Dealer service and warranty

What is a dealership service and warranty?
I suppose to begin with we should look at the service.

When you buy a car it's not long before you recieve a letter stating that it is time for your service and can you please arrange for an appointment. Now regardless of what service it is, whether it is your first one or third one the main concern is the cost. As any car driver will know the cost can be quite excessive to say the least.

I personally have always had my car serviced at a reliable garage, although there aren't many about. When you purchase a car the dealer always states that you must bring it back to them for a service or it will negate your warranty, is this so!

I recently purchased a new car from a Rover dealer and it was a Hyundai Accent. I decided to put it in for a service with my normal garage as the service is usually cheaper by about £50 compared to dealer prices. Unfortunatly two weeks after the service there was a major problem and the car wouldn't start. I contacted my garage and they said "it would't be from the service contact the dealer".

So I contact the Rover dealer they check out the engine and change a couple of parts and send me on my merry way. One week later the car broke down again and then the Rover dealer organised for the car to go into the Hyundai dealer. Hyundai put the car on their computer and found that it has a problem with the chip in the key and informed me that it must be changed.

So next we look at the warranty and has the service affected it?

Hyundai informed me that my warranty would not cover the repairs as I had not had my car serviced with them. I contacted my usual garage and they informed me about an E.U. legislation called 'Know your rights', it states that the dealer can not negate my warranty as long as the garage that I use is V.A.T registered and uses equal or equivalent standard of parts to the main dealer.

On speaking to Hyundai they commented that my warranty was negated, so I brought up the subject of the E.U legislation and told them that they were in breach of the law, a short silence followed by we will call you back. When they called back they said my warranty was not negated and they would repair the damage as the parts that had been changed in the service did not affect the damaged part,(trying to save face).

So the moral of this story is first find a trustworthy garage who will charge you a proper price for your service and you must check they use equivalent standard parts so it doesn't negate your warranty and you are not then blackmailed into using a dealership service which is very costly. If you do service your car at a regular garage and you have checked with them that it won't negate your warranty (if they service your car) and you then have a problem just throw the E.U legislation 'Know your rights' at them and threaten to sue them for breach of the law, you may find they will back down and repair your car under the warranty.