Does it matter which garage does warranty work?

I bought a low-mileage three-year-old Volkswagen Polo from a Volvo dealership in Yorkshire. I was told it was covered by a warranty. As I live in Sussex I asked whether I would have to bring the car back to Yorkshire for any warranty work. I was told (not in writing) that that would not be necessary, that any proper warranty claims would be met provided the work was undertaken by a reputable Sussex dealership.

I had such a claim. The car suffered a failed fan resistor, costing about £150 to replace at a VW specialist, but the Volvo dealership is refusing to refund the cost on the grounds that the work should have been done by them. Are they right to refuse?

Asked on 2 February 2022 by Alan Judd

Answered by Dan Powell

In hindsight, you should have contacted the Volvo dealership before taking the car to another garage and paying for it to be repaired.

The Volvo dealer may have asked you to return the Polo to their premises or identified an approved local garage to carry out the repair.

The Volvo garage will reasonably argue that they are not liable for the repair because they were never given the opportunity to confirm the fault or put it right.

Tags: warranty warranty claims

Similar questions

Has a gearbox fault damaged my car's clutch?

I have a car that is 17 months old. I've owned it since new and covered 8000 miles in that time. A month ago, the car developed a gearbox grinding/crunching. The dealer diagnosed a problem with "first...

Can a car sitting around stationary cause the air con to break?

My 2018 Audi SQ7 is now on 28,000 miles. It has no air conditioning. When I start it, the light on the A/C button is initially on but goes out a few seconds later. After much chagrin in trying to get Audi...

Is air conditioning covered by my car's warranty?

The air conditioning on my 2021 SEAT Tarraco recently stopped working. I took it back to the dealer that sold it to me and was informed that air conditioning only carries a six month warranty. Surely in...