Warranty with Apple Car Play

htbgibbons

Hi,

In August 2020 I purchased an MG3 2019 from a second hand garage which had built-in apple car play. I did not have an iPhone at the time but purchased one later in the year. Since it had the feature advertised with the car I figured I may as well make use of it.

There has always been a problem with it where occasionally while being used plugging my phone in will make the in-car screen turn completely black. It will still play music from the phone but will not show any maps or anything else that car play is used for. None of the buttons on the wheel or dashboard work except the volume and air conditioning.

I contacted the garage and took my car in. I was told that they would take the screen out of the car and check the components however when I collected the car, it turns out all they had done is plug their own iPhone in and decided that it was working fine. I did explain that it is only an issue that happens occasionally but it is very inconvenient (being stranded somewhere with no access to maps). I had video evidence which they refused to see. I was told that they would have to contact MG HQ to see what they say.

I waited and received no response from the garage so after a week I contacted them. They informed me that their internal communications was down (and another car which was a lot more serious of a problem than mine) was still waiting as well. Another few weeks passed when I contacted them and this time they said the car would have to be taken back into the garage.

I was informed that this time they would plug my car in and check for an technical problems. They had my car for the entire day. When it was dropped back off to me, I ended up speaking to one of the directors. He told me that all they had done is plug their phones in and found no issue. I said that I had been told that the screen would be taken out or the car would be plugged in to do diagnostics. He said that the person who had told me this had been lying and none of this was possible. He told me that they would just have to keep plugging their phones in so they could see the problem happen. I told him that I had video evidence which I sent. I also found out at this time that the excuse about their internal communication with Mg being down was also a lie…

After watching the video I was asked to contact apple to rule out my phone being the issue. Apple were incredible and worked through several different tests. Ultimately I ended up trying my sister in laws IPhone which also happened to not work. Since it is an occasional issue it was pure luck that it stopped working the day we tried. I took picture evidence and went back to the MG garage with this.

After this point the garage got very defensive with me. They said that actually it is due to the compatibility of the iPhone and a 2020 iPhone (we both had 2020 iPhones and the car is a 2019 model) would not work. From what I have researched about Apple car play, I have not seen anything about phones and cars not being cross compatible.

Luckily, I managed to find someone with a 2018 iPhone. I tried this one and again out of pure luck it did not work. I went back to the Mg garage and told them that I was aware of my own rights. My car is only 2 years old with a 7 year warranty. They had not done enough to check there was definitely not something wrong with the car and if they refuse to fix it I have the right to take it to a third party and they would be eligible for the cost.

At this point they got very defensive again and told me to book my car in. I tried booking and asked what dates were available. I sent over a date which would say it me but the garage did not reply. I emailed again asking to confirm the appointment, to which the director replied very bluntly saying that these are the dates available. I did not attend because with a lack of confirmation of my chosen date, I did not feel comfortable wasting my time and money travelling when they could just refuse me.

I would rather not take it to a third party because I know it can be a pain to reclaim the money. I contacted the main MG HQ who initially refused to deal with me. I persisted saying that my car is under warranty and a garage is refusing to fix it. They also tried the compatibility line with me which I rejected saying that I have tried an older iPhone and it still did not work - I specifically asked the question, what iPhone IS compatible then? Their response is that the garage has not found any faults through a diagnostic with the car so it must be a compatibility problem. I again replied that the reason the garage has found no faults is because they haven’t run a diagnostic - the director of that particular garage told me it was not possible. The MG HQ also told me that since the car gets me from A to B, I have no reason to complain if a feature of the car does not work as ‘expected’. Again I replied saying that it is not a case of the feature not working as ‘expected’, but rather a case of a feature not working at all sometimes.

Sorry for the long post, a lot has happened with this situation and I did not want to miss out anything potentially important.

My main question is what rights do I have? Is the HQ right that I cannot take it further since it is just a feature and the car still functionally works as a car? It seems as though a diagnostic could be run by the garage, but they have had my car in twice but have not done one and are refusing to do so.

thank you for any advice

JJ_Egan

2019 model what warranty is that ?? Manufactures warranty may not cover all aspects .You would need to read it .

