To all of those, like myself, who is currently under a warranty of any kind....read this news today that really is making me reconsider even being worried about the warranty. Here is the info posted by a friend here in Colorado: "Check this out; my cousin's 2010 SRT8 Yellow Challanger blew the motor last week with only 13k on it. It took piston #7 and made lots of small pieces out of it and piston #5 has the valves stuffed into it. Now for the good part!!! Dodge corporate kicked the warranty claim out for abuse and miss use. Here is why and how they are saying that. When they plugged the car in and scanned it, they found the car had been to 152 MPH one time and to 120 - 130mph several times. This is miss use and abuse according to Dodge!! How do they get off trying to skate out of this!!. He is hiring some legal help and going full guns after them trying to get this fixed. I just thought this was something we all needed to know because I am sure there is alot of us that have cars that are still under warranty that have been up in that speed range. I know I have!!!" As I stated before...very interesting and thinking now....why worry about my extended warranty. Thoughts and has anyone else come across something like this?
Nissan does the same thing with the GTR i believe. Something with turning stability control and traction control off at the same time is data logged and any occuring damage that occurs while in that mode voids warrantys. Pretty sure thats how it went... I may be confused though.
That's pretty depressing if it's true. Keep us posted on the details. It does sound a little odd though... 150mph and you're turning about 4400rpm? Can't see how that's much different on the engine than accelerating in any other gear. And they advertise under 5 sec 0-60. And they have a rev limiter. And there are public highways in Montana? with no speed limit where you could do that without being "off road". I don't see what speed has to do with the engine. How well do you know this friend that posted this about his cousin? Have you/can you talk to him directly? Motor is kind of a big expense and some people aren't forthcoming with all the details sometimes. Did he have a tune in it? Mods? I'd like a few more details before I become outraged.
Dave....the friend is a great friend from the SRT club we have here in Colorado Springs. The cousin he is talking about I have met just a few times at meets. We've talked a few times already and from what I get; no mods done to it except a CAI.....MOPAR at that. The cousin is a collector of classic MOPARs....Hemi Cuda, Road Runner, and Coronet....so my guess was he was going to keep it stock. As new info comes up.....I'll keep the thread updated.
What the booklet says is our top speed and what people have actually done in their cars are two different things. My car is stock and I've gone faster than that.
He should see if he can get copies/transcripts (or copy himself?) of the SRT Engineer chats from a couple/few years ago. I kindof remember that they were always just left up forever on the sites where they were held. Should be good info there.
The reason these cars are so heavy - safety standards and computers. Though I'd chalk this up to them looking for a way out of replacing a whole motor for free and the guy gave them an easy out. Though I wonder if top speed / abuse & misuse are in the fine print we signed off on. Glad I've been driving like Miss Daisy the past three years.
Past three years may not matter. They may log over xxx mph events and just save the last x largest entries or something like that. It may not matter when you did it. The question is if speed is "abuse" with respect to the warranty.
Yeah, I can think of two times I've been doing speeds similar to his and a handful of times into the triple digit regions. But then I also take my car to the dealer to get serviced every three months and before and after any adventures at Willow Springs or en route to SEMA. Just glad I haven't had anything go kaboom *knock on nearest wood-based product*.
I was (trying) to side with you in just saying show the dealership what the book says so how can it be abuse ? If the book says 155 and they have readings of 130; 140; 150 you are still under. Yes, We (mostly) ALL have taken our (Stock) cars to higher MPH. Good thing it is not your car, by you admitting that defintly would prove their Abuse Case.
Understand your comment now....something tells me....even if the ad stated we had a top speed of 200.....any excuse that the Dodge folks can create to not put in a new motor; they will use it. It is just sad though....hope he can still get something resolved.
I suppose they can't talk about it until it's over but I will be interested in hearing the claim by Chrysler and the approach taken by his lawyer. Just some random thoughts... I haven't read the warranty terms and conditions but I'm pretty sure it says not covered for "off road" use. So that would mean that if you break it at the track then it might not be covered. But I don't think they can say where those speeds occured. I suppose they could have wording to the effect of "...under legal use. ...not covered for unlawful use." whatever. But I find it hard to believe they could successfully tie a product warranty to lawful or unlawful use? What about the no speed limit roads in Montana? Those guys (in effect) would have a different warranty than everybody else? I would think they would have to put specific language (with specific speeds) in the warranty contract. Like " ... operation at speeds in excess of 100 mph is not covered ..." If they just have "misuse" or "abuse" in there then it's a matter of definition. That would probably get into "intended use" and advertising and everything. They have published specs like StnePny3 said. I don't think it matters so much what they test to, but if they list the car with a top speed of 155 then I would assume "intended use" would include speeds up to that. Then there is perceived value. You're buying (and they're charging more for) Street and Racing Technology and all the advertising and published specs feed into that. 5 sec 0-60, 0-100-0 performance, etc. So unless there is very explicit wording in the warranty (I have to read that sometime) excluding coverage over some particular speed I wouldn't even expect it to go to court. I would think it's more like an insurance claim. Somebody in the regional warranty office just automatically rejects claims like this. Then if you actually get a lawyer and file in court they settle/resolve it.
damm that sucks!!! i knew as soon as i purchased my neon i was going to void the warrenty so i declined it when i was signing my contract 7 yrs ago.
...I have no idea what happened. I wasn't going all that fast and the trunk just imploded! That's covered right?
Update: "He special ordered the car and waited like 4 months for it so he would specifically have #1 of 1000. That is all they made in yellow. Here is what caused the failure; the intake valve spring broke on #7. I also just found out the other reason they are kicking it out of warranty is because he has a pit pass sticker for bandi (drag strip here in CO) in the window. Yea I said a pit pass. He is a sponsor for a 200mph dragster so he would have a pit pass. His car has never been down any race track not even once. Oh and they GPS logged that he was speeding when it blew. They have all this on a print out. He was doing 72mph at 4800 RPM on HWY 50 east bound. Well the speed limit is not 72 on HWY 50. He asked them...show me where it says if I own a pit pass and/or get caught speeding it voids my warranty??? He said the guy from Dodge got real quite on the phone and really had nothing else to say LOL. We will see where this goes tomorrow." Not sure how I am to feel about this now....always thought warranties was the way to go. A new car...less then 20K and they nic-pic any excuse not to fix the problem.
It may be a change in policy due to the downturn? Maybe their approach to warranty processing is something like "if it's over $x then categorically deny the claim for any reason whatsoever. If they pursue it in court then we will review the claim". Kind of like how most larger medical, inury, etc. insurance claims are handled. Then again, maybe it's just one particular claims manager handling this one? They had gps data?
Maybe if the car actually has GPS....then maybe there is a GPS recorder. The cars today are getting way too smart.
