Lesson learned. Don't post mods on EvoM

 

Directly From MMNA

STATEMENT ON MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION WARRANTY

June 18, 2004

Mitsubishi Motors and our dealers strive to be reasonable in evaluating each customer’ s vehicle that is brought into a dealership for a possible warrantable condition in order to provide excellent customer service. We give the benefit of the doubt to everyone and appreciate their respect for the terms and conditions of our warranty. Mitsubishi does not have any automated web search system looking for Lancer Evolutions involved in race events. This is absolutely false.

Mitsubishi clearly states in its Owner’s Warranty and Maintenance booklet that problems or failures related to racing, alteration and/or vehicle modifications are not covered conditions. This policy is standard throughout the automotive industry, and is even less restrictive than some manufacturer warranties, such as BMW and Subaru, that prohibit operating a vehicle in any type of competitive event.

If a Lancer Evolution is brought to Mitsubishi Motors dealer for a diagnosis as to a possible warrantable condition and the dealer determines that modifications were made that may have caused the problem, or could be instrumental in causing future problems, the repair will not be covered. The dealer and if necessary, MMNA staff, investigate each case, always giving the owner the benefit of the doubt. If the dealer does indeed find that serious vehicle modifications have been made that relate to a vehicle problem and/or damages, then it is possible that a restriction will be placed on that vehicle’s warranty coverage as it relates to the specific modification, damaged component(s) and impacted vehicle systems. The entire vehicle warranty is not voided.

 

I do agree with you GPT. As far as the legal aspect and the manual are concerned, I am at fault. This is why I dropped my case and began work on the car myself. Any hint of discontent you may hear from my will be only toward the notion that they may have lucked out if a few light mods overwhelmed a factory defect. When I say 'no *fault* was determined', I am only referring to the true fault behind the failure be it alterations, or lack of construction. Again, I officially do agree with their decision. Excuse my bitterness.

Here in the software development world, serving the customer is #1. This 17 million dollar a year (net) company (albeit not nearly as large as Mitsubishi) will go out of its way to assist our customers. We have plenty of contracts, enhancement reports, etc, but if the customer isn't satistfied we will take extra time (not paid for by them, and most often ALOT or time) to make sure they have a product they are satisfied with. I can't tell you how many extra weeks not on contract we've worked to put in extra utilities for a customer when all we had to say was, "I'm sorry, that's not in the contract." Maybe my business model is a bit tainted from actually working for a decent company.

You can't tell me Mitsubishi's Representatives aren't snakes either. They pulled my head and told me "detonation" on this piston just to try and make excuses. When they realized I was not an ignorant customer, they gave up making excuses and stuck to the paperwork, which infact, was not wrong legally at all. I'm not arguing that, but they wasted $350 of my money for pulling the head which they did nothing at all with. These types of business practices are what put a bad taste in my mouth to begin with. I won't even get into how the dealership stole my Oakley sunglasses out of my car within 24 hours of it getting dropped off.

obviously no detonation present.


Just trying to make my standpoint clear.

 

sue them bi***es.

 

Okay, I understand your bitterness.

I also understand what you are saying about how your company has to do things in order to maintain its business. But I also think the two are different types of product. Software is sold with the understanding that technical support and upgrades are going to be provided by the company behind it - that is, at least on the level that you work in. But even to a lesser extent the guy going in and buying a box off the shelf at CompUSA or Best Buy. A typical car, is more like an appliance in a sense, that it only has that limited warranty.

They should have handled things better, but the outcome I think would have been the same - without your shades being stolen and the moeny you spent while they led you on thinking the outcome would be different.

 

Thank you EVO-IX-MR. Do you have a link to that by chance?? Allow me to respond to a few portions, and relate them to my case. Where do I start, that document is absolutely 180 degrees from anything I've ever dealt with.

Technicality. They have actual representatives (people) that search for that information, not "automated web search systems".

