Is there a warranty period for car repairs?

When buying a car, you need to pay considerable attention to the warranty conditions provided by a particular dealer. There may be a lot of fine print in them. The article reveals the basics of vehicle warranties that will help the buyer avoid unpleasant situations in the future. The car owner must understand that he is holding in his hands a complex technological device that consists of approximately 10,000 parts. A huge number of small mechanisms are immediately, from the first minute, in motion, under the influence of friction, pressure, gravity, high temperature and much more.

Warranty period for the car

Any car tends to break down, regardless of whether it is new or used, Korean, French, German, Japanese or Russian. Man has not yet learned to deceive the laws of physics and, probably, will not learn soon. It is also necessary to remember about the failure of production equipment, all kinds of design errors, imperfect technology, or simply the human factor.

In any case, with varying degrees of car breakdown, there is no need to cause a tragedy. Even if it happened that the official dealer refused warranty repairs, there is no need to resort to scandals. It is unlikely that you will be able to achieve any positive results with the help of screams, curses, tears, hysterics and the like.

Each individual case requires composure and attentiveness, because dealers often take advantage of the fact that the client is unaware and inattentive. As for car owners, they are completely confident that the manufacturer is obliged to them from now on until the end of their lives, but you need to realize that this is far from the case. In order to avoid problems, you need to understand in detail and understand what a car warranty is.

A guarantee refers to the obligations undertaken by the manufacturer (official representative offices, dealerships, services) to carry out free repairs or replacement of certain car parts that have factory defects during a pre-agreed warranty period between the two parties.

If a car has a warranty, this does not mean that if there is any malfunction, the manufacturer will immediately rush to fix it. If this were so, then taking into account the complexity of the mechanisms and their frequency of breakdowns, the manufacturers would have been ruined long ago.

That is why, as a safety net, they introduce all sorts of restrictions and warranty conditions for the car, for which you need to be prepared.

The warranty period is divided into two main types:

• European standard: includes a time indicator, namely 2 years, without any restrictions on mileage;
• Asian standard: 3 years or 100,000 km warranty.

All other promises regarding the length of the warranty period are simply an advertising ploy by dealers who are trying in every way to lure customers to them.

There is no need to dig deep, just take the fact that during the main warranty period for units that are subject to natural wear and tear, the obligation applies either with many restrictions or is completely absent. Parts such as brake discs, shock absorbers, drums, oil seals, seals, battery, gaskets, clutch, rear and front suspension stabilizer bushings and others wear out quite quickly and very often have a warranty of less than one year or from 20,000 to 50,000 km.

Design rules

After contacting the insurance company, it is given 20 days to issue a referral to a car service center. The document indicates the time frame for the repair. If the insurance company delays providing the referral, then for each day of delay it will be required to pay a penalty in the amount of 1% of the insurance compensation. The total amount of the penalty cannot be higher than the insurance compensation. To receive it, you must fill out an application including the calculation, as well as indicate the account details for transferring funds.

The car repair period is affected by the condition of the vehicle and the list of work required to be performed. In most cases, the auto repair shop is given up to 30 days to carry out restoration work. The countdown begins from the moment the vehicle is presented to the service station. Sometimes the damage to the car is very serious or delivery of spare parts will take a long time. In this case, the repair period under compulsory motor liability insurance can last more than a month.

In some cases, the car owner can reduce the period of car repairs. For example, he can get some components on his own. However, this requires a written agreement with the insurer.

Yes, this opportunity is provided by the new rules. But this must be done before purchasing the policy. The insurance company provides a list of service stations with which it cooperates. The policyholder can choose the most suitable one for himself. At the same time, he can take into account reviews of other clients, repair deadlines under compulsory motor liability insurance, proximity to the place of residence or work, etc.

When a suitable car service has been selected for possible restoration work, you can buy a policy.

Costs for spare parts are calculated taking into account the degree of wear. It is determined by experts when inspecting a vehicle and developing a report. The highest wear rate is set at 50 percent.

If an insured event occurs, the policyholder is given five days to provide the insurance company with the following documents:

• Accident notification.
• Certificate of incident (from the traffic police).
• Resolution indicating the culprit.

The insurance company must accept the motorist's application, review the document and decide whether the case is insurable or not. The expert must inspect the vehicle and determine the cost of restoration work.

