VW To Shorten Warranty?
April 21, 2008 – 5:29 pm by Matt Radel
Filed under Car Care, Rants
According to our friends at Leftlane News, Volkswagen of America will shorten its warranty to align with competitors for the 2009 model year.
Something terrible has happened, and somewhat quietly. Over the past few years automakers (Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Nissan and Ford) have been shortening their factory warranty on all models from 4 years or 50,000 miles to 3 years and 36,000 miles. According to Leftlane VW will follow suit for the 2009 model year, but will include a “Carefree Maintenance Program” of 10,000 mile, 20,000 mile and 30,000 mile services.
Am I the only one who is appalled by this? Not only does this undermine my perception of overall quality of the product, but it comes across as a blatant attempt to funnel more cash into carmakers. “Hey, we only have to worry about our cars making it 3 years instead of 4 now - ching!”
The fact that carmakers are now refusing to stand by their product is absurd and disturbing. If anything, warranties should be getting longer (tip of the cap to Hyundai). This will only go to further dilute the quality of cars as a whole.
The thing that really sucks? It’ll work out big time for business. The fact that most people can’t afford to pay cars off within three years will only lead to more leases and further dependence upon carmaker. Despite our best efforts we’ll be locked into a chain of 3 year leases that will keep us broke.
Hey VW, do you really want to impress me as a customer? Trash your crappy “Carefree Maintenance Program” and keep your four year warranty. Stand by your product and make me feel better about buying it.
UPDATE: VW has officially announced the Carefree Maintenance Program on their media site. The tagline is the best: “Program designed to improve owner loyalty and brand distinction”. Translation: “Everyone else is cutting corners so we will too. But we’re gonna throw in maintenance that costs us next to nothing to try to make you feel better about it.”
This combined with the thousands of dollars I’ve spent in the last few months to keep my 2004’s running has almost been enough to push me away from the brand completely - despite the lame use of David Hasselhoff in their commercials.
VW To Shorten Warranty?
April 21, 2008 – 5:29 pm by Matt Radel
What happened to VW being “The People’s Car”?
When I bought my first (and last) VW back in 2001, I received the standard 2 years/24,000 mile warranty. You can only imagine how quickly those 24,000 miles came and went.
The very next year VW came out with the 4 years/50,000 mile warranty; my mother’s ‘02 Passat came with this warranty.
Now, 6 years later, VW is sliding downward towards yet another crappy warranty scheme.
With the production of 4 closely matched cars (Rabbit, GTI, R32 and new ‘Rocco) and a new warranty comparable to one I’d find on a toaster, is VW headed for doom?
Yeah, this blows and I don’t recall hearing anything about this from any manufacturer. This is just gonna keep people stuck into the lease game, which isn’t bad in itself. Just depends on your personal situation. But not having a choice in the matters sours it a bit.
Yeah, this doesn’t bode well for future VW owners. And what happens for people who take the standard 39-month lease? They’re out of warranty for the last three months on the lease? That sure as hell won’t make me want to come back to VW when something blows up in month 38.