a "good will gesture" or something?

Thanks
Gerry

hollydays

Someone on another thread said the same happened with their bmw mini-and the dealership honoured it.You cant make someone give a goodwill gesture-you have to make them want to show you goodwill.

john3:16

Hi

I'm thinking along the lines of Sale of Goods Act which I believe goes beyond any Warranty period. The part has failed well before its life expectancy and I feel that it was therefore not fit for purpose when sold. Not sure if I could push this on them.

Also I'm thinking about the customer loyalty aspect here too in that we have had a couple of cars from this dealership over the last few years (from new) and hopefully they could take that into account.

Can anyone suggest anything else? They are currently billing us for £400.

Thanks
Gerry

hollydays

If you can name the make and model and the part,i am sure you will get some advice.

john3:16

The car is a VW Touran and the part that failed is called a Lambda Sensor. I think the part monitors and controls the mix of the fuel in the exhaust.

Thanks
Gerry

hollydays

You also might want to search honestjohn website the backroom forum-there are some faq s on garage service rip-offs-including lambda sensor

mvteng

After a bit of debate my local Skoda garage waived labour charges on a similar problem approx 6 months after warranty had expired.

If you have built up any relationship with the salesman or service manager, now is the time to exploit it.

davetrousers

Get a quote elsewhere just so you know if it is a fair price or not.

Some Lambda probes are generic and can be quite cheap (£20 ish maybe) some others aren't and can be very expensive!. Their fitting is in theory straightforwards (ie unscrew the old on and screw in the new one) but the reality can be a lot more awkward as access to them is not always easy.

Look at some VW owners forums for some advice. You could maybe consider getting VAG com connector for fault diagnosis and resetting the engine Management light. I have got a little connector with a small digital readout on it and a reset button for resetting the engine management light for my car, cost about £16 on ebay.