When was the last time you read you new car warranty booklet thoroughly?
Do you really have a full manufacturers warranty or is it just a partial manufacturers warranty and the rest is from a 3rdparty provider?
Have you checked to see if you can claim the same defective part twice during the warranty period? Does the warranty cover all parts? Are some critical parts covered in your warranty?
Yes, there was a time when new cars sold in Malaysia had just 24 months’ manufacturer warranty. Then, Hyundai decided to give its customers a long 60 months (5-years) manufacturers warranty. Hyundai was the first car company to do this. This move ‘persuaded’ the Japanese brands to move up their warranties to 60 months as well.
Then after a few years, the European car brands made the same bold move and NEW car owners across Malaysia were happy, but no one congratulated Hyundai for ‘forcing’ the rest to follow.
Now years later, more and more NEW car owners are coming to us with extensive warranty issues and from established brands. So, why are there so many issues with new cars?
Many in after sales are doing little to keep new cars owners happy as many of these new cars come with complicated electronics and latest cabin connectivity which can be wishy washy in reliability.
So, we at www.dsf.my try and see where and how we can assist some of our readers who have seriously ‘Lemon’ cars. Cars that should be ‘bought back’ by the car brand as the breakdowns and failures are pages long and months in issue are back in the workshop over and over without a cure to the problems.
We then look at the given manufacturers warranty. After taking the warranty document to task we find that some new car warranties only have a 2 years’ manufacturers warranty and the following 3 years is a warranty program from an insurance provider or a 3rd party company.
Then we match the dates of constant re-occurring breakdowns to the warranty and realize that most issues start just before the end of the 2 year manufacturers warranty and the company delays this issues until it is past the 2-year date and then pass on the issues to the insurance or 3rd party warranty provider who will make it very difficult to claim to ensure their profit margins are healthy.
The car owners suffer and sometimes even seeks the help of tribunals and lawyers but only a handful get their claims which takes a long time and meanwhile they have their cars stuck in the workshop or their home and monthly installments continue without the ability to use their cars.
Here is where the grey imported car or a used car does not sound that bad anymore as used car warranties can now be bought with better after care as there are more and more professional workshops being operated by owners who look after car owners and want to keep them happy to refer new customers to them, unlike employees in brand authorized workshops who just are salaried employees and have little initiative to look after customers.
We have a few old cars in our garage and we get excellent after sales from our preferred regular neighborhood workshop, we get door to door service, we get to order in spare parts online at low prices and we have attentive mechanic that ensures we enjoy our cars.
Share with us your horror stories on new car after sales if any to allow us to then get a ‘movement’ to persuade authorized car brands to be more serious about after sales.
