Your Factory Warranty could Save you Money!

By Dave Trux

Many auto repair shops will perform work on cars that are still under factory warranty, but you should proceed with caution. Why? Not long ago, we had a customer who had some timing chain work done for around $2,700. She became a customer of ours after she became suspicious of her previous shop. One day, I had mentioned that there were some things that were recalls that we may want to do, now that we started taking care of her car. When I mentioned the timing chain, she said just had that done by another shop and she paid $2,700 for it. Come to find out it, this was covered under her warranty and the shop owner knew it!

Here’s a good rule of thumb: If you have a car that’s less than 7 years of age, it doesn’t hurt to call the manufacturer to see if any proposed repair is covered under your warranty. Most people don’t know that some components of an engine or a car actually carry, by federal mandate, a warranty much longer than what the manufacturer’s normal factory warranty is. So, they may see that they have a problem with a certain component of a car and end up covering it under warranty. If you have any questions or doubts, don’t be afraid to ask!

Don’t just limit this question to your repair shop. Get a second opinion. We make it a priority to know about these things as much as possible. For example, if we have a car that comes in that was built in 2009 that has 70,000 something miles on it and it needs major engine work, I’m going to go back to the manufacturer and say, “Hey, this is a little out of the ordinary, is this something you will cover?” If that doesn’t work, a quick web search will turn up the truth.

We’ve also had people come to us and say, “I need to replace this timing chain and I heard it was covered under warranty.” From there, we can council them on what to do. I don’t think most people know that there could be things that are covered under a service bulletin that go beyond the standard warranty, especially if it’s a defect in the car’s design. If a component in your car breaks, like the door handle, if it is still under warranty, the manufacturer will have to fix it.