Car warranty changes over the years

[Ed P]

Would you buy a car with only a 90 day warranty? Your grandfather may have. times have changed, for the better.

[Clare Snyder]

I haven't bought a car with a warranty of any kind since 1976. I'd much rather have a non-warraned heap that doesn't give me any trouble than an expensive pile of crap that spends half of the first year of it's life at the dealership for them to find the problems and then goes back on a regular basis to have the problems fixed, again and again throught the life of the warranty!!!! (Like my '76 Ramcharger)

[rbowman]

Sh, nostalgia. Mine was a '62 and black. Unlike many modern cars 10 years later it had developed a fondness for fuel pumps which were a pain in the ass because of the classy forward opening hood. The very complex vacuum operated systems were not doing well. The engine was still strong but needed the plugs/wires/timing typical of engines of that era regularly.

Today the 'your warranty is expiring' message is mostly a scam. Leaving out recall repairs I wonder how much warranty work a dealership sees anymore.

[Bob F]

I bought one with a warranty once, which spent 6 of it's first 7 days in the shop. It was way more trouble than any other vehicle I have owned.

[Cindy Hamilton]

Every new Honda or Toyota we've bought has been completely trouble free for years. The first one was a 1984 Honda Civic.

Even my used Toyota got to be about 17 or 18 years old before it started to annoy. Still, the repair bills are much less than a new car, so I keep it.

[invalid unparseable]

It was years ago we had a Ford whose engine blew in 11 months on a one year warranty. Do not recall warranties on my earlier cars.

[invalid unparseable]

Long time ago at a AAA repair shop guy pointed out that he had no new Japanese cars in the lot but a lot of new American cars. While they all had the same warranty it was mostly American cars breaking down during the warranty period.

[Ed P]

Bought my last American car in 2001. Six Korean cars later, very happy.

[invalid unparseable]

Been with Japanese since 1990. First was a Mazda that gave use 110,000 trouble free miles but got stolen and stripped for parts.

You have been lucky with Korean cars as I hear they do not have the quality. A son recently bought a used Genesis with 30,000 miles and transmission went out. Fortunately he had warranty to replace.

[hubops]

Unless it has changed - the Korean cars have 5 year warranty - unlike most of the others these days. That said, the Japanese cars with just 3 year warranty tend to go 5 years trouble-free. John T.

[Wade Garrett]

We've generally done well with the many Japanese cars the family has owned. Two exceptions though:

Had a top of the line 2000 or so vintage Toyota Avalon that pulled to the left from day 1. Repeated dealer re-alignments, suspension inspection/adjustments, tire rotations, visits from an ace mechanic and a front-end suspension engineer from Toyota service HQ, etc., didn't fix it.

Filed a state Lemon Law replacement claim-- lost my case. Too expensive to hire lawyer so just lived with it.

Curiously, after about 10,000 miles, the problem went away and the car tracked straight. At about 45,000 miles, I needed new tires and replaced them with the exact same Michelin Primacy OEM tire that the car came with. And don't you just know it-- the pulling problem came back!! Traded the damn thing!

Also had a 2006 Honda Accord V6 that I really liked-- but whose transmission started making noise around 55-60 thousand miles. Didn't wan to fuss with it so traded it too.

[Ed P]

My Buick waited until it was a few thousand out of warranty for the tranny to fail. Same with the engine in the Olds. The second engine did last longer but it went to the junk yard with it.

I'm on #6, two were Genesis, four Sonata. Like every brand they do have an occasional bad one but the overall problems I've had have been minor and far less than any GM car I've ever had.

[rbowman]

I bought a used Geo (rebadged Suzuki) to see if I could live with a subcompact. It was trouble free at 100k. I changed the timing belt ($40) because without maintenance records I didn't know if ever had been.

When the Toyota Yaris came along I bought one. The first was totalled by a snowplow. The second was trouble free when I traded it in, other than a little deer bodywork, when I traded it in on a a 2018 leftover in 2020. I had not planned to but i got a good deal and Toyota dropped the model.

I do not expect to need another car in this lifetime unless I go old age crazy and buy a Camaro before that model dies.

[rbowman]

Toyota has made some strange OEM tire choices. My first Toyotas came with Potenzas. I believe they were chosen since they were a LRR tire and contributed to the mpg rating. Good grip but horrible tread life for a light weight car (21K). The Primacy is another LRR that is supposed to have improved the grip/tread life problem.

[rbowman]

The last GM car I had was a '82 Firebird. The rear main seal had a problem where it would rotate and leak. It would eventually rotate further and fix itself and didn't leak that much oil. What it did leak got blown onto the exhaust manifold. I got a little tired of people telling me my car was on fire when I parked. "It's a Firebird. What do you expect?"

It had other annoyances related to early attempts to computerize cars.

[Jim Joyce]

I rent 2 cars a week, about 40 weeks a year, and almost always take a Sonata. That's one of my favorite cars to drive, although I've never owned one.

[Ed P]

Years ago there as a joke. How do you double the value of a Hyundai? Fill the gas tank.

Back about 2006 that was my thought of them. The owner where I worked and I were talking cars as he knew I was looking. He mentioned he rented one a couple of times and was impressed.

Test drove an Avalon, then went to the Hyundai dealer across the street and drove a Sonata. That was our choice, bought a 2007. Had a minor issue after 3 years. Took it to the dealer for service and bought a 2010 while waiting for it. Then a 2013. Took that in for routine service and they said they could update the CPU. They blew it out. Gave a a loaner but only an Accent and Genesis so the service writer gave me the Genesis. Next day my wife and I went out and we liked it. Couple of months later, bought one. Then a 2018. Out of warranty I had a potential problem so traded it for another Sonata. There days can't justify the added cost for the Genesis.

[invalid unparseable]

Looks like here in US Korean cars have 5 year bumper to bumper and 10 years/100,000 mile drive train warranty vs Japanese 3 year/5 year.

[invalid unparseable]

It was decades ago but I sued Ford and the dealer over the blown engine problem I had at 11 months. They had replaced the head but rest of engine was a mess and they wanted me to pay maybe $1,000 full replacement at the time. I forget the amount you could sue for in small claims court but it was maybe less than $10,000 and in those days the car cost about $6,000. I did not hire a lawyer. Cost for me to file in small claims was only about $20. They sent their lawyer to visit me at work and I presented him with a printed list of the history with car problems and we settled out of court. They paid my filing fee and sent it to a different Ford dealer at my request for repair which must have cost them in excess of $2,000.

[invalid unparseable]

My brother worked for GM dealers all his life as a service writer, car salesman and sales manager and on retirement said he would never buy a GM car. I used to buy cars through him and get good prices and service. I had an engine replacement on one car where he bought the engine himself saving dealership markup which might have been double and had shop do repair and it was not expensive.