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One commonly said counterpoint is that having independent dealers means you get better warranty service. Here's how it works. I had a Subaru, and Subaru had a
by wumpus 4y ago
One commonly said counterpoint is that having independent dealers means you get better warranty service. Here's how it works.
I had a Subaru, and Subaru had a problem for a decade+ that their head gaskets were tissue paper and frequently failed. So I had one free replacement mid-warranty.
I went in just after the warranty expired for a normal service and lo and behold, the head gasket was bad again. The dealer replaced it for free. What happened? They defrauded Subaru.
So sure, there's an advantage. Not only will a dealer happily be aggressive at any warranty repair, they'll even commit fraud doing it.
- bombcar 4y agoOften companies have leeway on warranties - when I did warranty work we had a five year warranty but could give a replacement up to six months “out of warranty” if needed.
- imroot 4y agoDealers have almost wide latitude about submitting and getting paid for "good will" warranty claims, as long as they don't abuse it. Sometimes manufactures will direct dealers to fix things that are long out of warranty when weird things happen (like in Seattle when that radio station sent out a bug that bricked the radios over RDS -- the manufacture directed the dealerships via a service memo to replace the radios and bill the manufacture). Service is a decent part of most dealerships these days, and a good amount of that income is driven from warranty claims.
- wumpus 4y agoAll car companies have "service memos". It has nothing to do with dealers.