Next, the car owner chooses a car service to perform repairs, and the insurance company develops an agreement. It indicates the period of repair of the car, the necessary actions and the price. The contract must be signed by the insurer, the owner of the vehicle and the car service center.

After this, the driver is provided with a referral for repairs under MTPL insurance. The owner of the vehicle cannot control the service center employees; all issues must be resolved through the insurer.

The length of time a car needs to be repaired depends on many factors. From the date of acceptance of the application, the insurer must issue a referral for repair work within up to 20 days. Provided that the service station is not included in the list of the insurance company, the period is increased to one calendar month.

The restoration work itself is allocated 30 days. The counting day is the day when the vehicle accepted the service station. A longer period may be needed for complex work if the consent of the injured party is obtained. All penalties in case of delay in repairs are covered by the insurance company.

A guarantee is provided for service station services. For body work, its validity is one year. Other types of repair work have a warranty period of six months.

The service station where the car should be sent depends on the insurance company. Each of them has its own list of service stations with which it has agreements. In each specific case, the decision to choose a particular service station is made on an individual basis.

The law states that a car service station should be located no more than 50 km from the scene of an accident or the victim’s place of residence. Provided that the insurance company pays for vehicle evacuation services, you can choose any option from its list of service stations.

According to the law, the insurance company must send the vehicle to a service that has the right to service cars of this brand. This is regulated by an agreement with the dealer or car manufacturer.

In the absence of a branded service station, the car is sent to any other service center from the list of service stations of the insurer, with the consent of the owner. If the latter refuses this, he can withdraw the funds.

This condition applies to vehicles not older than two years. This is a significant disadvantage because the manufacturer often gives a warranty of 3-5 years. If the insurance company does not have the required service station on its list, it can send the car to any service center. In this case, you will not be able to receive compensation.

Even at the stage of purchasing insurance, the car owner has the right to indicate a specific service center. The insurer is obliged to provide a referral to it in the event of an insured event.

The most common practice is to select a service station from the list of the insurance company. However, by agreement, other service centers can be indicated. In this case, these aspects should be reflected in the contract. The insurer's written consent is also required.

In circumstances where the company cannot pay for repairs at the service station you have chosen, the owner can count on monetary compensation.

When you purchase a new car, check with the dealer for a list of licensed service stations. This is important to maintain the warranty on the machine.

Select a company that cooperates with this service. If the insurance company responsible for the accident does not have an agreement with this service station, you can ask for financial compensation.

Are you planning to buy a used car? Ask the seller for receipts for parts that were recently purchased.

When buying an expensive car, think in advance whether you will have the funds in your budget to pay the difference in insurance for repairs yourself.

Remember that you won’t be able to get money from the insurance company and then repair it in a nearby garage!!!

Accidents and traffic incidents are force majeure circumstances that cannot be foreseen. It is important to always comply with traffic rules, purchase a compulsory motor liability insurance policy on time, and know your legal rights and obligations.

Legal car warranty

If necessary, you can use one of two options for car warranties: from the car dealership and by law. These two options are definitely different from each other. Let's take a closer look at each of them.

First of all, the law does not oblige a car dealership to set warranty periods. The terms of the latter are often specified in the contract when purchasing a car. The obligation established by law applies regardless of the signing of an agreement with a particular car dealership.

The warranty period by law is two years from the date the car was purchased.

If defects are detected in a purchased car, the owner has the right to demand its complete repair. Even if the car dealership has canceled the warranty given by them, it legally continues to be valid. This means that repairs must be carried out at the expense of the relevant salon. According to Law 19, which establishes the protection of consumer rights, and Article 477 of the Civil Code, the car owner is protected.

As for car dealers, sometimes they allow themselves some arbitrariness, but the rights of car owners cannot be violated, because the warranty was initially established not by the dealer, but directly by the product manufacturers. In other words, the foreign company that manufactured this or that car obliges itself to ensure its consumer qualities.

There is no way to remove the warranty from a car, as this would be a violation of Article 6 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”. Repairs and maintenance are carried out by the manufacturer of the product sold.

Almost every customer has encountered the problem of returning non-food products. This problem will always be relevant, since situations are different, and the purchase made does not always live up to expectations. Read about claims under the contract here.

How is the warranty repair period agreed upon?

Let's consider several options for how you can be offered to agree on the duration of the repair.

