It happens every day, in every corner of the country, to every type of consumer: the toaster, laptop, stove or vehicle part fails just days, kilometers or hours after the manufacturer’s warranty expires. But what’s the fastest way to get some assistance or compensation when it comes to our daily drivers?
In automotive industry parlance, it’s referred to as goodwill or policy adjustments. It’s such a common occurrence that every automaker has a written procedure on how to handle things. Here’s how to cut through the red-tape:
If the problem is minor, forget about it. If it’s less than $100, dig out your plastic and pay the bill. This isn’t about giving up your principles or letting some corporate bigwig get away with selling you a pig in a poke; it’s about picking your battles and valuing your time. If you’re going to be without your car for a week while you fight over a $70 repair, it really isn’t worth the effort.
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Call your retailer – not the manufacturer – first. Every automaker has policies that let their retailers make goodwill decisions (up to a limit) without getting head-office approval. Some dealerships even pass this power down to their service counter consultants to speed up the process. If a retailer denies to your request, it’s highly unlikely that their automaker’s consumer affairs department will overrule them.
Know your position in the pecking order. Dealership service management look upon goodwill as a reward to entice future business, not a right bestowed upon the customer. So the first thing they look at when faced with a request for an out-of-warranty repair is the service and parts transaction history of the vehicle in question. If you’re dealing with the retailer you purchased the vehicle from and get all of your maintenance and repair work performed by them, you’re at the top of the food chain. Dealerships set aside a certain portion of profit from each sale or lease for policy adjustments, and if you didn’t buy from them, you can predict their eagerness to help.
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If you take your car for maintenance to an independent garage, you could be a few rungs lower on the post-warranty goodwill assistance ladder at your dealership.
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If you’re like many who never return to the dealer for maintenance, but instead take your vehicle to your own independent garage, you’ll also be several rungs lower on the assistance ladder. If you and your family have bought several vehicles from the same retailer but have never serviced any of them there, you will probably get better results in your goodwill quest if you start with your sales consultant or sales manager rather than service staff.
Know the limits. Nowadays, pretty much every mainstream vehicle on the road is covered by a three-year/60,000 kilometre bumper-to-bumper warranty and a powertrain plan that usually runs to five years or 100,000 kilometres, in addition to corrosion and emissions guarantees. Few automakers will stretch coverage for a base plan component past four years or 80,000 kilometres. All of these potential coverages are whichever occurs first – time or distance.
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So, while an air-conditioning compressor is a very expensive repair, few car makers will cover the cost of replacing one on a five-year-old vehicle. Powertrain items such as engines, transmissions, and axles may apply for goodwill assistance up to seven or eight years, or 160,000 kilometres or so. However, these would need to be catastrophic and expensive failures on vehicles with pristine and well-documented maintenance histories. When it comes to cosmetic trim issues, not many carmakers offer goodwill assistance. Tires are covered by the tiremaker’s plan, so they’re out as well. Shattered glass is also seldom covered.
It’s all in the ask. As with most things in life, you really do attract more likes with sugar than vinegar. Bounding in, slamming your keys on the service counter and dropping your lawyer’s name isn’t likely to get you anywhere. Some carmakers require customer and retailer participation in any goodwill assistance, so asking for the whole enchilada may just get you an empty plate.
Sometimes, failures and defects have extended coverage by the manufacturer due to frequent occurrences. Dealers have access to this database. As much as most auto execs say there’s no such thing as a hidden warranty, unless they notify every affected owner of any extended coverage, they really are hiding things. The best way to start the goodwill hunting conversation is with the question: “is there anything your store or the manufacturer can do to help out?”
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