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-   -   When does warranty officially start for a new car? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-dealerships/233052-when-does-warranty-officially-start-new-car.html)

Mods: My apologies if this does not warrant a new thread, but it came across to me as quite unusual.

We have booked a Honda Jazz V CVT on the 6th of Feb 2021 intended for my brother as his daily driver. They had the color of our choice in stock and delivery was promised in 3 days after making full payment. Our intention was to make payment tomorrow (9th of Feb) and try and obtain delivery by the 12th of Feb.

Today evening about an hour back, the Sales person and the sales manager visited my brother in his office and told him that for the car that they have in stock, the warranty started on January the 20th, 2021. This is because this was invoiced to another customer in Jan who later cancelled and got a Honda city instead. Apparently their system allows only one entry per VIN and hence this cannot be cancelled. As compensation, we have been offered 1 year extended warranty free of cost. We can either opt for the warranty or have the cost of warranty (INR 7500 IIRC) discounted from the vehicle price.
EDIT: 6th year warranty can be purchased only in the 5th year of ownership, they will knock off INR7500 from the on road price.


My questions are

• Is the dealership being up front here or is there some kind of scam?
• I'm not sure if we would have found this if they did not tell us.
• I have looked up the VIN and it is a Jan 2021 manufactured car.
• Is there a possibility that this particular car was registered to someone else and was returned to the dealership due to reasons unknown?
• I'm yet to do a PDI and have not seen the car in person.

The dealer in question is Johns Honda in Thrissur. The showroom experience so far has been really good, the people have been professional and courteous. Attaching a picture of the VIN for reference

This is most unlikely to happen, but with the recent case of DC Avanti anything is everything is possible.
Visit the dealership in person to verify their claim and do an extensive PDI before you settle the amount.

Has the car been registered in the name of 1st owner?
Per my knowledge, warranty cannot start before registration. First suggest to get clear letter from dealer that its was not registered.

Secondly, if the car is confirmed by dealer to be not registered, then ask them on what basis warranty has started? I doubt something very fishy about dealer transaction at this point.

If car is registered, then they cannot sell that car to you. The first owner has the right to sell the car.

The only risk that I see is, they will sell a registered car to you. Since car is manufactured in Jan 21, there is no way that it would have been used.

If it is a registered car, the value of the "USED" car would reduce by 40%

If they give you free extended warranty for 2 years, it would cost only 8k INR which is peanuts compared to 40% reduction of price.

I suggest you take the advantage of already registered NEW car and reduce the price by 40%. If not 40% at least 30%. You will get a new car but you will have second owner tag and get cost advantage.

They have confirmed (orally) that the car is not registered, just was invoiced and cancelled.

Please do a detailed PDI and ensure that the car wasn't used in any way- especially as a test drive car. You haven't made any payment so rest assured that you have the upper hand.

If the car checks out to be perfectly fine, ensure you get a writing from Honda that the warranty start date is from the date of purchase and not some random date.

The dealer maybe courteous to give free extended warranty but it pays to get stuff checked although the difference is 2-3 weeks.

Two scenarios -

1 Likely a Demo car in records of Manufacturer. Dealerships are allowed little higher discounts on some cars for their own use as demo cars but they don’t make demo and sell as new.

2 To claim some monthly retail incentives, dealership might have invoiced few cars. This is usually when the actual numbers are very close to the target.

In both cases, if the car is brand new and with no visible usage (odo/ general wear) it will be ok to take extended warranty and buy the deal. Also take Month of manufacture in written from dealer, can this be Dec 20?

99,9% cars are never invoiced until full money is received so the dealer is not telling you correct. If you can squeeze more freebies or additional discounts, that will be even better.

Yes, I read that in your opening post. No harm in getting a confirmation from the dealership. Just an outside chance.

It is a Jan 2021 manufactured car, the VIN checked out.

If I can ask a few questions, what are your other options? How desperately do you need the car?

My objective view is - If you can wait out, then just don’t go for what the dealer is selling you. The amount you are saving in this deal (7500) is not much. There is hardly any upside here. But on the other hand if your fears come true, the downside is pretty steep. I would have stayed away if I was you.

There are 2 people and 1 car, so yeah it is urgent. The plan now is to do a PDI tomorrow and then take a call.

Very strange. I can’t really comment on Indian specifics.

But you would think, that on a new car, the warranty starts on the completion of the sale. When the car becomes your property is when the warranty starts. In most cases that is when you have paid the full agreed purchase amount.

Registration or insurance or even whether you took possession of the car is irrelevant I would think. It starts from the moment you could take possession of the car and it is, fully, yours.

Good luck
Jeroen

Honda's warranties start at the time of sale. This means the moment the dealer bills the car in the system. In your case, it is likely that the car was billed on 20th Jan.

This doesn't seem to be a case of dealership meeting monthly targets, but some genuine case - last minute back out by customer, going in for another vehicle or cancellation. If it was a case of targets, billing would have been done on the last day of the month.

I would say, grab that 7500 bucks discount and get the car home. You are barely losing 20-25 days of warranty coverage for which you are getting 1 extra year of coverage. I don't see anything fishy here, especially as the dealer has been upfront about it.

Some carmakers, like Fiat, explicitly mention that warranty starts from the time of first registration. While some others say its from the date of billing. So it varies a bit here and there.

I got my Jazz registered on 28th August but my insurance / warranty started on 26th August. The day when all the payments were done and it was invoiced. Same with my earlier Wagon R. So invoice date takes the precedence and not the registration date. Request members to check their bills to add more weightage here.

I think, the car was invoiced as stated by the dealer. OP has the VIN and if he can get the engine no of the car, it can be verified in the Honda Connect app.

Get first hand information from the guy who bought it, and then cancelled his booking, for a peace of mind perspective

If the car indeed is a January 2021 manufactured unit then I don’t see anything fishy here. For your peace of mind, just ask the dealership to show you the invoice of the customer’s Honda city and you can verify the names and dates. Secondly, Get the car thoroughly inspected. I don’t see any reason for you to skip on this deal if things are clear and you are getting 1 year extended warranty.

Please do ask for Invoice from manufacturer to dealer with the VIN mentioned. That would clear the issues to great extent. 20 Jan 2021 - 12 Feb 2021 is a gap of 23 odd days. People do back out of deals at last moments quite a few times, the dealer may be in a fix due to that and if everything checks out, go ahead with the puchase and get extended warranty instead of discount.

Edit: also ask for copy of invoice and cancelled/reversed invoice of the original customer.