this is pretty week if you ask me. I can understand if there is constant misuse, but if the profiling that 'claims' to be going on is...well that is just stupid

http://www.autoweek.com/cat_co...12566

 

Luckily for me, I only buy used cars, so I don't have a warranty anyway. And while Subaru's policy (encouraging autoxing, then saying it voids the warranty) is an incompetent one, for the other cars, it makes sense. I'm sure the owners don't like it, but it makes sense. Any engine can break if mistreated/beat to ****, and if it breaks because of such use, that is the owner's fault, not the manufacturer. If the part breaks because of a poor design or improper manufacturing, that's another story.

 

The buzz in the Atl-SCCA e-list is that Honda is now doing the same thing. A fella in NC had his 6th gear synchro go out, and HoA bounced the claim saying that the car was autocrossed from results on the local scca's website.

How one gets into 6th in an autocross is a bit of a conundrum, but I'm not one to judge.

 

Uh, couldn't one just not list their make/model when registering/displaying results?

Seems like an easy solution to the problem.

 

I wonder if regions should just stop posting the full name of competitors...? Change it to first name with last initial maybe?

 

I'd love to see them try to prove it was you in your own personal car. Just because the entry form may say "Joe Smith 04 S2000 #5 BS" does not mean he was driving his personal car. You need a VIN number to prove that.

I *seriously* doubt an OEM claim would hold up in court if your car is bone stock and signs of abuse are not present. Gimme a break--everyone is freaking out about nothing IMO and urban-legends are spreading like wildfire.

 

buy old race cars.

 

Some may be urban legend...but..

A Friend of mine with an Evo VIII who is having a misfire issue was told "by the way, your name is flagged on our list for autocrossing" (in fairness though...because the misfire has been a consistant complaint of his, they are covering it...but when his clutch went, they didn't)

Also, last year a competitor on One Lap of America had his insurance voided when they found he was putting the car on track.

Jon K
http://www.seat-time.com

 

Two sides to this one....

Manufacturers that look up autocross results ahead of time and black flag your warranty before you even file a claim are bad. Personally, I seriously doubt this one is happening much. I think that most of the time it happens something like this:

1) Broken car goes to Mitsu for warranty work.
2) Car either has worn outside edges of the tires or heck, even the remains of the numbers still shoepolished on the windows and the techs notice it.
3) Car owner denies that it was ever driven hard but the service writers don't believe him.
4) The service writers then look on the i-net to see if the owner and the car were in a local event.

This happens a lot here at Honda with the Fast and Furious crowd. They blow up thier turboed/N2O'ed/whatevered Civic rice boy special, take all the crap off, then bring it to us claiming they were just driving down the road normally and it blew. They claim it was never modded under the hood but we can easily see that's not true and deny the claim.

Another thing to think about is that RACING HAS HIGH COSTS ATTACHED TO IT! It is your choice to bring your car out to the event, not the manufacturers. It is you that chooses to drive it in that way. And it is you that takes responsibility for your actions. It sucks, I know, but you don't have to race it. And I have seen the way the Evo/STi owners are launching at the events (5k+ drops anyone? With AWD?!?!). There is no way the clutch could last long doing that....

Cliff notes:
Manufacturers keeping a database of all the racers before they even file a claim =

People demanding that a manufacturer pays for thier lifestyle choices when they know better =


Somewhat off topic rant:
Has it occured to anyone else that street racers have it easier when it comes to warranties and insurance? If you street race and wreck you car, your insurance will cover it though they will probably drop you right after that. If you legally race they won't cover anything. If you street race and blow your engine they will most likely cover the warranty since there is no proof that you were racing. If you race legally you will not be covered.
This, ladies and gentlemen, sucks!

 

At least SVT's development team is cool about it, and seems to stand by their products being able to take the "abuse".

I used to work at a local Ford dealer. We'd have modded Stangs and Lightnings come in frequently for warranty stuff. Never seemed to hear anything about voided warranties.

 

There's a big difference between the dealer being cool about things like that and letting it slide (to be honest, we are cool about it here too as long as you don't feed us a bunch of BS) and the manufacturer covering it. I would bet that if your dealership had reported that those cars were modified then they wouldn't be covered (assuming that we are talking about engine problems on a car with engine mods).

Since I am on the sales floor, whenever someone asks me if we cover mods on our Hondas I tell them that I can't guarantee we will cover it but you greatly increase your chances if you are respectful and polite to your service writers and get to know them on a first name basis.

 

even in the autoweek article there was some kind of line about "IF our delaer feels it was abused" leaving it up to the dealer.

I autocrossed an S2000 once, the owner asked me to, it had 2000 miles on it. I was taking it easy untill the owner said "I paid $38,000 cash for it, i will fix it if it breaks" (this was about a month after they came out)

I said "ok" and a voice beside me said "I am the lead tech at Honda, if you blow it up, I will jsut say i never saw it here"

As was said, make friends with your dealer.

Jon K
http://www.seat-time.com

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Crack Monkey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Uh, couldn't one just not list their make/model when registering/displaying results?

Seems like an easy solution to the problem.</TD></TR></TABLE>

do that or don't use your full name. just use initials. that's what people here are doing. what sucks is did'nt the scooby or evo one come with an scca membership at one point? might have just been a rumor but, they both advertise these cars as being performance oriented. subarus new commercial shows the car in a centrifuge but it's not meant to stand up to autocross?

 

Interesting read. It is one thing for a dealer to evaluate a car and decide that its been abused, its completely different if the dealer or manufacturer is searching for owners "abusing" their cars before there is even a problem with it.

A friend of mine had an interesting story about this. He used to work as an Audi tech at Porsche/Audi dealer owned by a certain race car driver, and they were at a track day (the dealer, not my friend). The way the story went was that a TT had a rod go coming out of Thunder Valley and the guy coasted into the pits, engine obviously done blowed up. The dealer owner signaled him to roll it into a transporter they had, and the next Monday they replaced the engine under warranty.

The funny thing was, I was sitting in the stands before the Champ Car race at Mid-Ohio last year when I hear the guy behind me telling the story about his TT blowing up on a track day and the engine being covered under warranty. I had to turn around and tell him that I've heard that story before!!

 

This is my favorite part: "Unbeknownst to Miller, Mitsubishi placed a lifetime warranty restriction on the engine, clutch and transmission in Miller’s Evo because the company discovered the car had been entered in a Sports Car Club of America autocross event a month earlier."

Followed by: " Adds Mitsubishi’s Little: 'You’re not going to get black-flagged just for entering an auto-cross, but if something happens we want people to be reasonable and responsible for their own actions. If you go once in a while, just like if you drive hard on the street, who’s going to really know? But if you’re coming in two or three times to replace a blown clutch, we know you’re probably testing your car’s 0-to-60 time.' "
(italics added)

I guess Mitsu's spokespeople are all former sales people. The best part is the implication that you're not allowed to test the car.