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New car warranties in Mexico


Mainecoons

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31 minutes ago, Mainecoons said:

What is typical here for new cars bought in Mexico?  For example Honda, Mazda, Ford?

On motos it is much shorter than the U.S.  The same with cars?

I was told a KIA was 7 years, as opposed to 10 in US. (100,000 km)

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48 minutes ago, Alpha1 said:

Not only shorter warranty periods, but the Stealership maintenance fees to maintain it are outrageous.

Yep, you MUST have all service recommended under the warranty done AT THE DEALER, or void warranty.

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Frankly, I'm not sure if it's worth NOT getting service done at the dealership especially under warranty. New cars are so complicated now and in addition to changing oil, the dealership will hook up diagnostic machines no lakeside shop has. I prefer that any repair of consequence be done at the dealership because they have a real warranty on that repair. Also it helps when and if you ever sell the car to have a nice book of dealership services.

We just had our CRV serviced locally because its' somewhat of a beater and one of the things it needed was changing of the rear differential oil. The mechanic said, " it needs synthetic fluid" which he installed, but the problem became worse( binding when turning)  and I researched that the oil Honda uses costs 1200 pesos alone. I asked whether we should get the oil from Honda and he seemed confident it did not, but now I have to make a trip to DGL to buy the special Honda oil. I should have taken it to the dealer but that's  more of a hassle now than normal.

 

Side notes: I change my engine and cabin filters at half the recommended mileage because vivimos en un pueblo polverosa !

And if you want your paint to look as new as is possible here, never have your car bucket washed in the sun !

 

 

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Yes, he was definitely wrong about the differential oil.  I have Autochek in Riberas service mine and when it was time to change the differential oil he made a great point of explaining why it had to be the Honda oil.  

I wouldn't have my car bucket washed in the shade either.  Great way to end up with a scratched finish.

Excellent car wash guy works in the basement of Plaza Bugambillias.  When he comes back...

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Good to know about that car wash option. Until recently I have exclusively washed my car myself, but I left lazy and took it to the carwash by Lake Taco. Brand new scratches on the bumper, ugh. I'll never get a bucket wash, maybe just the glass

At least the VW dealership in GDL has a special price of 1500 pesos to repaint either bumper with factory finish but I keep getting new rock chips anyway, damn trucks loaded with dirt/rocks. A lot of them don't even have side gates to hold the material !

 

 

 

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On 4/14/2020 at 4:48 PM, Jim Bowie said:

Yep, you MUST have all service recommended under the warranty done AT THE DEALER, or void warranty.

If you total the cost of the "Dealer" maintenance over the warranty period vs having the service done elsewhere. It seems that you end up paying for a "maybe" repair event, with a definite cash outlay. Stopped my "Dealer" maintenance when I started adding up the cost. Money For Nothing

BTW, the maintenance schedule given by the "Stealership" is greatly more than the recommended maintenance schedule, as listed in the owners manual by the actual manufacturer of the vehicle. Resulting in more maintenance and cost than is required.

 

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On 4/14/2020 at 5:40 PM, Mainecoons said:

Yes, he was definitely wrong about the differential oil.  I have Autochek in Riberas service mine and when it was time to change the differential oil he made a great point of explaining why it had to be the Honda oil.  

Not only must it be THAT Honda oil BUT, according to the Honda procedure, the differential should be  flushed....1) emptied, 2) refilled with that fresh oil, 3) run (on a lift) precisely reverse/forward/reverse at specific RPMs for specific timeframe each, 4) emptied again and 5) refilled again with the oil. 

Been there done that.... actually had Car City do it... to my instructions. They of course did not know to do it this way but eagerly helped (with a guy in the driver's seat up on the lift!). I had them order the special oil from a Guadalajara Honda dealer.

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4 hours ago, Alpha1 said:

If you total the cost of the "Dealer" maintenance over the warranty period vs having the service done elsewhere. It seems that you end up paying for a "maybe" repair event, with a definite cash outlay. Stopped my "Dealer" maintenance when I started adding up the cost. Money For Nothing

Very true but it does improve the resale value for a while until the car gets just too old or high mileage.

The label of "stealer" sure fits with these guys.  LOL

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55 minutes ago, Mainecoons said:

Fortunately he did know how to do that.  It was pretty expensive, can't imagine what it would have cost NOB.

 

I don't know about the word 'fortunately'... According to Honda, not following this exact procedure will not address the root cause of having to change differential fluid in the CR-V (so often) in the first place, especially for higher mileage ones.

 

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On 4/14/2020 at 4:48 PM, Jim Bowie said:

Yep, you MUST have all service recommended under the warranty done AT THE DEALER, or void warranty.

The dealer may tell you that but we have proven not so.

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1 hour ago, Jim Bowie said:

Is that information posted on your site?

 

No. We had a 2016 Lincoln SUV. Never was it at a dealer for anything but warranty. Yet we had extensive repairs including replacing a leaking oil pan which would normally cost tens of thousands of pesos. In addition other repairs all under warranty. Oil changes, filters and regular maintenance were done at a local garage. At no time was that questioned.

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1 hour ago, Sonia said:

No. We had a 2016 Lincoln SUV. Never was it at a dealer for anything but warranty. Yet we had extensive repairs including replacing a leaking oil pan which would normally cost tens of thousands of pesos. In addition other repairs all under warranty. Oil changes, filters and regular maintenance were done at a local garage. At no time was that questioned.

So does that mean no one that buys a new car in Mexico needs to take it to the dealer for any service? Or did you just get lucky?

 

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1 hour ago, Sonia said:

No. We had a 2016 Lincoln SUV. Never was it at a dealer for anything but warranty. Yet we had extensive repairs including replacing a leaking oil pan which would normally cost tens of thousands of pesos. In addition other repairs all under warranty. Oil changes, filters and regular maintenance were done at a local garage. At no time was that questioned.

What did the warranty booklet say?  Each manufacturer's requirements  could be different.

That is the only way to know the requirement to maintain the manufacturers warranty, and it varies from country to country. 

In the USA many years ago the Federal Trade Commission ruled that franchised dealer maintenance was not required, but the manufacturer could require proof that all required maintenance was done on time, and in the manner prescribed by the manufacturer.  

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3 hours ago, HoneyBee said:

Just out of curiosity RickS, did Honda explain to you the reasons for step 4) and 5) ? I can not seem to wrap my head around draining the oil then putting it back in again (or maybe its a different oil from 4) to 5)).

Certain years of CR-Vs the differential after X miles..... higher miles and certainly after the warranty was over..... often started having symptoms of rear differential problems. This would only be true for AWD models as there is no rear differential in a 2WD model. A "grinding/chattering noise" audible at lower speeds when turning right or left. This noise was said to be from wear inside the differential causing small metal particles to be suspended in the oil and affecting the inner workings of the differential. Mine was a 2010 with 70k miles and this was 5 years ago.

Honda put out a TSB (Techical Service Bulletin) where the procedure to 'fix' was noted. I'm a car guy and I researched the 'grinding noise' online, finding the TSB. The purpose of the second refill.... with new oil....was because the first refill and subsequent 'test run on a lift using forward and reverse actions' was meant to dislodge all the remaining small metal particles that did not just drain out with the initial dump. If one didn't do this, a certain amount of bad stuff would still remain inside the differential and those remaining metal particles would continue to cause noise and more wear.  

It cured my problem at the cost of 1 more bottle of the special, and yes expensive, Honda fluid. I would have done it myself but you really needed the car to be on a lift with rear wheels 'dangling'. I didn't happen to have one of those handy so went to Car City where they were very helpful after understanding the problem/solution.

 


 

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