Drunken Bungle Whore

We've just bought a new car and were offered a 5 year warrenty - all parts, all labour, but excluding tyres and exhaust replacements due to wear and tear. Which got me thinking, surely most items on a car break as a result of wear and tear. Say if the electric window motor went and needed replacing. How is that not wear and tear? It could only break if I've been using it, same way the tyres only go bald because I use them, and if I used neither, then they'd both remain in pristine condition.

So where do they draw the line?

mamoon2

I think its more the fact that parts excluding Pads, tyres etc... are designed to last a lot longer. A motor going would not be wear and tear as it is supposed to last longer than 5 years, this is how it is designed.

speedking

Apart from seat covers, what can you tear on a car ?

Miniman

iTrader: (2)

There's a difference between a mechanical failure and wear and tear. Tyres, brake pads etc are designed to wear a little when used due to their design (and the design of roads/brake disks). However a mechanical failure is not the same and is what your warranty is for, for example a bolt shearing in a window winder motor (due to some manufacturing issue most likely).

For example I had the clutch on my MY02 WRX replaced for clutch judder. This is a fairly common fault and was due to the material used in the friction plate I understand, it picked up hot spots. Later clutches didn't have this issue because they changed the material, so this was subject to replacement under warranty because the material was dodgy.

However had the clutch worn past a certain thinness (sp?), then they probably would have said the clutch judder was due to a worn out plate and it would have been classed as wear and tear instead.

That was a nervous few hours, waiting for them to tell me that a clutch replacement was free or not (and when it's not it ain't cheap!).

Miniman

iTrader: (2)

double post