Why did my car warranty deny my repair claim?
Extended warranty providers often reject coverage for expensive engine repairs by falsely labeling them as regular maintenance. This leaves car owners stuck paying thousands out of pocket for major failures shortly after purchasing a vehicle from a dealership.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Paying out of pocket for the repairs
- 2Disputing the claim denial with the dealership and insurance adjuster
- 3Relying on maintenance records to prove services weren't previously offered
- 4Calling the dealership once a day to get them to acknowledge requests
- 5Taking the car back and forth across state lines and paying for train tickets
- 6Getting an independent mechanic inspection and quote
- 7keeping persistent daily phone calls and text messages
- 8taking the vehicle back and forth to the dealership multiple times
- 9paying out of pocket for transportation like train tickets to retrieve the vehicle
- 10Car pooling
- 11Considering a salvaged engine installation
- 12Trading in the car at a loss for a new vehicle
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“The manufacturer will not cover it under warranty because “the oil was not changed on the same day it was purchased” and because of a “lack of current receipts.””source ↗
“Warranty denied the claim because they’re claiming it’s “regular maintenance” but I’m reading everywhere that fuel injectors are often never even replaced let alone this soon.”source ↗
“I am so upset, I’m anti car payment and haven’t had one in over 12 years and finally got one and then this happens.”source ↗
“I bought my first car from a dealership a state away from me... my dealership assured me that if any major problems showed up once I got it inspected back in my state, they would take care of it.”source ↗
“When I got my quote from my mechanic, all of the urgent to take care of category alone was $7000... I addressed all of this to my dealership very quickly, they ignored me until I kept pushing”source ↗
“They fixed NOTHING that was on the list and instead fixed something that I didn’t even ask for them to fix bc it was low priority.”source ↗
“On the last day of my warranty, the battery died when I was on the freeway and my emergency brakes failed too”source ↗
“When I got my quote from my mechanic, all of the urgent to take care of category alone was $7000, including front lower control arms/bushings, rear leaf spring/suspension issue, rear shocks, carrier/driveshaft support bearing, front axle/CV axle issue, valve cover gaskets, and the brakes not stopping quickly when I push down.”source ↗
“They took it to their mechanic THREE TIMES and did not fix jack the first 2 times and never provided me a statement do what was actually done to the truck even though I texted and called them about it for weeks.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 15Why does Etsy automatically refund buyers without seller approval?