State of Warranty Requirements in the UK

[Kurt in S.A.]

There is a BMW owner on other forums (who shall remain nameless!!) who has built a pretty tall soap box for standing up against BMW and their decision to not offer manuals to owners of newer BMW motorcycles...and cars I think as well. "Right-to-Repair" is a bubbling issue here in the US. This particular BMW owner has taken on the job of shouting to all who will hear about these issues.

I don't want to be political about this, but wondered what is the status of vehicle repair and warranties outside the US. This owner has quoted something recent by Suzuki that states if bring your bike back in each year for necessary repairs, your warranty will be continued on for another year. This repeats for up to 7 years. Another member thought he had heard from UK members that if work wasn't done by the dealer the warranty was voided. The soap box owner said that wasn't true and cited a link to UK regulations.

So, I wondered what is the situation in other countries? How true is that? Will your warranty be voided if you do your own work? If something like this is in place, clearly it is for newer vehicles. Afterall, we all own Airheads that are out of warranty!! Let me come at me if they will!!

Just wondered about any nuances for this situation in non-US locations.

Thanks...Kurt

[barryh]

Only owning a 44 year old one, I don't have recent experience of new bikes but my understanding is that warranties have to be honoured if you can prove that services were carried out even if not done by a dealer. There would have to be some documentation in the form of receipts for parts. Although that's the legal situation, I suspect it's rare that new bikes are diy serviced these days. I bought 3 new bikes back in the 70's and 80's and they never saw a dealer after the first free service. It didn't seem to have any effect on re-sale values. Back then I also bought 4 cars new and always serviced them myself. You couldn't get away with diy servicing of new cars or bikes these days without some loss of value so what I do now is buy at 5 years old and then do DIY servicing. Any loss of value is exceeded by main dealer servicing costs. My current C class Mercedes, bought at 5 years old is now 13 years old and I would have spent more than it's current value in Main dealer servicing. I'm happy with this approach and there is the added bonus of not having the hassle and stress of having to do business with incompetent dealers.

[Rob Frankham]

Speaking for the UK... and I would emphasis that this is my take on what is a complex question...

Mr Soap Box and the other correpondent are both right... to a certain extent. The situation isn't than simple.

1) If all work is done on a vehicle by a main dealer, then the warranty is, as you would expect, pretty bullet proof.

2) If work is done by a non certifed workshop using OEM spare parts then it's pretty safe... unless the manufacturer is able to make a case that the fault occasioning the warranty is cause by faulty workmanship. At that point it is a dispute between manufacturer and workshop.

3) If an unqualifed fitter (e.g. the owner) works on the machine then much the same applies. Provided OEM parts are used and provided the manufacturer can't make a case that the fault is caused by faulty workmanship (by the unqualified fitter), they should honour the warranty.. but be prepared for an argument.

4) If a fault (giving rise to a warranty claim) can't be attributed to bad workmanship or parts, then the manufacturer should honour the warranty. By that, I mean that (to give a fairly banal example) the owner fitted front brake pads and shortly afterwards the final drive failed, the manufacturer would not disallow the claim. If. on the other hand, the failure was of the front brake disk you could well have an argument on your hands.

This is all very well and to be honest quite understandable. You really can't expect the manufacturer to take responsibility for faults that arise from parts or workmanship that they aren't responsible for... however, like so many things, there is a vast grey area. In practice, the only really safe way to be sure that warranty claims will be honoured is to use accredited dealers otherwise there is always some risk and a very real chance of argument. As in most things, you pays yer money and takes yer chances.

Extended warranties are a very different thing. I many cases, they are contingent on servicing (or at least inspection) by an accredited garage and if you don't comply, then you lose.

Rob

[jackonz]

The rules here in New Zealand are far from clear as far as manufactures warranties are concerned most have at least 3 years and are conditional on having the vehicle serviced at a franchised dealership, some are rigid on it some not.

