Kip wrote:Are you saying whatever warranty I decide to offer as a manufacturer is worthless.?
I start a car company and offer a warranty that says drivetrain 100,000 miles. Engine 50,000 miles and power windows 20,000 miles. The windows quit at 15,000 according to the customer, but they never say anything. The engine blows at 55,000 miles. Am I expected to repair the power windows for free if they are not working and this is the first I have been notified when the car is brought in for repair? Am I also expected to repair the engine for free because the drivetrain is still good?
BTW...The CWL movement is 5 years on the movement.
It is not that simple, but possibly yes!
Roughly speaking there is an expectation that items have a certain life, so:
- my fridge had a 2 year warranty
- if it is considered normal for a fridge to last more than two years then the manufacturer still has obligiations beyond that 2 years under the requirment for goods to be 'fit for purpose'
- i recently had the water dispenser replaced free of charge at 3 years old as an £800 fridge can be expected to last more than 2 years... There might be a case to argue that a very cheap fridge would have less expectation of length of life...
- there is for example an expectation in case law that a washing machine or equivalent goods has a life of c. 6 years
However some components might have a lower expectation and some are considered consumable (eg tyres on a car - an issue within a fe miles might be warrantable, but beyond that not)
There is also a requirement to warrant design defects pretty much for life if they affect the purpose for which the item was sold - there is a lot of history of this with cars where there is a common defect the manufacturer may have an obligation to make good years later, and this can be more than just safety recalls... So in your example if the windows not working is simply down to expected life of a component then bad luck... If a design flaw, then as there is an expectation that windows should work on a car they would be covered for life!
Very complicated, but surprisingly complete protection...
Cars are slightly different as there is specific legislation around manufacturers not being allowed to insist that their garages service cars... So my leased Ford Kuga, they initially told me that it had to be serviced at Ford until I reminded them that this is illegal... I am allowed to have it serviced anywhere, or service it myself, as long as I use Ford parts... If I use a non ford part, eg oil filter, then the warranty continues, but will not cover that part or any damage caused by failure of that part - which would be consequential loss to be covered by the third party manufacturer of that filter... So i had it serviced at my local garage at 1/3 of the service costs!
Alasdair