I recently got a 2025 car that is 27k cash but 33k financed for 5years. My car payments are higher than normal because I got extended warranty and gap insurance and a 13% interest which I know is bad but I needed a car and I’m 20 and a first time buyer. I’ve been paying off the car for about 3months when I got a warning on my dashboard that said I had an oil change due soon, my warranty includes free oil changes until the car reaches 100k miles or 10years old (whichever comes first), free tire rotation and I don’t remember what else.
I take my car for its free oil change and they want to charge $230 FOR AN OIL CHANGE I ask why if it’s a part of my warranty and I’m informed that the dealer went bankrupt or something and got sold out and is now under new management by a different dealership and my warranty is no longer valid and can’t be used, so no free oil change 🙁
But now I’m stupidly paying $100 or so dollars more because my warranty is no longer useable due to the dealership being under a different company and I can’t even talk to someone so I can change my contract or something, I don’t want to be paying extra money for no reason does anyone know what I can do?
I pay a $650 car note for a warranty that is no longer valid
byu/AdAmazing2402 inpersonalfinance
Posted by AdAmazing2402
16 Comments
Here’s the deal. If you financed the warranty there is no way to get your money back without suing the company that warrantied it. You owe the bank either way. They bank doesn’t care about any of the details. You took money from the bank and signed a contract to pay it back.
Umm I’m sorry to be the first one to say this but you never ever ever pay for an extended warranty ever. Unless it’s a factory warranty it’s all a money game designed to milk you for everything you got. Also over 200$ for an oil change?!!?! I change mine myself costs me less then 40$ and that full synthetic wic filter and 6 quarts of oil. I knock it out in less then 10 min in my driveway. I’d do your oil change for 75$ if your cool with giving the dealer 200$!!!!!
So they still cash in your checks but refuse to provide the service? I don’t know what jurisdiction you’re in but that’s most likely illegal.
You sadly learned a lesson that many have to learn. The dealerships wouldn’t offer you a warranty if it benefited you. They offer it because it makes them gobs of extra cash on a car that isn’t very likely to break down.
Whenever I buy a car the first thing I tell them at closing is that I don’t want to talk about the warranty and won’t be buying it. I would rather save that extra $100 a month myself and let it pay me interest instead of the dealer.
You can talk to a lawyer but it is likely that the car dealership has a lock tight paper with your name signed on it that works to their advantage. Sorry about that.
You need to read through the terms.
Also you need to verify if the dealership did go bankrupt and who purchased the old dealership.
You may have to get copies of the bankruptcy case and see what happened to the warranty liabilities. See if it says the court ordered the buyer to take in the existing warranty liabilities.
Call your lender right away. Since it sounds like the dealer arranged the financing for you, they would have sold the loan contract to your lender. There is a section of finance law called ***”Holder in due course”*** which means the bank has to assist you with the product you bought and they financed. Just call them and mention that, and someone will try to help.
If you bought that car from a dealer and not a car lot, the warranty should be valid at any associated location. I recall buying a Tahoe from a dealer far from my home and opting to take it to a closer dealer to be serviced until I sold the vehicle.
If you have to pay out of pocket for the oil change, do NOT pay $230 from that dealership. They tricked you on the interest rate, warranty, and now they trying to trick you on the oil change cost. You can get oil changes from the most oil change places from $30-60. Heck, my dealership only charges $70 for synthetic and they always have online coupons to knock it down a few bucks. The only exception is if there is a manufacturer warranty you need to worry about where you have to take it to the dealership. Check if there is another dealership in the area that’ll service your car at a more reasonable rate.
Anyways, go back and read the fine print on the warranty, you might be screwed on the out of pocket cost but it does hurt if you find a loophole.
Finally, do your research even before thinking of buying any kind of warranty or service package.
Why do you need a 60k car at 20. That was your first mistake
Just to make sure I understand, you’re 20 and bought a $60K car and financed $33K of that at 13% APR?
<edit>: I’d like some clarification – you said the dealership was sold and is under a different company; does that mean that they sell a different make of car now?
Every dealer I’ve bought a car from has tried to sell a service contract through a 3rd party company or the manufacturer; I’ve never been offered a service contract directly from a dealer. If it is somehow through the dealer, they you may need to talk to the bank that holds your loan and/or your state’s attorney general to see if there’s any way to claw back what you paid. But that just sounds so far fetched to me – a warranty tied to a particular dealer is a huge risk.
Check your paperwork, and see if there’s a vehicle service contract in your packet. If so, that’s the company that you want to talk to about getting service; the dealer you went to may not work with the service company. Or the service associate you spoke to may have been “mistaken”. In any case, if you are out of luck on the free oil changes you certainly don’t want the dealer changing the oil. Find a local repair shop or oil change place (preferably through a personal recommendation) and use them (and save at least 60%).
This happened to me. Purchased unlimited oil changes at time of purchase. Went back for our *1st* oil change and found out the dealership was sold to a new owner. It was frustrating to say the least… the guy that sold it to me a month earlier basically told me to pound sand.
I was able to send in a form the original company’s corporate office requesting a refund. They declined as they still had dealers in my region… 1 hour away
The one thing you have to realize is that I believe the bank has no interest on if you’re getting what you paid for. If you purchased some type of warranty or prepayment service plan you finance that with the bank, but you’re only recourse was during the bankruptcy proceedings when the dealership was closing, since that would have been an outstanding liability. You can try and figure out who bought the dealership and whether they have any obligation to cover those agreements, but you’re unlikely to have much success. It’s not like you can simply get in touch with the bank and say you don’t wanna pay for that portion of the loan anymore.
All VSCs I’ve seen (used to refi auto loans) were sold by the dealership but honored through a 3rd party. Sometimes they’re through the “dealer” but that’s only the manufacturers that try to handle the whole process (Toyota Financial/GMC Financial). Then it wouldn’t matter if the specific dealership you bought it through went bankrupt, you could take it to any of the same dealership. Unless your fine print limits what shops you can take it to (like mom&pop buy here pay here lot).
Bad news is most VSCs (not the tire&wheel or oil change you mentioned) won’t cover anything if you get work done before making the claim. So you’re probably out of the $230. I’m unfamiliar with the included oil change paper work though so I could be wrong.
Do you still have your RIC (retail installment contract)? It’s the itemized paperwork and will have everything you need
Was this an actually Kia dealer? Have you tried calling Kia?
What kind of car? Most new cars I see, even without buying the extended warranty, include the first couple of oil changes from the manufacturer. (Kia, Toyota, etc) And if those services were part of a manufacturer program, any dealer in that manufacturers network should honor them.