The period is not specified or a period not exceeding 45 days is specified.

Such cases are rare, but they do occur.

As we said above, if the duration of the repair is not indicated at all, then you are obliged to do everything immediately. If the duration is specified, then repairs should not take longer.

What to do: You don’t have to do anything.

The work order immediately indicates a repair period of 45 days.

Very often, the dealer (car service station), taking advantage of the consumer’s ignorance, indicates 45 days in small print on the order.

At the same time, a shorter repair duration may be verbally stated, and 45 days is simply the maximum. Thus, the dealer insures himself against liability.

What to do: study all the documents that you are given to sign. If you see 45 days in them, you can safely cross them out and write that the repairs are carried out in accordance with Article 20 of the Consumer Protection Law - immediately.

It is possible that the dealer station employees will not allow changes to be made to the work order.

What to do: write a free-form application to eliminate the defects and hand it to the dealer against signature, and send a duplicate by mail: a valuable letter with a list of the contents and a receipt.

In your application, indicate that the vehicle's defects must be corrected immediately. It is better to indicate a specific number of days. According to our practice, no more than 5 are needed for repairs of any complexity.

A sample request to eliminate car defects under warranty can be downloaded in doc format here.

The work order specifies a period of more than 45 days.

A common violation of consumer rights is the establishment of a warranty repair period exceeding 45 days. You should not be afraid of this, since such an agreement has no legal force.

It may also say "45 working days". This is also a violation and has no force, since the law sets a period in calendar days.

What to do: if you notice illegal conditions in time, then use the tips given above. If the documents have already been signed, then you need to follow the general rule - the repair period cannot exceed 45 days.

The warranty repair period is specified in the purchase and sale agreement.

The seller often sets the warranty repair period at 45 days directly in the purchase and sale agreement.

This condition may be legally binding, but only if the car is repaired under warranty by the seller.

Car manufacturer requirements

For maximum safety, the car manufacturer requires compliance with a number of mandatory requirements regarding the operation of the car.

The table presents the main requirements of the manufacturer and their purpose.

Voluntary use of the claims procedure for resolving disputes. Read about the list of non-returnable items here.

There are basic recommendations that can help avoid problems related to warranty service. In order not to complicate his life, the buyer should carefully study all the conditions before purchasing the car, familiarize himself with the operating manual and the features of the vehicle. It is also necessary to comply with all the manufacturer’s requirements and, if possible, avoid various tuning experiments.

Violation of the warranty period for car repairs

The warranty repair period is considered violated upon expiration of:

• the minimum period objectively necessary for repairs;
• period agreed upon by the dealer and the car owner in writing, but not more than 45 days

If the repair duration is longer, the following consequences occur:

• You can demand a penalty from the dealer in the amount of 1% of the price of the car for each day of delay. With a car price of 1.5 million rubles. it will be 15,000 rubles. in a day
• You can request a replacement car or a refund for it
• You can claim compensation for moral damages
• The dealer must reimburse you for all damages, including rental car and attorney fees.
• If the case goes to court, a fine will also be collected from the dealer: the court will add another 50% to all amounts of money collected from you. When collecting money for a car worth 1.5 million rubles. you will be awarded an additional 750,000 rubles.

Many lawyers would now argue with us and say that it is impossible to return the money for the car under such conditions. But judicial practice confirms our position:

From the Determination of the St. Petersburg City Court No. 33-16586 dated September 12, 2016

From the above judicial act the following follows:

1. If the warranty repair period is violated, this is enough to demand a replacement of the car or a refund for it.
2. The significance of the defect, the impossibility of use, the fault of the seller do not matter here

Refund is your right. You can always wait until the repair is completed and demand payment of a penalty for the period of delay allowed by the dealer.

When submitting claims to an organization authorized by the manufacturer, you must check whether the person accepting your claim (demand) has the necessary authority. Such powers are contained in the so-called dealer agreement. This is an agreement between the manufacturer and a legal entity in the Russian Federation that carries out maintenance and repair of vehicles, as well as accepting claims.

Consumer rights when performing car repairs under a warranty service agreement

When the vehicle arrives at the service center, it is checked. It may happen that the seller does not agree with your opinion that the manufacturer is at fault for breakdowns that occur during the operation of the car. The contractor will prove that the problems occurred due to violation of the rules for operating the machine.

