Opel/Germany to Offer Lifetime Warranty (UP TO 99,000 MILES)

[jake75]

8-6-10 Wall St Jrl Page B2Effective immediately.99,000 miles (160,000 km), no time limit. Covers key components such as engine, gearbox, electronics, steering system etc. But a quick google search reveals that the devil is in the details - e.g."Hush. Don’t tell American GM customers how GM’s Opel subsidiary plans to prop up seriously flagging sales. Opel can use a serious injection of something. Opel’s German sales were down by 43.5 percent in July. And Opel doesn’t have China to save their necks. Today, Opel announced their version of the Ardennen-Offensive: A last massive strike at the hearts and minds (and pocketbooks) of their customers. A warranty for life. As they say: Read the fine print.„Opel is the first volume manufacturer worldwide to offer such a lifelong warranty.” This said Opel’s Nick Reilly to Automobilwoche [sub]. Would you believe such a thing? Of course not. To begin with, it’s not lifelong. It is limited to 160,000 kilometers. (Interesting. 160,000 kilometers is somewhat unusual in Europe. Until you convert it to miles and get 100,000 miles. Harbinger of things to come to America?)There is no time limit, but a lot of fine print. The warranty can’t be passed on to the next buyer. If the new car is sold within 6 years, the same warranty can be bought by the new owner for an unspecified “moderate price.” Once the Opel changes hands again, the third buyer is SOL. (On the average, the first time buyer in Germany holds his new car for less than 4 years. Statistically, this is a 2 year warranty extension. Clever, those boys in Rüsselsheim.)More fine print: The warranty applies for “all important components.” Wear parts, such as belts, brakes, sparkplugs etc. are excluded. Up to 50,000 kilometers, parts under warranty will be exchanged at no cost. Then, costs will only be reimbursed partially. 90 percent from 50,000 to 60,000 km. Only 40 percent once the car is above 100.000 km.This will make Opel dealers happy: The car must be brought to a dealership for an annual check-up and the required inspection work must be performed. This will sell a lot of non-included wear parts. After the regular 2 year warranty is over, and latest 36 months after the car has been first registered, the car must be brought to an Opel dealer for an annual “warranty re-activation” at the price of only 11.90 Euro.The Movano, Vivaro und Combo are excluded.Folks, this smells. It smells like an extended third-party warranty that has been tagged on. It smells like something we had done at Volkswagen ages ago. It was called “Lifetime Garantie.” It had similar, but far less restrictive clauses. It was so complicated that nobody understood it. It died of natural causes. Actually, it’s still alive. You can buy it, for a nominal charge. But nobody wants it."

[Old Tele man]

...old saying: "...If it looks like dog s**t and smells like dog s**t..." then, maybe, you should consider the fact that it just *might* actually *be* dog s**t.

[jake75]

Well, as someone who does not put many miles on a car I would be happy with an unlimited 36,000 mile warranty. That would cover me for about 7 years.

[tpollauf]

Quote, originally posted by jake75 »Well, as someone who does not put many miles on a car I would be happy with an unlimited 36,000 mile warranty. That would cover me for about 7 years. I'm with you on that one I drive "someone else's fleet truck" all day and my 92 F-150 (bought new) only has 44k miles, and now the 09 Vibe GT only 6500 miles. It should be worded 36k miles or 3 years, whichever comes LAST