Warranty or 'Wear & Tear'

[4wheels]

Had my 2007 128 4Motion in for its 90K service yesterday, and a few things turned up needing attention. I have the Alliance extended warranty, and they have agreed to cover replacement of the strut top bearings (noisy) and repair (not replacement) of a slightly leaking power steering pump. However it also has 'worn lower spring rubbers' and 'front lower control arm bushes cracking' (costed at $175 and $500 respectively), which they maintain are wear and tear items, and thus not covered.
What do people think? Is that a fair assesment that these items should be regarded as wear and tear, in a 4.5 year old vehicle.

Brian R.

[IN2VWS]

Without having read your policy......I assume wear and tear items to be things like tyres, brakes, wiper blades etc.
Bushes etc., IMO should be covered by warranty.

[Stan]

price seems high for bushes. i replaced front lower control arm bushes on my mk4 golf - oem parts from the dealer and they cost me about $80 per side for both front and rear bushes of the lower control arm - self installed in a couple of hours, but you need a press and a wheel alignment after.

[brad]

Have a read of the PDS. The one I have lists "What is not covered" on page 10. Para 18 refers to

Any items that require replacement as a part of normal vehicle maintenance. These items include; (but are not limited to) spark plugs and leads, glow plugs, belts, filters, hoses, brake and clutch linings, brake pads, disc rotors and/or disc and drum machining, batteries and globes.

I would not consider lower spring rubbers & lower control arm bushes as being normal maintenance items. Where they might get out of it is if these items haven't actually totally failed yet.

There is no mention whatsoever of wear & tear items.

I would ask the dealer to show you where these suspension components are excluded in the PDS. If it isn't mentioned in the exclusions then it should be included.

[Transporter]

I suppose, it comes to how you use your vehicle as well. I wouldn't expect VW to cover the cost of the suspension, worn bushes on my T5 when everybody in Adelaide knows how good our roads are. Plus my van is loaded to the max 100% of the time, so in my case they would be able to say that it was indeed wear and tear.

[Tornado T5]

If for argument's sake the same items appeared needing replacement within the original 3 year new car warranty and the dealer/VW Australia agreed to replace them free of charge to you then I would consider a new car warranty extension to be no different. I remember mine was sold to me as "this policy is just like the new car warranty". Of course this agrument may not be one the insurance company/your Dealer concurrs with. I would however argue this way and see what happens. Plus as mentioned above, let the dealer explain where in the policy such exclusions for these specific issues are listed.

[mikinoz]

I think that you are pretty luck to get what you are covered to be honest, reading it I was surprised they were doing that.

Suspension wxearing out is not covered by warranty... Unless it is component failure. So in the event there is movement in the control arm bush, it would be wear and tear, but, if I'd had fully split, it could be argued it was component failure.

These are items like brakes and clutch where how you treat the car determines how they fare, so it will be hit an miss I'd say if they cover them or not.

[IN2VWS]

Reading Mikinoz's post, I agree with what he wrote "wearing out is not covered by warranty... Unless it is component failure".

[Transporter]

Only the premature wear can be claimed under the warranty, but at 90,000km it's hard.

[wandaria]

Contact VW and ask them for an immedaite reply about your issue as to whether or not such and such is designed only to last whatever period, Advise them that failure to reply is considered to be in the negative so to speak and advsie them your going to puplically publish such information on a public website so that everyone can know that despite what VW sell you they expect that you will need new such and such after x kilomters as the 'parts' are not designed to last that long.

This is an extreme example but imagine they guarantee the engine for 3 years and then just before warranty run out your engine stops and they say, oh well some of the parts are just worn out, they did not break they just are tired, so we ar enot paying warranty becasue anyone who drives the car normally wold not have such wear and tear, blah bah blah, would anyone buy a vw, no way in the world.

Now if you supply a vehicle with a 6 year warranty then it is expected that ll the parts will last 6 years minimum before needing replacement unless specified otherwise. They sell you a van that takes a load of x amount so even if you fill the van to the brim everyday the parts should be able to cope with that weight for 6 years, if your suspension fails after 4 years then simply ask them as I stated above. I can tell you they will not want to reply to you because they infer in their guarnatee that such things are covered, when in reality they don't actually mean some such things.