A woman who recently bought a Chevrolet believes she has exposed one of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to bumper-to-bumper warranties. TikTok user Brooke (@brookesdailydrive) was left frustrated after she had to deny the woman repairs to her car after it came to her dealership.
Brooke had bumper-to-bumper warranty coverage on her Chevrolet. This is a warranty coverage that, in theory, covers everything on the car between the front and rear bumpers. So anything from the electronics to body panels to mechanical components. All of these fall under bumper-to-bumper warranties.
The TikTok user, however, exposed a few misconceptions about the coverage. This relates to certain factors that can cause damage or problems for a vehicle, and it is these specific instances where the coverage does not apply to a vehicle. In fact, Brooke argued that the very term bumper-to-bumper is actually misleading, as it isn’t always the truth.
Brooke, who runs a dealership, then went on to explain a scenario where they had to deny a customer warranty coverage for a part of the car that had failed. So, while bumper-to-bumper warranties can cover a lot of things, there are some things you can’t get fixed under them.
The Misconceptions Around Bumper-To-Bumper Warranties
@brookesdailydrive Has this ever happened to anyone before? #cardealership #cartok #behindthescenes #warranty ♬ Honey in Transit – Silken Echo
In her video, Brooke mentioned that for regular maintenance items like tires and brakes, owners of vehicles understand that these are not covered by the manufacturers. However, it is other elements where people get tripped up. One of them is actually rodent damage.
“So, if a mouse or rat gets into your wiring harness, which I’ve seen time and time again, the manufacturer is not going to cover it because that is an outside element,” Brooke said in her video. “It happened completely out of the manufacturer’s control,” she added. As the incident with a rodent is out of the manufacturer’s control, this isn’t covered under the bumper-to-bumper warranty coverage. Any issue with product parts or the installation of them will be covered, however, as these are issues with the manufacturing process.
“So many people leave the lot thinking, ‘Oh, that’s covered. It’s true bumper-to-bumper.’ It’s just not the case on some things,” said Brooke. So while it might sound like everything is covered, the reality is that the warranty coverage doesn’t include a few things. This makes it worth reading the smaller print so you know exactly what you are signing up for. Brooke had a few surprised commenters on her TikTok post. “What in the world?!!!? Shaking my head! Why would people think that’s covered?!” said one of them. Another said insurance can help get around this, saying, “I’ve had that happen. Squirrels nested in my F250. Comp insurance coverage paid for it.”
Denying Warranty Coverage Is Never Easy
Brooke recounted in her video how she and her dealership had to deny someone warranty coverage, even though they thought it was bumper-to-bumper. They had a customer come in upset that they had to pay for the dealership to diagnose their newer vehicle, which had a lot of water in the floorboard. They did a water test; it took several hours, but no leaks were found.
The customer then got frustrated that additional time would be needed for a more thorough check that involved ripping up carpets. What happened was that a window or two had been left down, allowing moisture and rain into the car, and as this was an outside element, it wasn’t covered by the warranty. So if you do have bumper-to-bumper coverage, remember, it won’t apply to outside elements that the manufacturer can’t control.