All About Vehicle Warranties: What is a Warranty, Types of Warranty, How to File A Warranty Claim on Your Vehicle

If you’ve got a phone, you’ve definitely received one of those infamous spam calls: “Hello, I’m contacting you to talk about your vehicle’s extended warranty!” “Hi there, I’m calling about your upcoming expiring vehicle warranty!”  While those calls are generally part of a phishing scam, your car’s manufacturer warranty is a genuine and real-deal thing, provided you’ve purchased through a dealership or certified pre-owned retailer. But chances are, you may not know all the ins-and-outs of the warranty process. Good news: in today’s Automotive Terminology entry, we’re taking a look at the various ways your car may be covered by various warranty options. 

Each manufacturer offers different warranties which cover your new or preowned vehicle for repairs or replacements if your car experiences any breakages, malfunctions, or mishaps due to a fault in manufacturing.  This offsets any cost of repairs, replacements or adjustments that would normally fall to the customer, and instead is covered by the dealership or manufacturer.  It is important that you thoroughly understand and read  our various warranties; in some cases, you can void a manufacturer warranty or guarantee by making aftermarket or off-brand upgrades or adjustments to your vehicle.

To prevent accidental violations of contract, many warranties stipulate that your car is regularly serviced by certified mechanics or dealerships to ensure no work violates your warranty.  It’s worth noting that these warranties do not and will not cover any errors made to your vehicle by you, the consumer, or a non-certified mechanic, or from wear-and-tear unless specifically noted in the warranty guidelines. For this reason, we recommend you do not alter your vehicle with aftermarket or personalizations until after these warranty periods have passed, so you can receive your maximum claim benefit if any issues should arise.  There may be restrictions to warranty coverage for commercial or combined-use (personal/commercial) vehicles, so you will need to double check the warranty parameters on that as well.

Now that you’ve got the basics down, let’s take a look at what each of these terms means, so you can understand which ones apply to your vehicle or which are worth opting for in addition to default depending on your driving and lifestyle needs.

Various Types of Warranties and What They Provide

• Basic/Bumper to bumper warranty
  • A vehicle warranty that covers everything except items that are subject to wear and tear or replacement in the ordinary course of vehicle ownership, such as oil and air filters, wiper blades and brake pads. Tires and batteries are often excluded, but usually have their own warranty provided by the manufacturers of those items. Emissions equipment is required by Federal law to be covered for two years or 24,000 miles.
• Extended warranty
  • A vehicle warranty sold by the manufacturer of the vehicle or a third party that extends the vehicles basic warranty beyond its original 
• Limited warranty
  • A vehicle warranty that is in effect for a specified number of years and/or miles driven.
• Powertrain warranty (Drivetrain Warranty)
  • Also referred to as the “drivetrain warranty.” A vehicle warranty that covers most of the parts that make the vehicle move, including the engine, transmission, drive axles and driveshaft. As with a basic warranty, “consumable” parts such as hoses and belts are not covered. However, most of the internal parts of the engine, such as the pistons and bearings, which are also subject to wear and tear, are covered by a powertrain warranty.
• Rust & corrosion warranty
  • A warranty that covers the repair or replacement of the vehicles sheet metal in the event of damage from rust or corrosion that is severe enough to cause a hole. Surface rust is not covered.
• Scheduled maintenance warranty
  • A warranty that covers service procedures recommended by the manufacturer at predetermined intervals to preserve and/or prolong the life of a vehicle.
• Technical Service Bulletin
  • Technical service bulletins (TSBs) are issued by the manufacturer for problems that affect the normal operation of the vehicle. Sometimes called “secret warranties,” TSBs cover known problems and provide repair instructions for service technicians and accordingly are distributed to all of the manufacturer’s dealerships.
    Unlike recall-related repairs, which are performed on a no-questions-asked basis, TSB repairs are made only to resolve problems that can be verified by dealer service technicians. And generally these repairs will be free of charge only if the vehicle is still under warranty.

How do you file a warranty claim?

A few things of note before we detail the claims process:

• You may be responsible for a deductible amount, depending on your plan or the claim being filed. 
• Most warranty claims must be made within a specific date range or timeframe after you notice the issue, so don’t dilly-dally in reporting the error or defective part to your service provider.
•  Note that you may need to take your car to a specific authorized repair facility, so make sure that if it’s a warranty covered claim you don’t bring it to a mechanic until you receive specifics from the warranty company.
• Stay on top of your regular mileage maintenance and service calls; warranty repairs and claims may be denied if your vehicle has not been well-maintained with regular tune-ups and fluid maintenance.

Filing the Claim

You’ll need to consult your paperwork which should specify who the warranty provider is, and how to contact them directly; generally you’ll find a company portal, a phone number to call or text, or an email form to fill out. You’ll next be asked questions such as explain the issue in detail, provide your VIN, when the issue started, share relevant repair history, and furnish documentation that you are the vehicle’s owner. Your warranty claim servicer will then guide you through the necessary steps for scheduling a service to remedy the claim.

Your dealership or other authorized mechanic will inspect the vehicle and make an estimate which you will then submit to your warranty servicer, which will be reviewed and then subsequently approved as needed.  Once your warranty claim has been approved, they’ll go ahead with the repairs and service your vehicle as described.  Make sure you maintain a copy of this service bill for your records and keep it in a safe place for future reference!

If for some reason you feel that an error has been made during the claims process, you may be able to file a claim dispute; check your paperwork for details on the procedures for filing the dispute.

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