A more important point if its a warranty is it actually transferable from the first user .

htbgibbons

Thanks for the reply. It is a 7 year warranty and it has been transferred to myself. In the email they did say if there was a fault with that it would be covered by the warranty and any parts would be replaced. Problem is they are refusing to check to see if there is anything wrong. 

JJ_Egan

Then you may need to prove your problem via an independent report .

uknick

htbgibbons said:

Thanks for the reply. It is a 7 year warranty and it has been transferred to myself. In the email they did say if there was a fault with that it would be covered by the warranty and any parts would be replaced. Problem is they are refusing to check to see if there is anything wrong. 

As it's an MG under manufacturer warranty, can't you try another dealer?

born_again

Odds on issue is with the phone. Which is which what I-Phone?
Make sure it is fully updated to latest software. Using the correct cable. 
Given their phone worked & you have 2 that have not. I would favour a cable issue. So dig out a proper Apple one that came with the phone.

elsien

It might help if when you talk to them, you’re not exaggerating the issues.

“ I did explain that it is only an issue that happens occasionally but it is very inconvenient (being stranded somewhere with no access to maps).”

Except you aren’t stranded without a map, because you can still access the map on your phone. 

If they gave you available dates, was the one you requested one of them?

You don’t want to go to a third party, so proving there’s a fault via a report would seem to be the only other option once you’ve ruled out the phone/cable issue.

uknick

born_again said:

Odds on issue is with the phone. Which is which what I-Phone?
Make sure it is fully updated to latest software. Using the correct cable. 
Given their phone worked & you have 2 that have not. I would favour a cable issue. So dig out a proper Apple one that came with the phone.

From what they've said, it's probably not a phone issue as they've tried a number of different ones.  But, you could well be right about testing with a different, genuine, cable.

born_again

uknick said:

born_again said:

Odds on issue is with the phone. Which is which what I-Phone?
Make sure it is fully updated to latest software. Using the correct cable. 
Given their phone worked & you have 2 that have not. I would favour a cable issue. So dig out a proper Apple one that came with the phone.

From what they've said, it's probably not a phone issue as they've tried a number of different ones.  But, you could well be right about testing with a different, genuine, cable.

Going back to OP
>>They said that actually it is due to the compatibility of the iPhone and a 2020 iPhone (we both had 2020 iPhones and the car is a 2019 model) would not work. From what I have researched about Apple car play, I have not seen anything about phones and cars not being cross compatible.<<

There can be issues. It is possible that MG need a software upgrade to fix a API issue. That may have been fine on older IOS, but is now a issue on new IOS.
There are known issues with IOS 14 & 15 and car head units.

Below only being one report
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/quick-fixes-for-the-carplay-crashes-happening-after-the-latest-iphone-update-170835.html

Which is pretty much the OP issue.

[Deleted User]

You probably need a software update. Unfortunately finding out if one is available isn't simple. Your best bet might be to look for an MG owners forum where you can ask other people who will know what the latest version of the software is and how to check your version.

htbgibbons

elsien said:

It might help if when you talk to them, you’re not exaggerating the issues.

“ I did explain that it is only an issue that happens occasionally but it is very inconvenient (being stranded somewhere with no access to maps).”

Except you aren’t stranded without a map, because you can still access the map on your phone. 

If they gave you available dates, was the one you requested one of them?

You don’t want to go to a third party, so proving there’s a fault via a report would seem to be the only other option once you’ve ruled out the phone/cable issue.

Well I find it a lot safer to view the maps on the dashboard than I do from my phone - not only that but not too long ago I was stranded because my phone has died and I was unable to charge it using the car because it then connected to the car play.

End of the day, the car was advertised as having car play. If that’s the case then it should work without having to do anything else with it.

They basically told me any day except for one they had availability. When I asked them for the one date they never confirmed this appointment.

Thanks for the advice, I will look into it.