I've been bitten by todays useless warranty scheme

[gadge]

I'll firstly conceded that I'm a bit of a warranty Virgin. The cars that I've usually bought (with the exception of a punto in 2000) have been around the three years or plus old so never really had to deal with warranty issues but today I did and I got stung

The problem was with the bravo. The rear washer stopped working (It was leaking from the washer bottle every time I operated it) and the front wipers seemed to behave very erratically in that even on the slowest setting with the minimum amount of rain on the window they would go to the quickest setting and wouldn't stop a faulty sensor perhaps? Time to ring Reasearch in Nuneaton I thought and get it looked at and seen as though it's only two and a half years old I was very confident that any problems would be sorted with no charge this rather overconfident attitude came back to bite me.

I rang them up to see how things were and was told that a hose from the washer bottle had perished and they could fix it for £35. "Oh? I have to pay" "yes" she said and went on to explain that the pipe is not covered under warranty. The conversation was a lengthy one but it transpires that the car isn't totally covered for three years when new. Being a new car novice this news was new to me as when I bought the car in December last year the lady said it was still covered up until January 2016 but doesn't cover wear and tear items like tyres and brake parts which of course kind of made sense and I took that to mean unless it was a serviable item then it would be covered but of course the Devils in the detail. It turns out the cars got a three year warranty BUT after two years the warranty becomes less effective meaning that certain items - like for instance rubber hoses - aren't accually covered.

So I conceded and instructed them to fix it. Ironically the front wiper issue they said could be faulty sensor and maybe sorted under the three year part of the warranty. I'm waiting for a phone call on that issue. I have the car back now but I feel a tad disappointed in the warranty schemes on new cars these days. Why can't a three year warranty cover hoses and pipes? Why can't a perishable item such as a rubber hose be covered? A pipe shouldn't fail after two and a half years should it? I guess stuff just isn't made to last and the manufactures know it.

 

[portland_bill]

The hose could have been split at some time by a freeze in the fluid if not protected with additive. Can't be proven either way, so these sort of items are unlikely to be covered by any manufacturer. In the first two years they'd just wear it, but the extra year they can afford to be less generous.

The sensor/switching issue should be covered.

 

[gadge]

The hose could have been split at some time by a freeze in the fluid if not protected with additive. Can't be proven either way, so these sort of items are unlikely to be covered by any manufacturer. In the first two years they'd just wear it, but the extra year they can afford to be less generous.

The sensor/switching issue should be covered.

That's pretty much what the girl said so had me over a barrel really. If fiat won't cover hoses then that's it. No argument. I just thought maybe certain rubber items would be covered, I mean how many items in a car contain rubber? Brakes hoses, bushes, seals. As a new car novice I (rather wrongly it seemed) just assumed that when you bought a car either new or within three years old it was simply covered for things like split washer hoses and the like but in reality it's only two - the third year essentially the car is only half covered or not covered as much, if you like.

Ironically the sensor is covered by the third year warranty - they phoned me up this morning so the one thing that I thought they wouldn't fix at all, they can and the other thing that I was certain they would fix for nothing cost me £35. Bonkers.