GM cutting Powertrain warranty for 2016

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My current Chevy Silverado is why I'm buying a Ram.

Ram offers 5 years 100k.

Considering most new pickups are $40k-$70k I'd expect a Mercedes like warranty and service...
 
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Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
My current Chevy Silverado is why I'm buying a Ram.

Ram offers 5 years 100k.

Considering most new pickups are $40k-$70k I'd expect a Mercedes like warranty and service...



You will likely need that warranty with a Chrysler product. They are on the bottom of reliability as far as the big three are concerned. I saw a list of 10 new vehicles with the most recalls and almost half of them were Chryslers...and the Ram was one of them.

I used to sell them....and I was never all too happy about it. Tried to steer people to the Ford side of the dealership if I could.
 
Originally Posted By: anl0109
As one of the readers of the Yahoo article pointed out, GM probably wants to sell more extended warranties this way. This change is sort of a price increase then. Oh and fewer maintenance visits will be allowed too:

"The Detroit automaker also will scale back its offer of two years of free maintenance, including oil changes and tire rotations, on most new Chevy, GMC and Buick vehicles, the publication said. The brands will reduce the number of free service visits to two, from four, starting with 2016 models."


GM doesn't push the extended warranty the way some manufacturers do.

Buyers have the right to assume the worst.

Chrysler did the same thing about ten years ago right before they went into the toilet.
 
GM's warranty never really swayed me one way or the other. Neither did their free oil services do much to motivate me. I bought my Chevy 2500HD knowing full well that I would not use their free oil changes and I really didn't give the warranty thing a second glance. The fact that they are reducing it for MY16 really doesn't make me feel good or bad that I bought my 2015. That was the reasoning GM said they were cutting back on warranty and free service deals, buyer apathy. In my case, they would be right.
 
lol really, My next truck is Nissan Titan cummins , mabe 2017 model
smile.gif
 
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Originally Posted By: hpb
Winding back the warranty doesn't inspire confidence. For comparative purposes, GM (Holden) warranty in Australia is 3yr/100,000km. Ford, Chrysler, Fiat, Honda, Jag, Jeep, Land Rover, Nissan, Peugeot, Suzuki and Toyota are the same.

Audi, BMW, Mazda and Mercedes, Volvo and VW are 3yr/unlimited km.

Lexus is 4yr/100,000km.

Mitsubishi is 5yr/130,000km. (They used to extend the powertrain warranty to 10 years for the original owner only, but have since dropped that I believe).

Hyundai and Renault are 5yr/unlimited km.

Kia is the best with 7yr/unlimited km.

(Info from March 2015 edition of Wheels magazine).







wow, those are some good warranties, especially if you drive a lot. USA warranties are not even close to those.
 
Originally Posted By: Robenstein
Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
My current Chevy Silverado is why I'm buying a Ram.

Ram offers 5 years 100k.

Considering most new pickups are $40k-$70k I'd expect a Mercedes like warranty and service...



You will likely need that warranty with a Chrysler product. They are on the bottom of reliability as far as the big three are concerned. I saw a list of 10 new vehicles with the most recalls and almost half of them were Chryslers...and the Ram was one of them.

I used to sell them....and I was never all too happy about it. Tried to steer people to the Ford side of the dealership if I could.


Well both my dads and business partners F150's are not very good either. Ram is the last stop, Toyota or Nissan is next.
 
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Checked GM 10-k. Warranty expenses unexpectedly went up about 30% last year an extra billion dollars. To put things in perspective, their massive recall of 36 million cars cost 3.6 billion.

Ford's 10-k on the other hand, reports warranty visits down 66% since 2005.

Someone should tell GM they don't have 60% market share anymore.
 
Originally Posted By: jimbrewer
Checked GM 10-k. Warranty expenses unexpectedly went up about 30% last year an extra billion dollars. To put things in perspective, their massive recall of 36 million cars cost 3.6 billion.

Ford's 10-k on the other hand, reports warranty visits down 66% since 2005.

Someone should tell GM they don't have 60% market share anymore.







Well, that was pretty much that ignition switch recall there...every automaker has a rough year...


Right Toyota, Ford, Nissian....


What can ya do...
 
To be clear, the extra billion in warranty expenses is just generalized poor product, not the recall. Given that the other manufacturers are going in the opposite direction I'd run for the hills before visiting a GM dealership.
 
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
I think warranties are a scam anyways seeing how they can easily get voided at the dealer's convenience.

Oh you didn't do x at y miles.. your warranty is voided. I am sure most people would give up and just pay for the service.


I've had warranty work done on my GM product, and was never asked about vehicle maintenance.
 
When I was a salesman, I used the pt warranty as an effective selling point. In South Dakota, vehicles average 15k to 20k per year. That gave a potential buyer 5 years of protection as opposed to 3 with GM competitors (based on 20k miles per year with a 5yr/60k pt warranty). As a consumer, that would be enough to sway me in one direction, all else being equal.
 
Originally Posted By: itguy08
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
The gotta havit new car market in booming right now. Other companies, apparently have more confidence in their products.


Really? Who? Not Honda, not Toyota, not Mazda, not Ford, not Subaru, not Nissan.... Only the "lesser quality" brands: Hyundai, Kia, Chrysler, Dodge....
Anyone who thinks Hyundai/Kia is "lesser quality" ought to explain in what way.
 