This leads one to believe they would try and prove said alterations caused the problem.

see bolded portions.

 

Right, but I was referring to additions and modifications (software) outside of the 'upgrade' and 'support' path that are just extra things we'll go out of our way to do for free if it will create another satisfied customer. Those customers come back, and promote the company to others. If we fill our contract but leave a dissapointed customer at the same time, the job has not been done. Such a big company like is starting to lose touch with its bottom line users and may not be in such a tough place right now if they hadn't been leaving bad tastes in those users (car owners) mouths for a while now.

 

You are right, that sort of support is necessary for your business, the postivies outweigh the negatives.

However, Evo owners who modify their cars do not represent the majority of Mitsubishis customer base. Most manufacturers refuse to even build cars like this for partially this reason. No turbos or AWD sports cars from Honda or Toyota. Dispointing them buy not bending over backwards is a calculated rish, because it would open the door for anyone with a modded car, if they started making too many exceptions. I have heard of cases where cars were fixed without extreme predjudice, you were unlucky and I sympathize - but they aren't about to adopt a carte blanche policy to broken modded Evos. Most Mitsubishi owners don't mod their cars at all and those are the ones they have to protect and coddle the most. The only alternative that makes any sense fiscally is not selling the Evo anymore.

 

The inverse is actually selling the Evo sans warranty, which was debated for some time by MMCA. I would assume a deduction in price would be necessary for buyers to agree, but at this point to those who have lost their warranties or want to mod, it might not matter much.

 

How do you know they considered it? I think that is unprecedented, and maybe even illegal to sell a car that way, if it is to be legal for use on public roads. Banks probably wouldn't want to finance it either, or they'd offer terrible rates. I doubt that is even possible.

 

All good points GPT.

It is also hard to imagine selling a car without a warranty being legal these days. It would be nice if there were modification possibilities through the manufacturer (see: DCX & SRT-4) where you would retain your factory warranty.

 

Thanks. But, people use the SRT-4 a lot as an "example" of a good business model, but if you read the fine print, staged Mopar upgrades are most certainly *not* covered by the powertrain warranty.

 

Look back at threads on here around the time the 8 was being developed, as well as Autoweeks from that era. It was an idea that was kicked around by MMCA. What does a warranty have to do with bank financing or use on public roads? My 95 Integra was bought with no warranty and its road legal, and I could have financed it with a bank. As long as all safety and emissions standards are met, the car is road legal.

 

No Problem! Here is the link:

http://media.mitsubishicars.com/deta...60287&mime=ASC

I took a print out of this with me to the dealer on my first service visit because I knew they would give me a hard time as soon as they heard my exhaust.

Sure enough as soon as I rolled up to the service dept. and got out of the car the service guy said, "I hope all you got on that thing is an exhaust and an intake because any more than that will completely void your warranty."

I smiled a little and handed the print out to him. He took his time and read it. He then said, "well that is not what our reps are telling us." Then all of a sudden he was cool and started talking with me about what would and would not be cool to do to my car mod wise. Funny!

He also went on and on about telling me that if there is one thing I should not upgrade it would be the clutch. He said, " the stock clutch is built to be the weak point in the transmission for a reason, it is supposed to give out instead of your transmission." Basiscally he said that with an upgraded clutch that does not fail under increased HP/TQ the transmission will give out instead, which is much more expensive than a clutch. I don't know what to think about that, but it is interesting.

I have not gone back for my second service yet, but I have a feeling I won't have a problem now since I gave them that print out.

 

This is all fine and dandy but the fact that they did not even try to prove that the mods caused the problem stew incountered shows to me that they really dont care about customer service. mitsubishi warranties are BS. wings and brake calipers for example, had my car 5000 miles when both started to peal and i was told that i caused the clearcoats to come off due to my applying "abrasive material" to them. omg r u serious? yeah so i now have a cloudy wing and pink brembos. WTF. 35,000 dollars for a car and the bumper to bumper doesnt cover such little things.