What is the obsession with warranties?

[jgm038]

I traded in my 2013 Cadillac ATS 3.6L AWD for my GTI. I got my ATS practically new, without the warranty I would have been out thousands of dollars.
~10k miles - Infotainment failure, total cost would have been about ~1400 dollars.
~22k miles - Torque converter failure, 2000+
~30k miles - Solenoid failure , maybe 200 dollars.
~40k miles - Rear differential failure, 3000+ dollars.

I have high hopes my GTI wont be as big a POS as my ATS, but that is why a warranty is important to me. Once it's up I will most likely go stage 1 that week though.

 

[cb1111]

If you're concerned about the warranty...then don't mod. Its pretty simple. If you get a tune and then have engine issues...take the car to the dealer and let VW decide whether they'll fix your car. If the dealer can't determine if the failure came from the modification...then VW will send out their own tech to evaluate and decide. I've seen it go both ways. You roll the dice when you decide to modify your car. Friend of mine got a new trans in his IS20 swapped wagon. He went to the dealer with the JB4 installed. Intake, IC, downpipe, suspension mods....they still gave him a new transmission.

Maybe VW should offer an option to opt out of a warranty for a lower price. I would think the cost of the warranty is included with the price of the car. There are guys that throw the warranty out the window the day they get the car.

Won't work. While the cost of a warranty is factored into the price, it is like insurance - the great number of insured people allow the cost to be low. If VW would allow people to opt out then the cost of the cars would rise dramatically.

Let me give you an example - my dental insurance is $35 a month or $420 a year. I go to a dentist twice a year and the allowable charges are about 300 - so the insurance company makes 120. If I have a cavity or need a crown, then the insurance company pays out more on MY account but saves that 120 on tens of thousands of others. If those tens of thousands of others weren't there then my premiums would be far higher.

If a manufacturer allowed an opt-out, then they would have to raise the prices of the car to make up for it.

 

[cb1111]

Give a single case or precedent for your claim.

Here you go

The issue is not IF people go to jail, but if they COULD go to jail.

I used to hang out on a watch forum and people were always saying that it wasn't a big deal if they re-sold a fake watch until people started going to jail.

The bottom line is that you're not going to be charged for trying to get a warranty claim you're not entitled to because it probably isn't worth it to the dealer, but it certainly is possible.

 

[cb1111]

The reality is, even modded, VW is covering know issues like the water pump/thermostat housing issues. The reality is, modding isn't what causes factory parts to fail within the warranty period, but it's become a good excuse to deny coverage for some manufactures and dealers.

I disagree. EVERY significant failure I've had with my cars was due to a properly installed mod.

 

[jimlloyd40]

Won't work. While the cost of a warranty is factored into the price, it is like insurance - the great number of insured people allow the cost to be low. If VW would allow people to opt out then the cost of the cars would rise dramatically.

Let me give you an example - my dental insurance is $35 a month or $420 a year. I go to a dentist twice a year and the allowable charges are about 300 - so the insurance company makes 120. If I have a cavity or need a crown, then the insurance company pays out more on MY account but saves that 120 on tens of thousands of others. If those tens of thousands of others weren't there then my premiums would be far higher.

If a manufacturer allowed an opt-out, then they would have to raise the prices of the car to make up for it.

Even if an a warranty opt out was legal, which I'm not sure it is, it would be a nightmare for the manufacturer with all the lawsuits they would face by people pissed off that whatever breakage they had is still the manufacturers fault and they shouldn't have to pay to fix it.

 

[Acadia18]

Here you go

The issue is not IF people go to jail, but if they COULD go to jail.

I used to hang out on a watch forum and people were always saying that it wasn't a big deal if they re-sold a fake watch until people started going to jail.

The bottom line is that you're not going to be charged for trying to get a warranty claim you're not entitled to because it probably isn't worth it to the dealer, but it certainly is possible.

Dude, that's not even close to the same thing, and you know it. That's like saying you could get arrested for stealing a loaf of bread from a store, and proving it by linking an article about Bernie Madoff stealing $65b from investors. It's not even the same sport. I won't deny that trying to get around warranty restrictions with shady tactics is wrong and shouldn't be done, but c'mon man...

What's even funny about you linking that, is the actual warranty fraud has nothing to do with what they were charged with. Per that article, they were charged with 9 counts of wire and mail fraud.

