-=Buzz=-

OK, Im maybe dumb for not picking this up immediately...

Holland supplied car, described as "full UK spec", bought brand new from Motorpoint in Derby, a recognised seller of thses cars Im told.

Service schedule booklet says first service is "6 months or 12500 km". Guy takes it in May 2002 and the local Southampton Subaru dealer tell him "you are 6 months early, look in the owners manual, the 01 doesnt need a service until 12 months or 15000 miles - you therefore dont need to come back until May 2003 or 22000 miles now".

So he doesnt take it for a "12 months old" service, and planned to take it back in May 2003, its still only got 12500 miles on it.

I buy the car, and ring about transferring the warranty.
I ask about it, explain the situation ref the 12 month stamp in the Servicing booklet,just to confirm the position with them regarding any possible future claims - we all know what these companies can be like

They ummed and ahhded about the owners manual saying 15000 miles or 12 month intervals, and then decided to take a position based on the wording of their policy schedule which they claim says "it should be serviced at 12 months old, 30 days either side would be acceptable." so that would invalidate the warranty as it was serviced at 6 months, but not at 12. As far as they are concerned its just had an extra un-necessary service, and should have had another one in November.

To take that argument further, it seems they are saying that even if he'd had it serviced every week up to and including all of september, but had been to Australia on holiday in october, november or december and put the car in storage, they would claim it wasnt serviced properly and invalidate the warranty! I cant think that would stand up in court..

They did say that they would accept a letter from Subaru if Subaru were happy to say that it was 12 months from date of last service, and not 12 months from date of purchase, and that would then make the warranty valid again.

So I rang Subaru UK to ask about that.

They have told me that even though the owners manual states 15,000 miles and 12 months, as its a Holland sourced car and not a UK car its "slightly different, and therefore needs to be serviced in accordance with the service schedule booklet, ie every 6 months, and so it has now missed a service by 4 months".
They also said that the dealer "must have been led to believe it was a UK car", even though its is plainly marked up in the service record booklet that they've stamped that its from Utrecht!

HOW can a car from Europe be so different it needs TWICE the servicing, especialy as IM tell me they "changed it recently" so the newer bug eyes from Europe are also 12 month / 15,000 mile services.

Anyway.. anyone got any suggestions?

I can hardly demand my money back from the seller, it was a private sale, as we all know that for pivate sales its "caveat emptor" (sp?)

Its not a problem at the moment, Ive got no problems with the car and, touch wood, there likely won't be any. But Im annoyed that this guy has apparantly invalidated his warranty after wrong advice, and that I bought this car as having 18 months warranty and breakdown cover (included in warranty) but Ive actually got sweet FA.....

pbee

its a long shot but I know of someone else how has done it. Contact the previous owner ask him to contact the garage that advised him about the service intervals and aks them to help rectify the problem.

I know of a situation where a garage supplied a invoice for the missing servie to rectify the warranty issue.

worth a try. you could always transfer the warranty without mentioning the missing service and just worry about it if you need to make a claim.

good luck

Boss Hogg

UK spec means nothing - only that it is an import with an equivalent spec to a UK supplied car. IM reset the service schedules from 7,500 miles to 10,000 miles a year or so ago fro UK supplied cars (not UK spec), but EU cars maintained the original 7,500 service schedule.

So your car should have had a service a 1k, then 7,500k and 15,000k, and so on....

However I would challenge it with Subaru, because a number of dealers have told me that they EU cars need servicing only every 10k miles - then when I've asked them to check admitted they didn't realise it's 7,500k for EU cars.

-=Buzz=-

It hasnt reached 15000 yet, but if its 12 months OR 15000 miles, as I believe it to be, then its 4 months late, thats what the problem is.

I did ring IM who told me that it has "recently changed" to 12 month intervals for the EU bug eyes.

What galls me most is that if this car had sat in a dockside compound somewhere, or a showroom etc for a few weeks longer it would have been an 2002 registered car - and this in turn could have made the servicing intervals different?

Thats ridiculous, and I cant believe it would stand up in a court of law if it ever came to that.



[Edited by -=Buzz=- - 3/24/2003 6:20:56 PM]

-=Buzz=-

Thanks for the advice chaps, Im going to ask the previous owner to contact the Subaru dealer who told him (incorrectly) that it was 12 month intervals and ask them to sort out the subsequent loss of value and warranty etc.

Lets see where that gets us - probably a flat denial that "we ever said anything of the sort" blah blah blah......