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I think I must have fallen asleep and woken up in 1993. Lionel Ritchie is smashing it at Glastonbury, Jurassic Park is the summer blockbuster at the Multiplex. And some newly-appointed, power-crazed Motor Manufacturer Exec, (straight out of UniBocconi, no doubt) comes out with this little gem: ‘Do things the way we want you to or you're out’ The recently appointed head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for the Fiat Professional brand Domenico Gostoli is warning dealers if they don’t represent the brand correctly then they will lose the franchise. Gostoli said: “Dealers are either in or they’re out. We’re completely reshaping our dealer network, and this is across the world, not just in the UK. We need the dealer network to be a reflection of us and do things the way we do, not how they want to .Didn't all that 'We're in charge' nonsense disappear a while back when the economy was on it's arse and you couldn't give a new car away? Oh, but things are improving a bit now aren't they? Dealers are starting to scratch a living. And old habits die hard it seems, especially within the manufacturers' Ivory Towers. There's nothing like a little bit of motivation for your network to get them pushing forwards, is there? And this is Fiat we're talking about. Renowned for quality, durability and reliability... People in glass houses..., Signore Gostoli... I also learned (a looooong time ago) that you don't pee on people on the way up. 'Cos they're still there when you're on the way back down.

As far as i am aware the buyer has 6 months to make a claim under the sale of goods but usually from my experience if they havent brought it back within the first month then you dont normally see them anymore especially as they knew they had a 1 month no quibble warranty. If a customer comes back to me after say 4 months i just use my judgement as to whether they are trying it on or not. If its a genuine fault and we can come to a reasonable agreement to get it sorted then so be it.

Remember whatever warranty you give the customer is still covered under the sale of goods act which is a totally different thing to a warranty. We basically give the customer 1 month or 1000 mile warranty included at the screen price there is no claim limit or any other get out clauses. If any genuine fault goes wrong with the car within this short time we will back it up and pay for it. After the 1 month we would only cover anything that is statutory under the sale of goods. In the last 12 months we have done around £2000 in "warranty" jobs but have sold over 100 cars so it probably breaks down to about 20 quid a car to us on average. I wouldnt touch most insurance backed warranties with a barge pole unless the customer wants a long term cover 2 years maybe then we would offer them something to buy from one of the usual companies, its up to them then its there money !

Agree with Max , we spent years selling / including upmarket warranties....but most customers aren't really interested about protecting themselves from a random event in the future , let alone paying for the privilege .If you include it in the price it's assumed to be rubbish.. The last 12m we have used A1 warranties to administer our own fund and couldn't be happier , we set aside £100 per car and give the customer a basic 3m/3000m warranty . If they want a 'bumper to bumper' insurance backed warranty in line with , for example , Warranty directs offer we can supply similar and make a small profit on the sale . Have a nice little nest egg built up in the fund and the customer deals direct with the warranty company...easy !

Best to self warrant if you can. Its not that difficult to do and remember even with the most expensive glitzy insurance warranty the customer can still reject the car or take you to court when they dont pay out - so best to cover it yourself in my opinion.