Hi Brian
You raise a number of very good points we all could face given a
similar repair problem. Before you condemn your dealer to death row you need
to read all the fine print in your extended warranty. Whether such warranty
is Chrysler's or some third party, it's been my experience that those who
sell these are glib and evasive giving you the impression that you are
getting an extension of the total coverage the factory gave in the first 36k
mi.
In reality, this is seldom the case and I expect that if any extended
coverage was that extensive it would be extremely costly to purchase. Your
dealer must have a very good understanding of what he can get reimbursed for
from the warranty carrier or he might soon be running a red ink biz.
While it appears to be too late now in most of your complaints, for the
future, it might be wise to tell your service writer, wherever you take your
truck for extended warranty repair, that no work, not warranty covered, is to
be performed without phoning you first for approval. You might add to this
parts not covered. It may be that the labor and the parts are clearly
necessary to fix the problem but what you're trying to avoid is coming to get
your truck and suddenly being confronted with a substantial cash non-warranty
bill to cover. This might force the writer to tell you up front what's ahead
and it would certainly require him to comply or face your right to refuse
payment ("you failed to get my advance approval") when the truck is ready. I
don't know if you would have a legal leg to stand on here but the thought of
having to go to small claims court might force the dealer to put all the
cards on the table up front.
We as customers need also to understand the difference when it comes to
warranty coverage between "defective" parts and parts that become defective
just through wear. There is yet a third area of potential disagreement or
misunderstanding when it comes to what the warranty language calls "damaged"
vs defective or worn parts. I had this issue of debate brought home to me
last week when I brought my truck to my dealer for Chrysler extended warranty
coverage to replace the left tierod end. It's ball jt had slack which of
course is not adjustable and it results in not being able to keep the front
end in alignment, a thumping noise when turning left and somewhat sloppy
steering in general. It was my contention that all labor and parts should
have been warranty covered because this tierod ball jt is factory sealed,
can't be lubricated, and the supplier that makes these for Chrysler failed to
fully pack the jt with suitable grease hence the normal wear in 45k mi caused
the part to fail for lack of lubrication.
The dealer's position and the side that won was that 45k is not an
abnormal period for any sealed ball jt to wear out. So the ruling was not a
defective part but a normal wear part----no warranty applies!
I still feel that extended warranties are of value. If you have a
major driveline failure in the period from 36k to 100k mi and you have no
extended warranty, with today's sophisticated technology involved and the
high prices of parts and labor, (the standard shop labor rate in the San
Francisco Bay area where I live right now is $96/hr), you could be looking at
a very high risk. And the truck couldn't be sold either until you spent the
repair money. In an effort to stimulate sales, Chrysler has added a
substantial warranty extension to new cars and trucks but as I understand it,
it's a classic "limited" warranty for the period 36k to 70k or 7yrs I think.
Whatever the case, given the alternative which is a gamble and little else, I
feel a warranty after 36k is still the best option.
Paul Sahlin
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