So just out of curiosity what would you think of a car company who had essentially no warranty parameters, meaning, they advise you when you purchase the vehicle that it comes with a warranty of X years or Y miles But, they don't really go by it–

For example, they have a basic warranty and a powertrain warranty (Let’s go with the classic 3year 36,000 mile comprehensive and 5 year 60,000 powertrain), but if you had, say 80,000 miles on your vehicle, and a 36,000 mile warranty part (Say the alternator or something like a door handle) broke and you just complain about it and they cover it under warranty for you.

Or, say you have a bad experience at a dealership and you complain and the car company *not the dealer but the actual car company* decides to refund you the money you spent at the dealership because the dealership was not willing.

Or, how about if you bought a car and it did not come with item X. But item X is sold as an accessory. You complain to the car maker and the car maker decides to give you item X for free.

And one more hypothetical situation- say you put aftermarket part Z on your car and it causes transmission problems. The dealer declines to repair it under warranty because it was caused by an aftermarket product. So you complain to the car maker. The car maker decides to either repair It under warranty OR pay for half or pay for parts (offer some kind of discount on the repair) and tells you to not put any more aftermarket parts on the car because this is a one time assistance.

Does this affect your views on the car maker? If so, in a good or bad way?

(its not MY situation, none of these are situations I have ever been in- its all hypothetical, I just want to know if a car company did this, would it affect consumer opinion positively, negatively or not at all)

 

huh?


sounds like you've been treated and dealt with correctly in all instances.


both the dealer and the manufacturer went OUT OF THEIR WAY and gave YOU MORE than they NEEDED to.

 

Haha no no its not my situation, its a hypothetical question- i'm saying IF a car company were to do this, would if change the views of the consumer on the car company in a positive or negative way, or have no affect at all

 

so are you asking "if a car company actually cared about your problems and was willing to spend extra time and money to make your life easier would that be good?". yes, yes it would.

 

well, i would appreciate the extra service. however, i would like to point out one thing... for a car company to do that sort of thing means they have to raise prices to offset their costs. you have to build in that "extra mile" cost in a car at that point. so, what happens to joe schmo that likes to work on his own cars once they're out of warranty? he's paid extra for nothing. i would rather pay for the service when i need it, or get it as a warranty upgrade. these "grey areas" are not really all that great.

and who is to say everyone would get treated the same. i could see it now.... "but my buddy came in last week and you did it for free, but you want to half it with me this week?" all because the week before, they had an extra part lying around. it's a nice concept, but a very steep, slippery slope.

 

Thank you for the replies--


I just wanted to see what consumer's perceptions would be if the car maker did such things-- i could see the potential downfalls and the potential benefit, i'm just trying to see which one outweighs the other

 

certain and most times when something like that happens..

it's more the dealership eats the cost.... at which then it's not the car company or manufacturer or maker.. but the dealership.. granted it's the dealerships out there that's more providing the image to the consumers...

but the consumer needs to realize that... your hypothetical situation can indeed occur where the car maker itself goes out of their way to help you when you claim that a dealership is not servicing you correctly..

imo, it provides consumers an image where.. yes.. the car maker IS there to help you.. and is not gonna immediately screw you over... though most times when it comes to major warranty work.. they will conduct a thorough investigation.

whatever gets done is gonna be paid for in some form or another.

and abusing the privilege.. happens as well... but those guys up there aren't stupid... and in some ways screw the people over that really need the help.