Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Does Hyundai ever use lack of oil-change records as an excuse to weasel out of the 10-year warranty?

Assuming you take good care of your Hyundai and change its oil as often as you should, but don't have records to prove it, are they likely to use that against you, just so they can save money on repairs?|||If you don't change oil for 40K miles Hyundai doesn't need to weasel out. your engine will be hooped before you even get to dealer. best advise from a Service Manager's point of view is:





do due diligence when it comes at least to minimal maintenance (regularly oil changes-like every max 5000 miles/8.000 Km). Should you decide to do you maintenance yourself, keep the receipt for oil and filters. This will prove in front of manufacturer your investment in maintenance. If you don't do so and you go to dealer with a complaint regarding engine performance (related to engine friction components) Hyundai (not the dealer) might decline your claim. Its not all about weaseling out of warranty coverage.... its all about protecting you from loosing your investment sooner rather than a good investment. remember.... the car will last longer the better you maintain it.





in the end, you will be the major factor of decision of how long you will be able to drive the car for.





Best wishes and drive safe





****EDIT****





I did read the question and you said: assuming. The info I have gave you its just a scenario. its not what I think it is because I don't know that however, I assume that you or someone else you know) is in a similar situation where you've got a problem with your car and Hyundai does not want to offer you warranty unless you provide proof of maintenance, otherwise you wouldn't ask this!!! Am I wrong??? You probably HAVE taken care of your car... no doubts, you know best... but you don't have the proof (invoices or something similar) to prove this, correct? If there is a problem with you engine and is due to possible lack of maintenance any car manufacturer, if so suspected, would ask you for maintenance records to ensure the defect is not caused by lack of maintenance. Any service Manager or mechanic would recognize lack of maintenance. Hope this is not the case to your question. If you have a certain problem you would like to open for suggestion, just ask and I might be able to give you the best advise to my knowledge. 10 years as service manager with HYUNDAI gives me the advantage to know what is required and what not (by manufacturer)








****EDIT2****





OK. fair enough. You want to find out how good or bad Hyundai is when it comes to this situation. As a manufacturer, Hyundai had proved to be very reasonable - at least from what I have used to learn in my experience. The biggest challenge you might have its not Hyundai. Its the person you are talking too. Most of the times its better to try a second person or the service Manager if you have any problems. From my point of view, Hyundai is giving every dealer a good will budget to handle situations where the dealer can help a good customer or just to help a Hyundai owner in trouble. This "good will" budget is fairly consistent and I never had a problem with Hyundai questioning allocation. In the end... depends on the case and person you are dealing with. In difficult situations is best to deal directly with service Manager rather than service Advisor. I hope this gives you an Idea who Hyundai is and how do they take care of their customers. They will always take the extra step to exceed expectation with its owners.





Transmission failure was never connected by manufacturer as lack of maintenance and never had to ask for maintenance records. Usually, a transmission fails after warranty limits if the maintenance was not done and this shoud be fair.





Head gasket failure had never been an issue connected to oil change or mechanical failure-period. If it fails it should be replaced under the warranty policy and not to be linked with any maintenance. The only time you will be asked for records is if you have a scenario where there is an oil starvation caused by lack of maintenance. This could be seen on the rocer arms that forms a gunky oil on top of engine and any mechanic would recognize this.








Hope this answers your question.|||I will 100% agree with "Hyundai Guru" but to add one thing, I don't know of any brand of car that if you don't change oil or prove it has been done will necessarily honor the warranty. This is not just Hyundai's thing.... it is all cars.|||agreed all around. you must have proof. otherwise how does the manufacturer know what caused your engine to break. its not they have to know for certain when they fix an engine which has had regular service records regarding oil changes, but if someone comes in with 70,000m on their car with NO records or records suggesting neglect, they can deny the claim. changing the oil is the #1 way to avoid engine damage and premature wear. and the cheapest way to do it. so its ok for the manufacturer to expect records of it to honor the warranty. if not its also fair of them to assume the engine is having problems due to lack of oil changes. unless it can be proven mechanically otherwise

No comments:

Post a Comment