A Broker has called for an industry-wide initiative to stamp out a catch-22 that can cause car-crash victims needless hassle if they use an insurer's preferred repairer.
Insurers are inadvertently nullifying car manufacturers' warranties by directing claimants to use their preferred repairers.
Manufacturers, particularly Volkswagen, will not honour a warranty on any part of the car repaired by someone other than the manufacturer's nominated repairers.
Drivers are then forced to rely on their insurer to supply a warranty equivalent to the one nullified.
Broker Terry Rechnitz of RP Hodson said his client lost the manufacturer's warranty on his Volkswagen by having accident repairs done by the preferred repairer of his insurer Independent Insurance (see letters page).
But the Association of British Insurers (ABI) spokesman said it did not have any guidelines on the issue, although it was aware it occured “once in a blue moon”.
Vic Rance said the ABI relied on individual insurers to deal with the problem sensibly.
A recent Office of Fair Trading report into car servicing and repair found manufacturers needed to give clearer guidance to buyers on what nullified their warranty.
“It's in the interests of franchised dealers to give customers the impression that the warranty will always be at risk if the car is serviced other than by a franchised dealer,” the report said.
The report said the warranty should not be affected if the work was carried out in accordance with the manufacturer's requirements.
Independent's preferred repairers Elite Repair Services fall within those guidelines yet still offer to match the manufacturer's warranty out of good faith.
Elite's Richard Perry said drivers could rely on warranties offered by approved repairers if their original warranty was nullified.
“When we do repairs we use original parts, which all come with a warranty anyway, and it's done as per the original specification of the dealer,” he said.
However, a Volkswagen spokeswoman said it would not relax its policy, even for insurers' approved repairers. “Even if the insurer says,
go to this (repairer), the customer has the right to say no, because it'll affect our warranty,” she said.
“We can't keep a track on what these independent people are doing.”
The Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders backed Volkswagen's stance but agreed it put the car owner in a quandary.
Both the Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMI) and the Vehicle Builders & Repairers Association (VBRA) were aware of the problem and emphasised the car owner's right to choose their own repairer.