NZ has a law that goods and services must be fit for purpose under our consumers guarantee act, I have used it myself on warranty claims where the goods are out of warranty as the act states goods must be fit for purpose and last a reasonable time.

As far as tech info as in manuals it is not easy at all as most now is restricted to dealerships for genuine manuals, as well as owning an Airhead I also own a F800gs and needed a manual and the only one available was a Haynes version I ordered locally, when it arrived to my surprise was a CD Rom containing a copy of the BMW Factory manual.

As a mechanic by trade I moved away from it almost 40 years ago as needed a change, never thought I would get back to it but for the last 7 years I work at a Polytechnic in the Automotive training department, first year was a shock and steep learning as its all changed and lots of electronics, and now EV and Hybrid cars, getting manuals well we have to pay. VW Brand you can purchase access for a week or a year up to you and you can down load as much as you want, as for cars from Japan its pay if the manufacture even allows and some its a plane no.

I do all my own servicing as am lucky I have access to all manner of scan tools including a new Snap-On item that will do access my F800gs, there is a free downloadable tool for late model BMW's and you need an OBD2 blue-tooth dongle to use it, you can look at all the info and so on but cannot re set anything without paying a licence fee.

[barryh]

This information licence fee trend will finish DIY servicing in the long run but UK law states clearly that information must be made available to non franchised dealers. Therefore using an independent brand specialist should always be an option. Not only are specialists cheaper they probably do a better job too.

There is much criticism of franchise dealers on the internet. I can only quote one example where my 13 year old Mercedes C class had to go in for an air bag recall. It was a very unpleasant experience with a 2 hour job turning into 3 days. I deliberately left it late to have this work done on the basis of better let them practice on someone else's car first until they know what they are doing. They still managed to make a school boy error. To access the battery an air plenum has to be removed and it's a little tricky to re-install correctly but anyone with an ounce of mechanical aptitude would be able to see the right way to do it. If you do it wrong there is a path for air to leak from the engine compartment into the car. It was the first thing I checked after getting home and of course they had done it wrong. It took me all of 30 secs to remove the plenum and re-install it correctly. Was that lack of ability or they just couldn't be bothered. Ether way I wouldn't pay them in buttons never mind the £150 and hour that they charge.

[jackonz]

This information licence fee trend will finish DIY servicing in the long run but UK law states clearly that information must be made available to non franchised dealers. Therefore using an independent brand specialist should always be an option. Not only are specialists cheaper they probably do a better job too.

There is much criticism of franchise dealers on the internet. I can only quote one example where my 13 year old Mercedes C class had to go in for an air bag recall. It was a very unpleasant experience with a 2 hour job turning into 3 days. I deliberately left it late to have this work done on the basis of better let them practice on someone else's car first until they know what they are doing. They still managed to make a school boy error. To access the battery an air plenum has to be removed and it's a little tricky to re-install correctly but anyone with an ounce of mechanical aptitude would be able to see the right way to do it. If you do it wrong there is a path for air to leak from the engine compartment into the car. It was the first thing I checked after getting home and of course they had done it wrong. It took me all of 30 secs to remove the plenum and re-install it correctly. Was that lack of ability or they just couldn't be bothered. Ether way I wouldn't pay them in buttons never mind the £150 and hour that they charge.

Your correct Barry, I know that in the USA service manuals must be freely available and I have managed over the years to download some that match what we have in NZ, biggest problem here is that many people purchase used imports from Japan and some are specific to that country and all the manuals are in Japanese.

As for franchise dealerships I would agree some are hopeless and those that are good cost a small fortune in labour costs.

Now a new issue is coming as in scan tool access, we have several brands at the Polytechnic with one brand made in china that seems to cover most vehicles but there is always some it will not access, recently I went through 3 tools before I could re set the ECU for the DPF filter on a Toyota truck, the truck had been taken to a workshop to have it re set and was told the FPF Filter was stuffed and would need replacing, later found out the scan tool they used could not access the truck in question.