In this case, insist on an independent examination. According to the Law, this inspection is paid for by the car dealership (Part 5, Article 18 of the Law of the Russian Federation).

The examination must be carried out in your presence, and if you do not agree with its results, go to court.

Note! In the event that an independent examination confirms the findings of the car dealership with its results, you will have to pay for this procedure.

Without waiting for the results of this examination, conduct your own research (in another expert organization). You will have to pay for the inspection out of your own pocket. Having received the results, transfer them to the car dealership along with your requirements.

In this case, demand compensation for your costs of conducting additional verification.

Time frame for car repairs under warranty.

When submitting your car for warranty repairs, enter into a special agreement with the contractor. Be sure to specify the period during which the repair work will be carried out.

Important! The warranty repair period cannot exceed 45 days (even by agreement of the parties).

The maximum period of time for a vehicle to be serviced in order to eliminate any problems that may arise is 45 days.

Be careful when signing various documents. This is especially true for repair times.

Sometimes the contractor tries to add an additional clause to the agreement regarding the extension of repair periods in special cases. You should not sign this document.

The service center does not have any legal right to extend the period the vehicle is under repair.

Do not accept the contractor’s excuses about the lack of spare parts, the need for additional time to deliver parts, etc. These requirements contradict Part 1 of Art. 20 of the Law.

If the repair period is exceeded, the contractor will have to pay a fine. Its size corresponds to 1% of the cost of the car, and is calculated every day until the car is returned to the owner or the money for the product is returned.

The completion of the repair and return of the car is accompanied by the issuance of certain documents.

When receiving a car, pay great attention to studying its appearance, check how it works, check whether the problems that you reported when transferring the car to the service center have been resolved.

Important! A service center specialist or a car dealership employee must be present during your inspection of the vehicle.

Request the issuance of documents confirming the warranty repairs performed. There are cases when the issuance of such documents is refused, which is illegal.

The certificate of acceptance of the car after repair must include the following information:

• when the buyer contacted the car dealership with complaints about the operation of the car;
• date of transfer of the car for warranty repair;
• when and what repair work was carried out;
• what spare parts and parts were replaced;
• the date the car is returned to the owner after the defects are corrected.

The requirement to issue a certificate of delivery and acceptance of the car after its warranty service is enshrined in Part 3 of Art. 20 of the Law.

If the car is returned to you, but no documents are given, then the contractor is violating the law.

Note! Do not rush to receive the car after repair without the appropriate documents. It’s better to refuse, as later you may have difficulty proving that the car dealership provided poor-quality services.

The completion of the repair marks the date of handing over the vehicle to the owner.

When receiving documents, double-check all the information entered in the document, especially regarding the date the car was accepted for repairs and returned to the owner. If inaccuracies are found, ask for them to be corrected.

How is a defective product replaced?

The buyer has the right to replace the goods if the machine has serious defects (Part 1, Article 18 of the Law of the Russian Federation).

In this case we are talking about:

• permanent machine breakdowns that were detected more than once and appeared after repairs under warranty;
• the defect cannot be eliminated during repair work;
• Troubleshooting may take too long (more than 45 days). In addition, repairs will be too expensive. In some cases, repair work may exceed the cost of the car itself;
• other shortcomings.

The presence of breakdowns that cannot be repaired without large financial and time costs must be confirmed by the results of an inspection carried out at a car service center or by an independent expert.

• The deadlines for performing warranty repairs, which were established by the Law of the Russian Federation, Part 1 of Art. 20. According to the Law, they are equivalent to 45 days;
• The owner cannot use the car for 30 days every year, even after undergoing warranty service and correcting some problems.

Note! In accordance with the above article, the machine must be in a state of repair for 30 days (in total) each year out of 3 years of the warranty period (Appeal ruling of the Moscow City Court dated January 30, 2014, case No. 33-437; Appeal ruling of the St. Petersburg City Court court on July 31, 2013, case No. 33-113778).

Therefore, if the above article is violated, the car can be returned to the seller.

Car warranty repair periods

In accordance with Article 20 of the Law of the Russian Federation dated 02/07/1992 No. 2300-1 “On the Protection of Consumer Rights” (hereinafter Law No. 2300-1), deficiencies found in the product must be eliminated by the manufacturer (seller) or the organization performing the functions of the manufacturer (seller) on the basis of an agreement with him, immediately, unless a different period for eliminating defects in the goods is determined by agreement of the parties in writing.

