A warranty looks like a promise to the end customer. Commercially it is an allocation of cost between manufacturer, exporter and importer, and the disputes almost always arise where that allocation was never written down.
Who actually pays
A claim moves along a chain: the customer presents a fault, the dealer repairs it, and someone reimburses the dealer. Three costs are involved and they are treated differently:
- The part. Normally supplied free by the manufacturer, usually against return of the failed part.
- The labour. This is where disputes concentrate. The manufacturer reimburses at a rate and a time allowance it sets; the dealer charges at local rates. Where these differ, someone absorbs the gap.
- Everything else — diagnosis time, towing, courtesy vehicles, customer goodwill. Usually unreimbursed unless specifically agreed.
The labour rate gap is the structural problem. A manufacturer reimbursing at a rate calibrated to one market applies it to a dealer operating in another, and the dealer either loses money on every warranty job or declines to do them properly. Neither outcome is good for the brand.
This should be negotiated explicitly in the distribution agreement: the reimbursement rate, the time allowances, and what happens when a repair takes longer than the allowance for a legitimate reason.
Scope and the exclusions that generate arguments
Standard scope is manufacturing defects for a stated period or mileage, whichever comes first. Standard exclusions:
- Wear items — brake pads, clutch friction, wiper blades, tyres, bulbs.
- Damage from accident, misuse or overloading.
- Consequences of poor fuel or fluid quality.
- Faults arising from unauthorised modification.
- Damage from missed or incorrect servicing.
Two of these cause most of the real arguments in export markets.
Fuel quality exclusions. Injector and fuel system failures in markets with poor fuel are common, and they fall squarely into an exclusion. Whether that exclusion is applied strictly determines whether the importer faces a stream of unreimbursed repairs. Agreeing the position in advance — including whether fitting additional filtration changes it — is far better than arguing case by case.
Service record requirements. Warranty usually requires servicing at specified intervals by a competent workshop, with records. In markets where vehicles are serviced informally, claims fail on missing records for faults that had nothing to do with servicing. If the dealer network cannot realistically enforce service discipline, this needs to be reflected in what was promised.
Parts return
Most manufacturers require the failed part returned for analysis before reimbursing, and this is reasonable — it is how genuine defects are identified. Three practical issues in an export context:
- Return freight cost and time. For a small part this may exceed its value. Agreeing a threshold below which photographic evidence suffices is normal and worth negotiating.
- Storage pending collection. Someone has to keep failed parts, labelled and traceable, sometimes for months.
- Batteries and other regulated items cannot simply be shipped back. A failed traction battery is subject to strict transport rules, and the return route has to be established before it is needed.
Documentation that gets reimbursed
A claim is approved on evidence. What a well-documented claim contains:
- Chassis number and date of first registration.
- Current mileage.
- Fault description as reported by the customer, and as diagnosed.
- Diagnostic trouble codes where applicable, exported rather than transcribed.
- Photographs of the failed part in situ before removal.
- Part number of the replacement fitted.
- Labour time claimed, against the operation code.
- Service history confirming maintenance compliance.
Claims submitted without diagnostic evidence or photographs are the ones that get queried, delayed and reduced. Establishing the format at launch — and training the dealer network to it — costs a day and saves months of friction.
Setting up the structure
Before the first vehicles are sold, these should be agreed in writing:
- Warranty duration and mileage, and what the end-customer document states.
- Labour reimbursement rate and time allowances.
- Parts return threshold and process.
- Claim submission format and response time.
- The position on fuel-quality-related failures.
- Who bears goodwill repairs outside warranty, and what authority the importer has to grant them.
The sixth is worth including even though it feels like planning for exceptions. Goodwill is what protects a brand's reputation in its first years, and an importer with no authority to grant any will either refuse customers or spend it unreimbursed.