Quote:
Originally Posted by bedabi
I am a "practicing lawyer of civil law," or at least play one in courtrooms. This is the most sensible post in this thread. You can cite the M-M Act all you like to a dealership (and yes, it was initially intended to address manufacturers who voided warranties for people using less expensive OEM-spec parts by other manufacturers), but if they continue to say no to warranty work, your only real alternative is to take them to court.
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Awesome, Iv been called to court before as a automotive repair consult on claims, BTW pays a large chunk of change for the amount of time you spend in court.
Anyway, there are a list of parts developed by 3rd party major brands that are non-oem spec that can be bought at places NAPA, O'relies, Autozone, etc. That both do and do not void manufacture warranties.
That while some dealers will refute warranty work on lets say K&N drop in air filter that caused a CEL, the modification is not out of bounds by the law. Many times customers have to deal with two separate systems of LAW vs Policy to get the work needed on their vehicle.
M-M is there as a middle ground guide and has been used to protect consumers from warranty abuse, such as;
"A car went to a shop, had a brake caliper replaced with a new replacement non-oem part, brake fails and car crashes. Is it the fault of the shop, the part, or the driver? Lets say its the part at fault, so you take it in to the dealer to get it repaired, dealer denies warranty work, due to policy."
Warranties are really good for the majority of consumers in their first 3 years of ownership, as any problems that come up they don't have to worry about anything.
Warranties for us tuners/enthusiasts are a bit of a double edged sword and can cause you more headache than you can imagine because you have the illusion of manufacture protection which inhibits your freedom as a owner.
My recommendation is if you plan on doing any sort of mods, just forget about warranties all together.