According to Law No. 2300-1, the period for eliminating defects in goods, determined in writing by agreement of the parties, cannot exceed 45 days.

If the seller is also an authorized service organization, then in the purchase and sale agreement he often imposes a favorable condition on him that the defects are eliminated within 45 days. However, this condition is valid only when the vehicle is under warranty in this service and does not apply to repairs from other officials.

Often, when given a choice between several official dealers, consumers prefer to buy from the nearest one - this is justified only if there is no provision in the purchase and sale agreement for a 45-day period for repairs. If there is such an agreement, you need to buy from any dealer, but not from the one where you plan and most conveniently service the car.

So, if you have a choice of where to take your car for warranty repairs, you should opt for an official service, with which there is no written agreement on the terms of warranty repairs, since in this case your car must be repaired immediately, that is, in the minimum period objectively necessary to fix its disadvantage, taking into account the commonly used method. That is, the car can be repaired under warranty exactly as long as the standard hours required for repairs in accordance with the factory documentation. That is, the maximum warranty repair period is equal to the required minimum time to eliminate the defect. It is easier to determine this period after the repair - just look in the final work order how many standard hours the repair actually took - this is the maximum period for repairing the car.

Why is this so important? Yes, because for each day of delay of this very deadline, the official service must pay you a penalty in the amount of 1% of the cost of the car! Moreover, violation of the terms of warranty repairs is grounds for terminating the contract of purchase and sale of the car or replacing it with a new one. Exactly! You can drive a car for 3 years of the warranty period or 99 out of 100 thousand warranty mileage, submit the car for warranty repairs, and if it is overdue (as with other delays in the past), return 100% of its cost or replace it with a new one without additional payment.

Any service authorized to carry out warranty repairs is obliged to accept your car and eliminate its defects. At the same time, to protect his interests, he may try to impose on you a written agreement on a 45-day repair period. Remember - you are not obliged to agree; insist on the deadlines provided for in Article 20 of Law No. 2300-1. It is important to understand that an agreement on the timing of repairs is not necessarily a separate document; it can be an inconspicuous line in the work order or the car acceptance certificate or in another document drawn up when the car is submitted for warranty repair. If you see such a line, cross it out and write next to it: “I do not agree with this deadline, I demand that the repairs be carried out within the time frame established by Article 20 of the Law Law No. 2300-1 and put your signature. Do this on both copies of this document.

Often the service tries not to leave the consumer with important documents that will allow him to later assert his rights. This is done either when submitting the car for warranty repair, when its owner does not even have a single document that he submitted the car for repair, or (more often) when returning the car from repair. In this case, the consumer gives his copy of the work order to confirm the rights to the car, but when returning the car, these documents are not returned to him under various pretexts, the most common of which is that these documents remain in the service as proof that it was you who took car from repair. Try not to fall for these official tricks! To pick up a car from repair, it is enough to present documents for the right to drive it and an identity card. In order to exclude the possibility of your copies of repair documents being confiscated, make copies of them in advance and present them to the service.

Keep in mind that Article 20 of Law No. 2300-1 not only establishes the obligation to immediately repair the vehicle under warranty, but also guarantees the provision of very important information about such repairs. Thus, when issuing a car from warranty repair, the service is obliged to provide the consumer in writing with information about the date of the consumer’s request to eliminate the defects of the product discovered by him, the date of transfer of the product by the consumer to eliminate the defects of the product, the date of elimination of the defects of the product with their description, and the used spare parts (parts, materials) and the date of delivery of the goods to the consumer upon completion of the elimination of product defects.

This is important, including for extending the warranty period for a car, since it is extended for the period during which the product was not used. The specified period is calculated from the day the consumer applies for warranty repair of the car until the day it is issued upon completion of the repair.

As a rule, upon completion of the repair, the service issues a new final work order, which indicates the above data. Sometimes they are written by hand into the original work order. The main thing is that all information is indicated and that it corresponds to reality, because another favorite trick of officials is to distort the timing of the elimination of the defect - the dates of the car being handed over for repair or being returned from repair are distorted in order to create the appearance that the repair took less time than actually. Therefore, having ensured that all information required by law about repairs has been indicated, carefully check the accuracy of the information you know, including the dates.