Does my Hyundai new car warranty cover wheels? The alloys on my car have corroded but Hyundai won’t replace them

hyundai-new-car-warranty

Our reader claims the wheels on her car have suffered corrosion. It is within the five-year period of her new-car warranty and she wants to know if it covers the wheels.

What does the Hyundai new car warranty cover?

As with any warranty, it’s always useful to read the small print. Hyundai’s five-year warranty isn’t too daunting. Under the scope of the warranty, it says: “Any component forming part of the original vehicle specification manufactured by Hyundai Motor Company or supplied by Hyundai Motor UK Ltd (except tyres and accessories), which are found to have a manufacturing defect during normal usage of the vehicle will, at the discretion of Hyundai Motor UK Ltd, be repaired or replaced, at no cost to the vehicle owner.”

Does Hyundai new-car warranty cover wheels?

Yes, it should. The wheels form part of the original vehicle specification. And there are examples of other manufacturers covering wheels under their warranties. We even found someone who claimed Hyundai had replaced damaged alloys on their car under warranty.

hyundai new car warranty
Kerbing might cause alloys to corrode

When might a warranty not cover corroded alloy wheels?

Obviously we haven’t seen the wheels in question. The Hyundai dealer refusing the warranty claim has. We wonder if there might be some extenuating reason why it’s declined the claim.

For example, if the driver had badly kerbed the wheels and they are corroding as a result of this, Hyundai would be perfectly within its rights to refuse the warranty claim.

What should you do?

If a garage or car dealership refuses to honour a warranty claim, there are some steps you can take. First, take it to the dealer principal – the boss – of the garage concerned. They probably won’t relent so in that case, take it to Hyundai UK. If it doesn’t agree to it and you still feel you have a claim, try The Motor Ombudsman.

This organisation has legal arbitrators who step in between consumers and member organisations. They decide if there’s a claim to answer and whether the manufacturer/dealership is liable. For the TMO to adjudicate, the organisation must be a member. As it’s a main dealer, it probably is.

There is a precedent

The Motor Ombudsman has a case where a customer claimed against a dealership for the replacement of four corroded alloy wheels.

The manufacturer agreed to replace three of the wheels free of charge under warranty. But it said a fourth had corroded because the owner had scratched it. It claimed the damage inflicted was the cause of the corrosion on that wheel.

The Motor Ombudsman agreed that the scratch had disfigured the wheel. It also said that the corrosion on that wheel was identical to the other three. It decided that the consumer should pay 10% towards refurbishment of the fourth wheel, to take the damage they’d inflicted on it into account.

Both customer and dealer were happy with this outcome.

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