Off the 'law now' website - www.law-now.com

All car manufacturers have now removed from their new car

warranties ties requiring the car to be serviced at a garage

belonging to the manufacturer's franchised dealer network.

Consumers will now be able to choose freely where they have

their new car serviced. The action comes in response to an

OFT threat to take action for breach of EC competition law if

the terms were not removed. The move was announced on

Friday 14 May.

The OFT published a study into the effect of car warranties

on the car after-sales market in December 2003 (see link

below). At the time of the OFT study about half of all new

cars were sold with warranties that included a servicing tie.

The OFT also found that customers were often unaware of the

options available to them when choosing a garage, and that

over two thirds of customers assumed that their warranty

would be invalidated if they used an independent garage,

even where this was not the case. The OFT therefore pursued

the lifting of ties in order to improve consumer choice.

The text of the OFT's press announcement can be found at:

http://www.oft.gov.uk/News/Press+releases/2004/85-04.htm

The OFT's study on car warranties can be found at:

http://www.oft.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/9FFFDADD-AC10-4397-9719-4074E1731386/0/oft683.pdf

This is good news for those who don't have a Skoda dealer near. But call me a cynic, somehow I don't think the warranty department will honour your claim if you went down your local handy man, had the oil changed with the wrong type and suffer an engine failure... in other words, you'll still have to make sure that parts serviced/replaced are in line with Skoda's specifications.

Great news, this will mean lower service costs from the main dealership due to other dealers offering low service costs to try and get you to spend your money with them.

I thought you always have been able to get your car serviced at any VAT registered garage and it would covered under warranty :confused:

Why'd they have to be VAT registered? :confused:

Rob.

Apparently as long as the garage use genuine Skoda parts the warranty should be upheld.

Why'd they have to be VAT registered? :confused:

Rob.

Abolsutely no idea' date=' but if you have a look on google:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=warranty+%22vat+registered%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N

You'll see what I mean

So a low-turnoever garage doesn't really stand a chance then unless they want to do a lot of paperwork for nothing? What a great way of reducing monopolies...

Rob.