When the interpretation about what is covered and what is not covered depends on where in the world you purchased the vehicle.

The OE warranty is bestowed on a vehicle by the manufacturer and should be applied equally to all vehicles the manufacturer produces or am I missing something ?

IM extend this warranty to 3yrs and I assume that this picks up from when the OE warranty expires. Therefore inthe first year I assume they claim of Subaru in Japan - I don't know this for a fact.

Mine is MY99 UK-spec from Holland with the OE 12month warranty. I notified IM of my intention to bring the vehicle into the country and they agreed that it would fall under the OE warranty and that they would register it on their files and that I would need to nominate a dealer for servicing.

At my last service I mentioned a problem I was having with the brakes (see separate thread under Wheels, Brakes etc.) After inspection the dealer reported that there was something wrong with the discs, though not cracked, but they would put a claim in.

Apparently the claim was accepted but only for the discs, leaving me to cough up for the pads.

Got a further call saying that sorry they had made a mistake since the car was bought in Holland then the claim would fall under the Dutch warranty and these did not cover any problems with wearing parts. Hence the claim was rejected.

Based on this scenario the terms and conditions of OE warrranty varies on territory. To my eyes this is smoke screen and an attempt to pass the buck. Apart from a localised extension to the warranty the OE should be the same everywhere.

You may think that my posting is a case of sour grapes, this is not the case I am having a whinge about the principle of how all this operates. Based on the JD Power survey I would have expected better. Any future purchases from the UK or otherwise with this marque will require more consideration.

Based on the saving I made on the purchase I am able to take out an extended warranty with the RAC, do the brakes, buy the wife a car and have a holiday thrown in for good measure.

Additionally on the subject on extending the warranty after the first year, surely IM are shooting themselves in the foot, since they could charge up to £300 for a year's extension with the liklehood that many would not need to claim so they would pocket the margin plus they would be able to keep more vehicles within the service network.

Roll on the 12th July when I will start using recognised independants such as David Hendry.

How much was the RAC extended warranty, and why did you pick them?

STv555, you should get in touch with Dazzler who had a problem with his clucth. It went within a few months of him gettin the car, again an import from Holland. He too had his claim declined on the grounds that it wasn't covered under the warranty(Dutch). It seems to me that the warranty from Holland is either worthless as I know of another person who had cracked brake discs and again this was declined. I suspect that IM may not even be passing these claims on!! have you phone Subaru Netherlands? Next step may be EC or Subaru Japan does it state in your warranty what is not covered. http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/confused.gif

I too assumed that a manufactruers warranty was global but this may perhaps be a case os sour grapes creeping in to try and discourage imports by prolonging claims etc.

My guess is that the situation is along the following lines.

The manufacturers warranty (1 year) is a global warranty (in fact I am sure it states this in the handbook).

The UK dealers are probably given delegated authority to do certain warranty work, without seeking authorisation from IM if they know the car (i.e supplied by them). This they will reclaim from IM who in turn will reclaim from FHI.

When you turn up with a car that they do not know they will get the money back for, they have to seek authorisation to do the work (to guarantee that they will get their money back).
I know that the garage that I use (Days) usually seems to have a 2 week waiting period to get booked in, so do they need the extra hastle of contacting IM ? I think this is whats causing your problem.

Plus I am sure there is some sour grapes that you have sourced elsewhere. But as a know a lot of people think, you have invested part of the extra you paid (or not as the case may be) in dealer relationship.
I am sure that if car prices are significantly reduced, you will see an increase in servicing costs by main dealers to maintain their profit margins.

At the end of the day they are running a business, if they dont want to work on your car they dont have to.

robski

Gorilla, you may be right about the claims not being passed on...though I did have a successful claim for a gearbox and release bearing at 16k...admittedly these are not wearing parts.

I think the moral to the story is not to rely on the warranty and source something independantly...at least you won't pay silly prices for servicing at a dealer.

All European importers buy the cars with NO WARRANTY from FHI.

They then decide what warranty they give and for how long.

There is no OE Warranty on an Impreza.

Asbestos gloves on for this one! If you read the thousands of threads on this bbs moaning about certain dealers and warranties...their is normally the little word 'import' in there!! IMHO YOu have saved '000's on the purchase of your car and then expect the red carpet at your local dealer!!! It's not going to happen!! Then there's the threads about warranties etc..etc....You knew it would only have one years dodgy warranty...then 6 months later 'blah blah blah' again but I saved '000's!!! my point been you cant have it both ways!!!

Ive got an import and I expect to have costs if a problem occurs. More so than other people as its outside the EU (Cyrpus WRX). I am NOT writing to complain, Ive opted for cheap, available and IMO better car but with the serious risk of additional cost.

The reason I am writing is that if what people are saying about Subaru is right, Subaru is an different to some other vendors.

BMW or Mercedes are quite happy to take warranty repairs and servicing from anywhere. In fact some dealers will make no profit on selling the cars and intend to get their money back on servicing and warranty repairs. They are very happy to do servicing wherever it comes from.

Also, for a car bought in the EU, if servicing and warranties are required then it is my understanding that they apply throughout Europe and UK dealers should not reject the servicing or warranties based on it being an EU car. ONE CAVEAT is the warranties may differ and consequently you shouldnt expect them to be the same.

I am NOT complaining, just commenting on how differently Subaru operates to some other manufacturers.

bkar

Sorry Letdown put you are missing the point...I have used two dealers for the past year and HAVE BEEN given the red carpet treatment. The idea of the BBS is get queries like this one out in the open for discussion.

And no, I am not expecting a dodgy warranty as you put it in fact the gearbox and release bearing were replaced at 16k with no problems at all.

Thanks Pete for your informative comment, this is what the BBS is all about.

Case closed..........

Dont suppose anybody knows the answers to PeterC question about the cost of the RAC warranty ?

bkar

We're not sorry stv555. You paid your money and took your choice. Live with it!

Case closed!

I used to work with someone who used to work for a lease company and was involved with Warranty claims and work associated with these now this is not Subaru specific and may not apply to Subaru's but what used to happen was that after the first year the warranty risk got sold onto a third party company and they then footed the bill for any claims after that.

Dealers also used to get bonuses paid for the lack of warranty claims that they had on the cars that they had sold so he suggested that if you had any warranty work to be done on a car not to go to the dealer who sold you the car as it would affect any potential bonus.

I do not know if this is still the case and certainly dont know if this applies to Subaru's