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mods w/ warranty

3.3K views 25 replies 12 participants last post by  9d2TSi  
#1 ·
what if any mods are warranty friendly. meaning that it wont void it or its easily changable back to stock??? i have extended warranty so dont want to void it out already but i would like to mod something here
 
#3 ·
theoretically, the dealer has to prove your mod caused the damage if they don't want to cover it. Or your improper driving

realistically, they can refuse service regardless to what you have or haven't done. Try getting a tranny out of em at 20,000 miles. Won't matter if you're stock or 500whp. They're just going to say no.
 
#4 ·
mosc said:
theoretically, the dealer has to prove your mod caused the damage if they don't want to cover it. Or your improper driving

realistically, they can refuse service regardless to what you have or haven't done. Try getting a tranny out of em at 20,000 miles. Won't matter if you're stock or 500whp. They're just going to say no.
how can they refuse? if my tranny breaks at 1k miles it should be covered.. i dont understand.
 
#5 ·
they will just say you broke it. The warrantee doesn't cover driver error

it's a sports car man. No company warrantees a sports car against abusive driving. The kicker is that there is no real way to tell if it's been driven abusively or just had a deffective part from the factory in a lot of cases. It's up to how nice your dealer is and since it costs em money to fix it, they're generally not that nice.
 
#6 ·
well this is my first car so i have no experience with this. but i'm tempted to pull out some of my law notes from college and find this to me unlawful. i'm temtped to go bust my tranny now to test it out..haha. I thought that i am innocent till proven guilty so the purden of proof lies on the dealership to prove that i broke it, not that it could've been either or.
 
#7 ·
ok sooo i just called the dealership

i wanted to cancel my extended warranty and the guy was like sayin i shouldn't. i said that i wanted tomod the car so it will void it anyways. hes like no it wont.. i told that i wanted full tbe and engine mgt. he said it will be covered still?? i dont belive it.. so i am goin down there to get it in writing?
 
#11 ·
raf1919 said:
ok sooo i just called the dealership

i wanted to cancel my extended warranty and the guy was like sayin i shouldn't. i said that i wanted tomod the car so it will void it anyways. hes like no it wont.. i told that i wanted full tbe and engine mgt. he said it will be covered still?? i dont belive it.. so i am goin down there to get it in writing?
Take it from me, I've been in comission sales for almost 10 years. Salespeople will say and do anything to make a sale, or to save a sale from falling apart. Extended warranties are one of the most profitable things a company can sell and they will be hard pressed to let you return one.

You should absolutely get it in writing, terms of a contract that are not written are not legally enforceable. It doesn't matter if the president of the company told you that, if he denies it later it's your word against his. If you have it in writing, you have your bases covered.
 
#12 ·
BiggSean is correct about profit on warrantys. Some warrantys on vehicles can cost as little as 50 dollars and will charge you 1400. Second someone stated that the dealership has to pay for the warranty. That is completely incorrect. Dealerships love warranty claims, because the company (Subaru) has to pay for the part and pay that dealership for labor. Also the service will make money on the part because of the margin in it. Dealerships all have to go through the main company to check to see if something is covered under warranty.
 
#13 ·
This is true... a dealer will sell you a warranty and it is usually very profitable for them to do so. They also like to fight to have your parts covered under warranty because you are less likely to take your car and go somewhere else with it. Case in point, I came into my old mitsu dealer with track numbers still on the car and a squeeking crankshaft pulley. They replaced the pulley and water pump under warranty because the pulley was splitting in half and the water pump's shaft took a dump from being turned at an angle. I didn't pay a cent and I had all sorts of stuff done to my car (tbe, mbc, clutch, intake, bov, just been drag raced)

If they told me it wasn't covered I would have gone out and bought the pulley and done it myself. Whenever you are dealing with a dealer you should make them aware of the fact that you are more than capable of doing your own service because then the service department now needs to figure out how to get money from your vehicle and if that means working with SOA on your behalf then they will.
 
#14 ·
You can say the burden of proof lies in the dealer but this is somewhat naieve. They're a dealer, you're a person. It's cost effective for them to refuse claims for all because only a low percentage of ppl will lawyer up and contest it (and even a lot of those will loose). Similarly, it's cost prohibitive for you to contest it as lawyers are expensive and it can be a very time consuming process to get them to back down. Plus you have a busted car the whole time...
 
#15 ·
hey guys so i just got home from the dealership. they wouldn't give me anything in writing cause there could be to many diff situations that could arise. they did let me cancel my extended warranty got my 1500 back. the service manager also told that a TBE wouldn't void my warranty, it would only void the warranty on the factory exhaust (as long as same replacement meaning w/ the cats) he said they pretty flexible on mods as long as they are done correctly. but when i told him that i just wanted tbe and tune the engine. he said it wouldn't be a problem.
 
#16 ·
That sounds like a good deal. I called up the dealership here and they told me that if I replace any part on the car, then it would void the warranty to all parts that are directly related to that modification. I am not even allowed to get a turbo timer put on without voiding the warranty. I think that I need to go and give them a little persuasion in my direction.:)
 
#17 ·
BiggSean said:
If I recall correctly, Eight08 had a terrible experience with SOA over his transmission. His transmission failed shortly after purchasing his car brand new. I'm sure he will chime in with his two cents on this issue.

yeah, 3rd day i had the car, drove it easy, as it was my first brand new car, and i had been waiting since 1997 for a subaru. (wanted the 2.5rs originally then the wrx came out)
anyways i pulled left out of a parking lot in 1st hit about 4k rpms and just as i was going to shift into second i hear a loud clank and my car wouldnt move.

had it towed, and SOA and the dealership said it would not be covered because of abuse. i didnt abuse it, they said i dropped the clutch, i pointed out on the clutch that there is no marking showing suddening extreme engagement. they didnt care. got a lawyer and all that, and it was gonna take over a year to settle, even though i would have won.. i took them up on the offer of paying half. better then taking the chance of paying all of it.

the bad part about all this is, my car was 3days old, but i had boughten it with 150 miles on it so someone had their fun before i got it.

moral of the story is.. if my stock car wasnt covered, then a modded car definitely wont be. although recently my wrx got it's rear differential replaced under warranty by a different (much cooler, and where i actually wanted to buy my wrx) dealership, and i had a downpipe on it when they replaced the rear diff.
 
#20 ·
eighth08 said:
#### my dealer. the story is even worse then it sounds... the service manager who said no way, is my neighbor and goes to my church.
Wow. You'd think that they would try to hook you up or something seeing as how the car was still a baby and you go to the same church. Just goes to show you that some people aren't what you would expect them to be.
 
#22 ·
you want to pay more for your car or get better customer service? It's always a balane. The dealer picks a point that they think nets them the most profit. We can complain all we want about service but until it effects the dealer's bottom line, they will not want to increase service. It costs money!
 
#23 ·
well, their loss, i told my direct supervisor to buy his 2005 wrx wagon from the dealer an hour away, and the co-owner of this company i told him to buy his STI from that hour away dealer, and my friend who bought an STI got it from the same dealer too. so 3 car sales lost because they provided bad enough service that word of mouth was stronger then they thought. i am actually contacting the owner of the dealership today just to let him know. as he has a huge sign in the service department saying "if you feel your expectations were not met, please contact me, Steve Hansel, on my cell phone "xxx-xxx-xxxx"

we will see how it turns out after i tell him about my 3 coworkers/friends bought from Marin Subaru instead of them.. and actually my mom is buying a tribeca from Marin Subaru and my brother is buying a legacy gt from Marin too... cant wait.. ill have everyone roll up in the cars at the dealership just to show them the money lost.