Yaris- Gearbox Bearing Fault Under Warranty

[Will Brown]

I bought a second hand Yaris from a Toyota dealer in Scarborough 10 months
ago, with the sale came a 12 month warranty. Last week the car started making lots
of noise and jumping out of first gear, so we took it back to the dealer. The
dealer diagnosed that the problem was with the gearbox bearing and contacted
the warranty people. The warranty people are saying that it is not covered as
this is normal wear and tear.

Has anyone had similar problems with the Yaris?

Is it normal for the bearing to wear out?

Should this be covered by the warranty?

[FROSTYBALLS]

Was the warranty a Toyota product or a third party product?

[LeeroyJones87]

Hi Will,

As I suspect Frostyballs will agree, if it's a Toyota used car warranty they should replace the faulty parts.

If it's a 3rd party warranty they can be more iffy to pay out.

How old is the car and what milage does it have on it, if you don't mind?

[Will Brown]

Hi guys,

The car is 9 years old and 50,000 miles which is why a 12 month warranty was really worth having. Not wanting to be fobbed off with an added extra that wasn't worth anything, I asked the sales person, whether the warranty would cover me in the event that the car breaks down and I was told yes it would be covered unless it was normal wear and tear eg worn brake pads.

The warranty is with a 3rd party however it was the one chosen by Toyota after they told me that if the car has a mechanical fault it would be fixed under the warrant. The warrant company are saying that the the fault is not covered as it does not fulfill there definition of a mechanical breakdown.

"Mechanical or Electrical Breakdown’ means the sudden and unforeseen failure of a Component or Components arising from any permanent Mechanical or Electrical defect, causing complete stoppage of its function, necessitating immediate repair or replacement of the Component(s) before normal operation can be resumed."

Any ideas on what I can do? At the moment it's starting to feel that I have been conned into buying a car because for 12months I didn't need to worry about having to pay out for costly repairs when this was not the case.

[FROSTYBALLS]

By the sound of it, it was the Toyota dealer who chose and sold the warranty - not Toyota.

Toyota operate their own extended warranty programme which, until December 2013, was only available on cars up to 8 years old (extended in December 2013 to cover cars up to 10 years old) - so the Yaris was probably over this age limit when you bought it.

There is the Sale of Goods Act that you could look at (see: http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/consumer-rights/ ), but the difficulty here may be proving the fault was there when you bought the car.

Otherwise I would be inclined to write to the dealer principal of where you bought the Yaris from (keeping the communication polite and measured), describing what you were told about the warranty during the sales process, and asking whether they can provide any help with the cost of repair, as you understood from the salesperson that this type of fault would be covered.