Bought "NEW" event car - warranty issues.

[dklymenko]

Hi All!

The car is 2018 Buick Regal Sportback with 411 miles sold as NEW. Dealer told me it was "event" car.

I bought a NEW car from dealer (at least they told me so). However when I go to my.buick.com it says your warranty is "3 Years, 19 Days Remaining", when it should be very close to 4 years.

I just took the car to dealer to complain about this and also car requires oil change (computer reads 9% oil life left) and a few other issues with the car. The dealer told me that because this car was an "event" car, the warranty is already ticking, and they cannot reset it. They did not tell me anything about warranty when I paid in cash for the car. Is this normal practice?

I have a whole bunch of other complaints about the car that dealer promised to fix, but it's a 3rd time I am coming to pick up a car and it is not fixed. Every time something is not completed.

Please advise if warranty less than 4 years is normal practice for an "event" car?

Thank you

 

[1500cc]

Does your bill of sale say "new"? And is there is a place on your bill of sale where it says how much warranty you have? How many miles are on the odo?

I actually had a similar experience; the night I took delivery of my GS I went to the Onstar website and it said I had 3 years and 8 months left on my warranty. Fortunately my bill of sale said I had 4 years warranty. I called the dealer the next day, he said no big deal, he just hadn't entered the sale date into GM's computers. Sure enough, a couple of days later the website was updated to say I had the full warranty left.

 

[2007LucerneCXL]

The one place to start is to review the dealers paperwork that you received and if any additional information included on the type of sale it was.

 

[dklymenko]

The odometer said 411 miles when I bought the car. Now it is about 500 miles. I did not receive any paperwork, I signed all bills electronically. I only got "Buyer's Tag Receipt - Buyer's Copy". That's the only thing dealer gave me.

 

[1500cc]

I don't know what the rules are regarding "event" cars, but the first thing I'd want to know if it was truly new to you. Might even be worth getting a Carfax. If it is indeed new, maybe you just have the same issue as I did, and an update with GM will fix it.

 

[dklymenko]

I ran the Carfax on it, and it does say the car is NEW. Here's what Carfax says:
02/03/2018 2 Dealer Inventory Vehicle offered for sale
10/12/2018 23 Austin, TX . Vehicle washed/detailed

I also called GM directly, and they told me that the car is new, but because it was "serviced" the warranty is already ticking. Not sure what that means. They did not answer to my question directly whether I lose the time when the car was "event" car. They just told me the car is new and on the warranty.

 

[2007LucerneCXL]

You may want to try the local GM district rep and see if there is a description of how the warranty is established on your vehicle.

 

[dklymenko]

Thank you! How to find local GM district rep contact info?

 

[mitchflorida]

Tell them you want $1000 off the price for the shorter warranty. They basically sold you a demo car without telling you.


Although demo units are covered by the original manufacturer warranty just like any new car, you need to realize the warranty starts at mileage 0. If the car comes with a 3 year / 36,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty, and the demo unit already has 10,000 miles on the odometer, then a good chunk of your mileage protection has been used up.

You may be thinking "well, if I don't put a lot of miles on the car, I'm still covered for 3 years". Actually, this could be a problem as well. Warranty coverage begins when a dealer establishes an "in-service" date on the vehicle.

The dealer may have already placed the vehicle in-service, so you need to find out if they have done so and how long ago that was. That date is the day the new car warranty was put into effect and if they've been driving the car for 9 months, that's how much warranty they've used up already.


Should You Buy a Demo Car?

 

[2007LucerneCXL]

It may be going back to Buick for the contact as the only thing I know GM has in Austin TX is a corp IT office, sorry don't have a better answer.

 

[Pacer69]

Since dealer told you car was NEW, I think that would also be helpful in sharing with GM rep. And if so, I'd suggest the warranty clock should either be reset or they should give you an extended warranty to cover their mistake ...being kind, trying to give benefit of doubt to dealer, maybe sales guy thought it was new?

I wonder what kind of service is done in the first 400 miles anyway? Just sounds odd/weird. I'd find out exactly what was done to it. Not trying to be alarmist, but maybe someone ran into something in it and it had bodywork "service" done? I doubt it was that but I'd want to know.

I've never heard of an "event" car but it sounds like another word for program car, loaner or executive car...that is, pre-driven.

Point being if they didn't define that it was some kind of lightly used car, someone needs to make it right.

 

[dklymenko]

Tell them you want $1000 off the price for the shorter warranty. They basically sold you a demo car without telling you.

Although demo units are covered by the original manufacturer warranty just like any new car, you need to realize the warranty starts at mileage 0. If the car comes with a 3 year / 36,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty, and the demo unit already has 10,000 miles on the odometer, then a good chunk of your mileage protection has been used up.

You may be thinking "well, if I don't put a lot of miles on the car, I'm still covered for 3 years". Actually, this could be a problem as well. Warranty coverage begins when a dealer establishes an "in-service" date on the vehicle.

The dealer may have already placed the vehicle in-service, so you need to find out if they have done so and how long ago that was. That date is the day the new car warranty was put into effect and if they've been driving the car for 9 months, that's how much warranty they've used up already.

Hi Mitch!

Actually they told me it was a show car. However, they told me it was NEW, and they never mentioned anything about warranty.

>Warranty coverage begins when a dealer establishes an "in-service" date on the vehicle.

This is exactly what GM told me on the phone today. So looks like the car was "In service" 11 months ago.

 

[mitchflorida]

The car is technically new because it was never previously registered in someone's name. However, the warranty was activated several months ago.

 

[Pacer69]

The odometer said 411 miles when I bought the car. Now it is about 500 miles. I did not receive any paperwork, I signed all bills electronically. I only got "Buyer's Tag Receipt - Buyer's Copy". That's the only thing dealer gave me.

Also I don't get how/why the car would need an oil change at only 500 miles? My understanding is the first oil change (standard, not personal preferences) is around 4k-5k miles depending on driving conditions.

 

[and3275]

Well, the oil has to be changed every year or every 7500 miles. Since the car is approaching one year from manufacture date, oil monitoring system warns about the necessity to change the oil.

 

[Pacer69]

Well, the oil has to be changed every year or every 7500 miles. Since the car is approaching one year from manufacture date, oil monitoring system warns about the necessity to change the oil.

Ah, I didn't factor in the 1-year it's been driven around. Thanks.

 

[Foxbat]

Interesting, so if we end up with a 2018 Regal that was delivered to the dealership in spring 2018 and a number of people have taken it for a test drive, it won't start life with a Full Warranty?

Does the service event include Recalls? When we looked at the NyQuil, er, Carrageen Green car last year, it had a Recall for the rear seat belt. I see now there is also NHTSA Campaign, ID Number: 18V576000, from last August that covers multiple GM vehicles for the Rear Brakes. If the dealer bleeds the brake lines as called for, does that start the clock ticking?

 

[mitchflorida]

They wouldn't have activated the warranty unless they needed to do warranty work and thus start the clock.

 

[Ctrcbob]

Am I missing something?

What brand car is it? (Buick?)

What model is it? (Regal?)

 

[mitchflorida]

2018 Buick Regal with 411 miles on the clock.