Originally Posted By: millerbl00
SO pay $50k for a vehicle and sell it after the 60,000 mile warranty expires. Insane!
Agreed. 250 is more like it IF your make will do it.
 
There are interesting aspects to all of this that many don't consider. For one, no manufacturer is even required by law to offer a written warranty on their product. There is an implied warranty that applies, but that just means that the product will do what it was intended to do when the buyer purchases it. But there is no law that requires a written warranty after the buyer takes possession and drives it off the lot. DOT mandated recalls on defective stuff falls under the implied warranty thing. The product failed to meet quality when consumer bought it.

Secondly, warranties are not free. The cost to cover warranties is factored into the price of the product. There are no free rides. It can be argued, that it could be actually more cost effective to the consumer to not have a OEM warranty and just use a 3rd party service contract or "warranty". It could be tailored to meet what the user wants, it would be competitively marketed which would make it more cost effective, etc.

But there is a 3rd aspect that could be going on here. GM could just be floating this idea to see what consumer response would be. They could be doing this as a way to getting folks who are on the fence to jump in now and buy existing inventory to make room for 2016 models. Either way, as the deadline looms, they could then restore the 5/100 warranty and bolster their image as being genuinely concerned for their customers. Brilliant manipulation of the public right out of the text books. Pure Machiavellian strategy. They create a issue, and then ride in like some white knight and save the day, creating a self inflated image of themselves in the public mind. With beneficial sales numbers from the effort.
 
Originally Posted By: TiredTrucker
There are interesting aspects to all of this that many don't consider. For one, no manufacturer is even required by law to offer a written warranty on their product. There is an implied warranty that applies, but that just means that the product will do what it was intended to do when the buyer purchases it. But there is no law that requires a written warranty after the buyer takes possession and drives it off the lot. DOT mandated recalls on defective stuff falls under the implied warranty thing. The product failed to meet quality when consumer bought it.

Secondly, warranties are not free. The cost to cover warranties is factored into the price of the product. There are no free rides. It can be argued, that it could be actually more cost effective to the consumer to not have a OEM warranty and just use a 3rd party service contract or "warranty". It could be tailored to meet what the user wants, it would be competitively marketed which would make it more cost effective, etc.

But there is a 3rd aspect that could be going on here. GM could just be floating this idea to see what consumer response would be. They could be doing this as a way to getting folks who are on the fence to jump in now and buy existing inventory to make room for 2016 models. Either way, as the deadline looms, they could then restore the 5/100 warranty and bolster their image as being genuinely concerned for their customers. Brilliant manipulation of the public right out of the text books. Pure Machiavellian strategy. They create a issue, and then ride in like some white knight and save the day, creating a self inflated image of themselves in the public mind. With beneficial sales numbers from the effort.


You are way over thinking this. Their warranty expenses jumped by 30% in one year, so they are cutting the warranty to save themselves a billion dollars per year. That's like a couple of months' profit. Cutting the free maintenance goes hand in hand with that--they don't intend to fix the cars anyway, so getting the maintenance schedule off to a good start isn't important.

I'm sure there is a grain of truth to the "customers demanded we cut the warranty" story to the extent GM has carefully surveyed and is satisfied that the cut won't significantly hurt sales. Based on the rationalization I see on this thread, they are right.

As for me, I can take a hint.
 
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Originally Posted By: itguy08
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
The gotta havit new car market in booming right now. Other companies, apparently have more confidence in their products.


Really? Who? Not Honda, not Toyota, not Mazda, not Ford, not Subaru, not Nissan.... Only the "lesser quality" brands: Hyundai, Kia, Chrysler, Dodge....
Anyone who thinks Hyundai/Kia is "lesser quality" ought to explain in what way.


That wasn't me, but when Hyundai first hit the US market, they did so with the $5K Excel with a 100K mile warranty as a way of assuring new car buyers about the quality of the car. The cars were turkeys and the buyers soon needed the warranty, and dealers quickly resorted to denying claims unless all maintenance records were perfect, etc... but they've held onto the long warranty and improved quality since then.
 
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Originally Posted By: itguy08
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
The gotta havit new car market in booming right now. Other companies, apparently have more confidence in their products.


Really? Who? Not Honda, not Toyota, not Mazda, not Ford, not Subaru, not Nissan.... Only the "lesser quality" brands: Hyundai, Kia, Chrysler, Dodge....
Anyone who thinks Hyundai/Kia is "lesser quality" ought to explain in what way.


I don't have an issue with Hyundai/Kia - but the public's perception tends to be that that they are cheap and not very good cars. Hence the need for a 100k warranty to assure people there is some backing there. IIRC the CEO of Hyundai has even said as much a while ago.

The only brands I'd consider true lesser quality are Chrysler and the dependability stats seem to back that up...
 
Well, I barely gave the warranty of any vehicle the major consideration when I buy one. I buy the vehicle I want for what I need it for. If it has a great warranty, that is just icing on the cake. But even if it had a mediocre warranty, if it was the vehicle I wanted for what I need it for, I would still get it. As for GM's free oil change thing they are changing, doesn't mean a thing to me, as I have never used their free oil change stuff on any vehicle and won't on my new 2015 2500HD. Time to take off and go to the dealer, the distance to go there, etc all makes doing it myself cheaper than even the free deal from them! And I can make sure it is done right and grease points aren't missed. I don't live in a metro area with easy to drop off type of thing or even loaner vehicle from dealer. I am not going to shut down my business to go get a free oil change and burn up several gallons of fuel to do it.
 
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