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> but I've never heard of anyone having say, an alternator go bad, have an aftermarket part blamed for it, then taking the dealer to court over it and winning.
by kllrnohj 6y ago
> but I've never heard of anyone having say, an alternator go bad, have an aftermarket part blamed for it, then taking the dealer to court over it and winning.
Have you ever heard of someone having an alternator go bad and then the dealer blaming an aftermarket part on it in the first place?
I've never had dealers seek out aftermarket modifications when I get service done at all. They just want to get cars in & out quickly, and they bill the manufacturer for warranty work anyway so why would they care if you had related aftermarket modifications? They only push back if they think they won't get reimbursed by the manufacturer for the warranty work. Which would tend to require "obvious" data showing modifications as a likely suspect.
Tesla changes this by having the service centers also be owned by the same company footing the bill. So this is likely to be way more common of a battle going forward, though.
- gameswithgo 6y agoI think shops generally get better money when they charge you directly than when they get re-imbursed. Otherwise I could only explain their tendency to get out of warranty work as a sense of responsibility and that seems unlikely.
- kube-system 6y agoIt depends. I believe warranty work is typically done at a flat "book rate" paid by the manufacturer based on their estimate of how long it 'should' take. If they can do it quicker, then it works out in their favor. If you read mechanic forums, they'll talk about their shortcuts for common warranty work. (like Takata airbag replacements)
- aeonsky 6y agoBlaming aftermarket parts for non related failures is very common for luxury brands especially German ones: Audi & Mercedes are biggest culprits. Some Audi dealers would void almost your entire power train warranty for simple things like an aftermarket cold air intake.