 

[Strange Mud]

Give a single case or precedent for your claim.

do you doubt it's a crime or just doubt it'll be charged? (curious)

Jim

 

[Ezekiel81923]

This isn't unique to cars. Customers try to get one over on companies to avoid paying for their mistakes ALL the time. Not just car owners towards dealers. If you had a warranty on your windows, and your kid broke the glass, are you gonna call and tell them your kid broke it? Or are you going to say I came home from work and noticed it was broken, I don't know what happened, please replace it?

I've been in customer service for 18 years and it would amaze you the lengths some people will go and how often I see it. My guess is the vast majority of companies, including ones the size of VW and the company I work for, are not suing their customers for anything like this. Burden of proof falls on the company, and they have to be good at sniffing these out. But they won't get them all, and that's a sunk cost that's factored in just like everything else. Plus they don't want to build a reputation for being the company that sues it's customers.

Car people have been trying to get warranty work done on modded cars with varying degrees of success since car culture became a thing. This is not new and no one is getting in real trouble (at least not 99.9999% of people like you and me).

 

[GTIfan99]

do you doubt it's a crime or just doubt it'll be charged? (curious)

Jim

I doubt that the law has been interpreted in that way and anyone has ever been charged for that.

 

[IanCH]

Anyone saying VW is going to sue one of their customers over a warranty claim has very little grasp of the law or public relations.

The only chance you *might* see anything close to that is if a dealership was routinely violating the standards for warranty repairs and did it to hundreds of cars while billing VW - which we know isn't even really possible since major claims get passed for review to VWoA. They would be suing themselves for negligence.

 

[GTIfan99]

This is wild.

I try to not mess with my warranty after my somewhat lemon of an MKV FSI GTI. New long block, dual-mass flywheel, and a couple of HPFP would have cost me thousands out of pocket. Probably not a ton of cases like that, but I can be patient until at least the powertrain warranty runs out.

I've owned 3 lemon's our of 30+ new cars. One Subaru, one Audi and one VW. They started having issues pretty much from day one. It was no surprise. Makes sense to wait maybe 5 or 10k miles, but no way I'm waiting 6 years or 72k miles to mod.

 

[tigeo]

I've owned 3 lemon's our of 30+ new cars. One Subaru, one Audi and one VW. They started having issues pretty much from day one. It was no surprise. Makes sense to wait maybe 5 or 10k miles, but no way I'm waiting 6 years or 72k miles to mod.

30 new cars! Holy shit. I'm 47 and have personally had 3...hahahaha. You are right though, always good to wait a few mos/few '000 miles to makes sure there isn't anything wrong b/c that's when the big stuff should happen.

 

[GTIfan99]

30 new cars! Holy shit. I'm 47 and have personally had 3...hahahaha. You are right though, always good to wait a few mos/few '000 miles to makes sure there isn't anything wrong b/c that's when the big stuff should happen.

I have an addiction to new cars. It's good thing I like working, because I could have invested that money and retired. Just bought my wife a new car last week to replace her 3 year old car. We typically have 2 to 5 cars in the family that get replace every 3 years, so I'm buying a car almost every year, sometimes more often if I get bored. If I couldn't afford new cars, I'd be the guy with 8 used cars in various states of repair in the driveway. I just love cars.

 

[avenali312]

I've owned 3 lemon's our of 30+ new cars. One Subaru, one Audi and one VW. They started having issues pretty much from day one. It was no surprise. Makes sense to wait maybe 5 or 10k miles, but no way I'm waiting 6 years or 72k miles to mod.

30 new cars! Holy shit. I'm 47 and have personally had 3...hahahaha. You are right though, always good to wait a few mos/few '000 miles to makes sure there isn't anything wrong b/c that's when the big stuff should happen.

That's what was most crazy about that car. First HPFP was in the 30k range. Long block was replaced at 49,500 (dangerously close to the 50k cutoff for the warranty). Most of the major failures were very late.

 

[GTIfan99]

That's what was most crazy about that car. First HPFP was in the 30k range. Long block was replaced at 49,500 (dangerously close to the 50k cutoff for the warranty). Most of the major failures were very late.

That's when you get a junk yard engine, swap it in, and sell it as fast as possible.