Welcome to Bamford Rose and it’s forum chat time. Before we get into this week’s forum chat, it really helps us if you haven’t already done so to subscribe to our channel. Click us a like and give us your comments on the subject of this week’s forum chat. This week’s forum chat is warranty watch. We’re going to start a little series. And if you have any comments of your experience claiming under warranty that you want to send me, then send that to me and we can keep including that in a series of warranty watch. I always recommend that purchasing from the franchise dealer is the way to go. You get the after sales care through their approved used timeless. And whilst used car salesmen are well used car salesmen at least from a franchise dealer. That’s the best place I think that you can go to pick up a car.

That isn’t hiding any problems that use car salesmen like to brush under the carpet. But one of the reasons we recommend that is because that warranty is your safety net to mop up any problems that you might encounter in after sales in your car. And should that warranty not work for you, then we really do need to revisit the reasons why we recommend franchise dealers for buying a car from. Just to recap very quickly, if you buy your car brand new from a franchise dealer you’ve got the three-year maker warranty. Which is pretty much going to cover every single niggle that you might encounter, except for normal wear of consumables, brakes, tires and that sort of thing.

When you buy your used car from a franchise dealer, then the fundamentally fit-for purpose framework governing sales of used cars in this country is going to be one safety net. So, two days after purchase if your clutch burnt out, your ASM system stopped working, then you know that car wasn’t fundamentally fit for purpose and you’re gonna get a new clutch out the franchise dealer under warranty. Soon after purchase that fundamentally fit for purpose framework will sort of disappear and you’ll be protected by the timeless warranty. Which is going to fix outright breakdowns only and not niggles.

This is because it’s underwritten by a separate insurer third party from Aston. And Aston dealers haven’t really got any leverage on what’s covered or not. It’s going to come down to the small print of the policy. That means that whilst your dealer might want to give you the best customer care possible. If his hands are tied and the small print of the policy means that for whatever problem you have got, the warranty isn’t going to fix it. Then no matter how nice he is to you, you will not get that problem covered under the warranty.

A few months ago, we featured a V8 that was crunching into second gear from cold. That car was bought recently from a franchise dealer and it took some getting there. It might even be because that car was featured changing gear on our channel. But the owner got a new gearbox under warranty out of that. And for cars that come here for a post purchase inspection, then anything we find which is a fall. I’ve also got first-hand experience of that being cared for under the warranty equally as well. But we’re starting a warranty watch, because I’ve had feedback of quite a few problems that have been rejected under that warranty. Someone here posted a comment on an Aston group saying does anyone know whether the AM warranty covers the led failure in headlines.

Now the response back to that question was positive and lots of people came on there and said that they did have their 40 led lights replaced under warranty by Aston. Which is good, but I wonder how long that is going to last for. I’ve heard about this in the Porsche world where a few super common problems were labeled as manufacturing defects by the insurer. And after that point in time, no warranty claims for those aspects were honored. I’ve had one customer with 2,000 miles on his V8 Vantage that had upper wishbone ambushes considerably pushed out. Now this sort of wear is not consistent for 2,000 miles, it’s more consistent with a car that’s done 20 30,000 miles and that’s not right.

He’d only done a few hundred miles in the car so the wear didn’t happen in his ownership. In that case, the dealer did acknowledge that it was a problem but the feedback was that the underwriter says that this is now so common. There’s been so many claims for suspension wishbone arms, that full stop wishbone arms will not be replaced under warranty. The classic check emissions light that these cars can frequently pop up which is normally the oxygen sensor, it’s normally the slow response default code. I’ve also heard back cases of that warranty claim being rejected, because that is so frequent. It’s been termed a manufacturing defect.

These Astons are fairly bulletproof on their engine and driveline, and outright breakage of components seldom happens. Door modules are going faulty, well that’s very common that’s widespread. Wishbone bushes, oxygen sensors if then throttle pedals, convertible roof modules. Led lamps front and rear, all the commonly seen problems that really your warranty is protecting you against. If they start to be rejected, then it really does question what the purpose of the warranty is actually there for.

So, what have been your experiences under warranty? Let us know and we can keep a watch on the warranty situation. And double check that the advice of purchasing through franchise dealers, because of the checks and the approved used timeless warranty. It’s really worth it. We’ll see you on the next forum.