Quote:
Originally Posted by extrashaky
What part failed really doesn't matter if it's under warranty and he didn't do anything to cause the failure. When mine went in, they didn't say, "We'll tear it down to see what caused it, THEN decide whether to honor the warranty." They said, "It's under warranty, you're covered, here's your loaner car."
Furthermore, it sounds like the dealership has decided not to honor the warranty before actually finding the cause. How do they know it was something he did if they haven't done any work on it? They don't. Some shavings in the oil are not a substitute for disassembly and inspection.
Magnuson-Moss says they can't do that. If they're going to deny the warranty, they have to be able to show that he caused the problem, which is very unlikely if they haven't taken anything apart to find out what happened.
|
You said it yourself: they have to tear it down to determine the cause. The dealer wants a signature on an estimate that says the teardown will be covered by the responsible party. If the results of the inspection show an issue that will be covered under warranty, Toyota will honor the cost of the inspection and subsequent repair. However, if the cause is determined to be negligence on the part of the current or previous owner, or secondary to a failed aftermarket parts, the dealer doesn't want to be on the hook for several hundred dollars in labor.
The issue is that the current owner (OP) likely doesn't want to sign their name to an estimate like this because of some unfounded belief that having a warranty suddenly means that all of the labor associated with diagnosis of any failure, ultimately covered or not, is the responsibility of the manufacturer and its dealer network. Or OP knows there are gaps in the history of the car that might be revealed to be causative and thus result in denial of warranty coverage for this failure.
You make a very big assumption that "OP didn't do anything to cause the failure." The dealer cannot afford to eat huge labor costs simply because the "think" that nothing nefarious has happened. That's why the diagnosis is required before making a final judgment. Toyota will honor the warranty if they find something that provides incontrovertible evidence that a manufacturing defect or authorized repair failure occurred.