When is a warranty not a warranty.

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Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Many owners seem to have the idea that warranty is paid for by the manufacturer. The dealer contributes much $ to warranty work. The manufacturer usually pays only a poverty wholesale rate for labour and reimburses parts at cost. A dealer needs to have sufficient fat in new car sales to retain $ to subsidise warranty work. Want to be real popular? Buy a car in say Melbourne because you got a real good deal there. You live in Wollongong. The 'gong dealer has no retained fat so won't be too enthusiastic about servicing a vehicle bought elsewhere by a local cheap Charlie. Not unknown for exasperated dealers to tell a client to take it back where they bloody well bought it and get them to fix it.

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Not necessarily so Brian. Warranty isn't a revenue stream, although many dealers try and make it one. Warranty is there to cover the costs without making profit, this is why retail work always bests warranty in workshop priorities.

Depending on the manufacturer, anything up to retail labour rates are paid but most pay enough to cover the workshop costs. You're correct about parts being reimbursed at cost, again this is due to warranty not being a revenue stream but a means to address faulty materials or workmanship at no cost to the owner while covering the workshop costs.

Any dealer that refuses warranty work to be done risks losing their dealer status from the manufacturer and legal action from the individual.

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Originally Posted by solmanic

We had a loaner for a week early this year with only 200-odd km on it and the nooks and crannys were full of cobwebs and dead beetles.

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There were Morris 1500's lined up in serried ranks at BMC Zetland. Some had footwells full of water and kikuyu grass shoots growing through the door seals to get to the water. God knows how old some were before BMC were quit of them.

Yep! I can remember getting a certain colour Nomad pulled out of the holding yard at Zetland and the floor stayed there,held by the grass,just a small area attached to the box channels :D the baby "Landcrabs" were not so bad we moved most of them intact :)

cheers

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Originally Posted by solmanic

On the warranty and dealership issue - MB have introduced us to a whole new world of outstanding sucking-up we never experienced with Land Rover. And we didn't even buy from the local dealership either. It was Land Rover's **** poor warranty response and shocking "customer service" that finally drove us away. The dealership response wasn't all that bad (despite fantastic fueds we know others have had), it was LRA that were the real ******.

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Hi solmanic and I love Land Rovers, even this heap I have but, I am not a mechanic nor do I want to be one. Got over that in my youth.

As such, I buy new vehicles so that if something does go wrong, it is the dealer’s/manufacturer’s problem, not mine, or so that is how it is supposed to be.

As is now becoming very obvious, LRA threat their warranties as nothing more than a sales gimmick and have now intentions of honouring them.

Even though I am a Land Rover enthusiast, if I could have sold this heap, I would have, 3 years ago.

The problem has been that from before the warranty ran out, the RR could not pass a Vehicle Roadworthy Inspection and it has only been in the last 4 weeks that I have managed to get most of the systems working, thanks to some great help from people on here and a huge amount of assistance from people on the fullfatrr web site.

For the passed 3 years, if I wanted to get rid of this heap, I could only have sold it as an unregistered vehicle, and you can imagine how much $$$ I would have lost.

Again, I love Land Rovers and if I lived in some other country, I would continue buying them.

But as LRA make it a practise to ignore their warranty obligations, why would anybody in their right mind buy a new LR when the last one, as in my case, came with out a warranty.

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Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Many owners seem to have the idea that warranty is paid for by the manufacturer. The dealer contributes much $ to warranty work. The manufacturer usually pays only a poverty wholesale rate for labour and reimburses parts at cost. A dealer needs to have sufficient fat in new car sales to retain $ to subsidise warranty work. Want to be real popular? Buy a car in say Melbourne because you got a real good deal there. You live in Wollongong. The 'gong dealer has no retained fat so won't be too enthusiastic about servicing a vehicle bought elsewhere by a local cheap Charlie. Not unknown for exasperated dealers to tell a client to take it back where they bloody well bought it and get them to fix it.

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Warranty is paid by the manufacturer albeit at a reduced rate. A dealer has no right to refuse warranty because it was purchases else where and has to honor warranty regardless of where it was purchased.

Plenty of evidence around that this is not an approach to customer service that is limited to LRA. In fact you would probably find it difficult to find a motor brand that doesn't have similar claims against them.
Also keep in mind that bad news gets more press than good news generally.
I do have past direct experience in a role where I had access to the Ford dealer support system, reading some of the instructions from Ford was interesting.
'Do not replace unless customer continues to complain and requests escalation'
'Machine discs, if reported again by customer machine discs until wear limit is reached'
Not direct quotes obviously, but the theme was constant.
'Don't do it unless the customer can't be fobbed off again'

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Originally Posted by SuperMono

Plenty of evidence around that this is not an approach to customer service that is limited to LRA.

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Yep and VW Australia is a perfect example.

They were having so many problems with the different importing companies they had used, they finally got rid of them and for about the last 3 years, VW Australia has actually been VW Germany.

This is what is desperately needed with LRA. Land Rover UK needs to take over and run the Australian show themselves.

I should have posted this earlier but time seems to get away from me.......... For myself after the complete engine failure due to a slipped big end bearing at 118000 Kms and LRA's not accepting any part of it even though that fault has been documented numerous times on various websites and explaining their position as "you have used it for offroad 4 wheel driving" I will not now knowingly support LRA in any way whatsoever. All parts are either aftermarket or bought from overseas and all servicing is now done by an independant. I might add that the sub 20000 Km replacement motor ( a lot cheaper than a new Landrover motor) has now completed 130000 Kms and so far blemish free. The car is due for replacement and for once I am looking at all options and I will need a lot of convincing to purchase another Landrover.

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Originally Posted by drivesafe

Yep and VW Australia is a perfect example.

They were having so many problems with the different importing companies they had used, they finally got rid of them and for about the last 3 years, VW Australia has actually been VW Germany.

This is what is desperately needed with LRA. Land Rover UK needs to take over and run the Australian show themselves.

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seems it has not helped them lift their game... ;)

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Originally Posted by drivesafe

...For the passed 3 years, if I wanted to get rid of this heap, I could only have sold it as an unregistered vehicle, and you can imagine how much $$$ I would have lost...

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I am just glad my warranty issues were minor and it was more a matter of the principle and happy coincidence that I was looking to trade up when they ****ed me off. The one thing Land Rover taught me is that if any warranty work is not 100% perfect and fixed to you absolute satisfaction then keep ringing and emailing and ringing and emailing and taking the vehicle back until it is. I have a phonebook of warranty repair job sheets for my last Defender which show a litany of minor but repeated fixes. Things like A/C three times, dash trim three times, door trim four times, water leaking through the windscreen/firewall three times, mis-aligned bodywork around the rear door twice. All small but none of which should have taken more than a single trip to fix.