Wear and Tear: Your warranty won’t cover this

The two-year manufacturer’s warranty which came with the dazzling white Maruti Boleno Suvra Bhattacharya of 235 Jodhpur Park bought three years ago, expired on a drizzly winter evening last year. Since then, periodically, she has had to dish out large amounts of money for odd repair jobs here or minor parts replacements there. These, coupled with the mandatory expenditure of regular maintenance costs, became quite a sum. “While the warranty lasted, my dealer (Jalan Distributors) did the replacements and repairs free of cost,” says Bhattacharya. “But when it expired, suddenly I found that my expenditure was spiralling out of control”.

What Bhattacharya missed out on was the chance to avail of extra warranty and enjoy the benefits of free-of-cost service for an extended period of time. This is partly because when she bought the car, the concept of extended warranty was still new to the city and there weren’t many takers for it.

But Calcutta’s car buyers today are availing of this service like never before. “Roughly 70 per cent of automobile consumers today opt for extended warranty,” states Triparna Kali, marketing coordinator for Bengal Hyundai, Calcutta, which has been offering the service to its customers since October 2000.

Extended warranty is basically the extension of the manufacturer’s warranty and covers a wide range of services, including such things as major manufacturing defects, trouble with engine and gear box, problems with electrical components, some mechanical and electrical engineering work, according to Sanjay Goel, coordinator, Corporate Warranties Private Limited.

There is a cost for the extra warranty. The warranty for Hyundai’s Santro for instance, is Rs 1,950 for an extension of a one-year period and Rs 2,950 for the Accent (in both cases, this is applicable if the customer applies for it at the time of purchase).

But some say better late than never. Says Goel, whose company has a tie up with the dealers Austin Distributors, Calcutta, which offer extended warranties for Fiat, Lancer. Daewoo, Ford Assured and Maruti, car buyers usually end up spending, much more than this if they don’t have the warranty at all. “My advice to consumers is just get it, doesn’t matter when. It’ll ultimately save you a lot of hassle and money”.

Suvra Bhattacharya, for one, is sold on the idea. “I was anyway planning to sell the car and get a smaller one,” she says. “And I am definitely going for the extended warranty. I don’t know if I need it at all. But it’s better to be safe than sorry. It’s like taking vitamin supplements. Maybe I don’t need it, but why take the risk?”