6 pot

Firstly, if this has been asked before I apologise.

Please correct me if I am wrong but it seems that unless you have your Subaru serviced at an authorised dealer, you loose your warranty.

Through work I have several other vehicles as follows:

Ford Focus
Vauxhall Zafira
Vauxhall Movano Vans x 2

All of the above are serviced by an independant (and in my opinion better than the main dealer) garage, he uses genuine OE parts and follows the manufacturers schedules, yet Ford and Vauxhall are both quite happy to still carry out warranty work, one of the vans recently had a new Fuel Pump/ Common rail/ Injectors and Turbo and the Focus has recently had an anti roll bar drop link replaced.

So why is it I have to take my MY05 Sti to a main dealer, is this something that International Motors Uk have put in place to generate guaranteed income or is it a global Subaru issue, I recently paid £130 for an oil change, this would have cost £80 at the local independant using genuine parts and shell helix fully synthetic.

Rant Over

urban

iTrader: (1)

Since when did you have to use main dealer?

I believe it hasn't been this way for a while now, possible was that was for MY03 cars, but not MY04 and certainly not for MY05.

Shaun

6 pot

I need to look into this shaun, but thanks for the help!

Scooby Dan

We spoke to trading standards recently about this and I think the rules changed about a year or so ago so you should be ok with an 05 but you should double check this before risking invalidating your warranty

corradoboy

After the removal of Block Exemption you can have your car serviced at any VAT registered garage whom can prove they have reasonable skill to carry out the task and do so using OE parts or better within the required schedule. I believe this came into being in April 2004 and there was no legal requirement for companies to allow cars registered prior to that to be included. A friend of mine had a heated exchange with International Motors and they finally gave in and agreed that there should be no reason why a pre Apr04 car would fail to meet warranty conditions if it were serviced elsewhere. He has saved this corresponance and it will be used should silliness ever prevail.

Scrappy9

My understanding is as corradoboy's, also heard one of the reasons for the huge cost increase in extended warranties was due to Subaru losing out on servicing charges because customers are going to other (more?) competent garages/specialists.

Azyman

iTrader: (1)

i buy the company vans for my firm we got 20+ 54 plate ford transits and we get them done at an independant as long as the parts are ford we have had no problems

furrydice79

ahhhh,, i bought a MY05 sti on march 4th, i took it to subaru for its 1000m service, in my service book i need a 3000m service as it is an EU import,this is due in about 500m,, does this now mean that i can take it to a normal garage for its service as apposed to the pricey subaru dealer..

bluenose172

iTrader: (2)

Does the block exemption apply to an extended warranty?

fgn

Have got a 05 wrx (eu import)

contacted my local dealer about servicing and they said as long as subaru parts are used and work is carried out by vat reg. garage no problem. Had 1000 mile service done this way, I bought the parts from subaru and took them to local garage, £30 later service done! Keep all bills for parts and garage service as proof, service book also states you should have a list of all service items anotated and signed by garage. I have copied list from service book and have this signed and attached too.

Now find out mine does not need 1000 mile service though. first service is 3000 miles and this has no replacement parts, just an inspection.
First oil change is at 9000 miles (so much for the running in oil, is this a myth???)
FGN

patkin

My service instructions also mention no inspection or oil change until 9000 miles can anybody enlighten us ?

Jubal

My extended subaru warranty conditions explicitly state it must be serviced at a main dealer. When I queried it they said they can do what they like on extended warranties. They sit outside the rules apparently.