100,000 mile warranties becoming the norm?

It's only a warranty if they honor it. So far Toyota has only refused to over anything on my car under warranty. I greatly regret purchasing the extended warranty. Several other posters have had Toyota deny their warranty as well.

 

- Source

In other words, to have a chance at getting warranty work approved you must:

A ) Have performed every single recommended service at a Toyota dealership and overpay.

B ) Replicate the problem and convince us that the issue is definitely not "normal" even though no other cars on the lot have your issue.

C ) Drive the car like a normal person. Any excessive wear and tear will lead us to believe that you're too aggressive on the car and therefore shows negligence on your part AKA "not our fault, would not have happened if you had driven it under "normal" conditions!".

HMMMM? Personally, I've learned to try to fix everything myself unless it's a major warranty issue. I rather not deal with the negotiating hassle and arguing over little things.

 

It's easy to set a low bar for excessive. All car companies do it though.

 

Disagree you may. Trust me, I like Toyotas... my '10 Prius is our 6-7th Toyota in the family. None of our cars ever had a major issue except for a jerky tranny on our '07 Camry, ECU was re-programmed but issue is still happening.

Out of the 15 times that I've taken our cars for MINOR warranty issue in the past 8 years, I've only been successful twice (that's 13% success rate). One was a visor that fell off at 20k and the other the tranny (well, not fully resolved but they tried and I no longer care so much). Not successful at fixing the Window and plastic rattles and other dumb little things.

I do have to say that perhaps it's the dealers in LA that simply have this attitude of refusing warranty service. I've taken our cars to five different dealerships, replicated the issues on the spot and keep getting told that everything is "normal". Sometimes I really wish I had great warranty experiences like you guys do, but then all the cars have been reliable so far for the most part.

 

In the US an owner can perform their own maintenance and not void warranty. All that is required is documentation that services were performed, in the form of receipts for required materials.

 

i would say the 'standard' warranty here is 3 years 36,000 miles. but a few have upped the ante to try and attract sales.

 

GM has been doing the 36k bumper to bumper, 100k 5 year powertrain for a while now.

Toyota give 36k bumper to bumper, and 60k powertrain.

Kia does 100 k 10 year powertrain.

 

i think hyundai might be 100K, it's definately a marketing tool and they only do it if they have to. it also gets a bit tricky when they separate the power train from the rest of the car.

 

I think if I brought my car in to try and warranty for a rattle they'd laugh at me. I've tried dealerships in MI and IL (Chicagoland) when I had an issue, denied both times. I remember asking and they wouldn't even bother to check my HID headlight aim (not adjust mind you, they wouldn't even check because its apparently not something they can do anything about). I suppose I used to like Toyotas.

 

Sqweeks & rattles were pulled out of the warranty (per the manual). No manufacturer wants to be bothered dealing with them.

Warranties are mostly marketing with some "keeping up with the Joneses" unless mandated by law.

When it was just the Big 3 here it was 3 years/36000 miles period.

As production improved longer rust through warranties appeared followed by longer powertrain warranties.

Free scheduled maintenance is now in vogue in the Marketing Dept. I suspect there isn't an accounting effect.

 

WOW all I have to say is dealers around Chicago must really SUCK!

I've never had an issue with a Toyota Dealer in the Portland Area, They all want to "Out Do" the other Dealer in service!

Your Dealers must don't give a crap about customer service.

The one time I did have an Issue (NISSAN) I went to another NISSAN Dealer in the next town, and said, The NISSAN Dealer X is being an #$#@$ in Fixing my Warranty Item can you help?

They were MORE than Happy to Fix what that other Dealer wouldn't touch!

 

If you do a google local search for Toyota dealers around Chicago, you will see that most have 2 or fewer stars in their ratings. There's probably a reason for that. I looked though the results to page 6 and not a single listing had a rating above 3 stars. Replacing the word "Toyota" with "BMW" gave 3 on the first set of results with greater than 3 stars. Honda isn't much better than Toyota, but there are 2 dealerships with greater than 3 star ratings. Yes, this is an ad-hoc method and I'm sure the "Toyota can do no evil" people will jump all over me. Doesn't matter - it hasn't changed my own repeatedly poor experiences.

Portland seems much better - the first two listings have 3.5 and 4.5 star ratings.

 

Why would dealers deny warranty ? Don't they get paid by Toyota for warranty work - and thus a source of revenue ?

 

Actually, if you go further back (like say 1986), the norm, at least for GM was 1 year/12K miles for the comprehensive warranty and 3/36K on the powertrain with a $100 deductible. How do we know this? We had an 86 Olds Cutlass Ciera that always leaked transmission fluid despite many attempts to repair it.

At one point, Chrysler had the 5 year/50K warranty on the powertrain. Later on, Chrysler gave a choice of a 1 year/12K mile and 7/70K powertrain warranty OR 3 year/36K comprehensive. This was the case on my parents' 93 Dodge Caravan. They then as a publicity stunt did a non-transferrable lifetime powertrain warranty but stopped it. See New Chrysler Lifetime Powertrain Limited Warranty - Cars, Minivans, SUVs, Crossovers - Warranties and Chrysler Cuts Powertrain Warranty to 5 Years - ABC News.

"Free" scheduled maintenance was the normal on German branded cars (besides BMW, which still does it) for awhile. Audi, VW and Mercedes were doing it for awhile then canned it. I don't recall if Audi/VW resurrected it again.

Warranty and Roadside Assistance Coverage -- Edmunds Auto Warranty Tips has a table of warranties by make. This doesn't minute details like CA/CARB, seatbelt, airbag, emissions, etc. warranties.

If you're curious, the NAH's warranty booklet is at http://www.nissanusa.com/pdf/techpubs/altima_hybrid/2010/2010_Altima_Hybrid_WIB.pdf.

Nissan also extended CVT warranties to 10 years/120K miles on the vehicles at Nissan CVT Warranty Extension. It was interesting they included the NAH since it uses a PSD rather than the belt and pulley CVTs found in all other CVT equipped Nissans.

edit: I found http://www.edmunds.com/advice/buying/articles/146906/article.html and the table at http://www.edmunds.com/media/advice...nce.programs/free.maintenance.spreadsheet.gif.

 

But what does the warranty work pay? If the book rate is too low no mechanic wants to touch the car. If the book says the job takes .3 hours & pays $10/hour (I'm pulling numbers from the air) the mechanic is going to be paid $3 regardless of the amount of time it actually takes. If the job really takes 30 minutes or if non-warranty work is available the mechanic loses money by doing the warranty work. (Diagnostic time is free.)