Should you pay for diagnosis when your car breaks down, under warranty?

If your car starts making noises and you're forced to take it to the dealership, where do you stand under Australian Consumer Law if asked to pay a fee to diagnose the problem? Is this fair, and should you pay?

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Let’s imagine that, in a totally unscripted way, some expensive widget in your car fails. Forward progress stops.

You find yourself making a very inconvenient diversion over to see the dealership, which you generally don't want to do, and they tell you it’s going to cost you.

Not only this, they further tell you they will decide if it’s a warranty job or if you’re going to foot the bill.

They're going to keep your diagnosis fee and then the real repair bill is going to start - you find yourself painted into a corner. What should you do?

Well, let’s talk about the vehicle’s service history, because if you’ve failed to upkeep the manufacturer’s servicing interval requirements, you’ve opened the door to being denied.

Here’s how a guy named Nick put it to me recently:

I watched your video about the Subaru CVT transmission problem - I'm having the same issue (on my] 2019 Subaru XV with 75,000 kays.

I've had it serviced at MyCar regularly, although because of COVID I missed a 50km service by about 10,000kms.

Clearly, this vehicle gets driven a lot, so that’s 20 to 25,000 kilometres a year - that's more than average - probably because you live in the regions.

However, COVID, as I understand it, is just the Swiss Army knife of excuses. Sorry, can't make your car: COVID. Sorry, there's no toilet paper in the supermarket: COVID. Sorry, the footpath is knee-deep in masks: COVID. Sorry, I didn't get my car so the mechanic at 10,000 kms - COVID.

At 10,000kms over, that's like six months. Did COVID really prevent you getting your car serviced for six months - 180 days? That service interval is there for a reason and 10,000kms is a lot over, which opens the door to a car denying you a warranty claim if something fails prematurely.

So, have you had your car serviced on time? At either the odometer reading or the time interval, whicever comes first, you must get it done promptly.

Is COVID really the excuse you’re going with for not getting your car serviced?

By the way, if you don’t know what a CVT transmission is, brush up here >>

Nick adds:

I recently started hearing a ticking noise and I took it back to the dealer. They immediately diagnosed CVT issues and put a warranty claim into Subaru, requested receipts from the servicing, which I provided.

They have now asked for me to indemnify their costs of 1200 bucks to have the transmission inspected in Sydney or Melbourne and if it turns out to be a manufacturing fault, they will cover the cost.

But if they say it's not a manufacturing fault, then I will be liable for the 1200 smackers, plus whatever it costs to replace the transmission.

Seems very unusual.

Here’s my take on Nick’s situation.

I think he should thank his lucky stars, because Subaru is looking after their customer here; they didn't just tell him to go away due to the missed service. He appears to be still in the game, as in, seeing whether or not he will get a free repair.

If we turn their tables on this whole situation by putting ourselves in the position of Subaru, you would want an expression of good faith out of Nick because he wants his car fixed. That makes sense.

So as Subaru, to have your dealer pull it apart, stick the transmission in a box and have it couriered to a specialist diagnosis transmission joint in Melbourne or Sydney (which is how Subaru Australia operates), and then the dealer is going to charge you for it - that’s no small gesture.

Subaru is already going to bear some cost in all of this and certainly they're going to do some labor, because they don't know really what the technicians will find, there’s a risk they’ll find a damaged transmission at the owner’s fault - and if you haven’t contributed upfront, Subaru is going to be out of pocket.

That's why they want the money upfront. But that’s not all there is to it…

There’s a lot more to this and similar types of dealer service department diagnosis situations, which is why you should watch the full report for greater detail. Be informed about how this and other scenarios play out in case it happens to you.

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