1 year change in legal warranty
In 2022, the legal warranty on used cars increased from six to twelve months. That demanded quite a bit from the selling parties, but more than a year later, satisfaction seems to prevail: no more warranty claims.
What was that again? In the context of consumer protection, the EU determined that the legal used warranty was increased to twelve months. “Because we do not want to offer less than legally prescribed, the Bovag warranty has also increased to twelve months as of June 1, 2022,” spokesperson Paul de Waal told us at the time. Formally, this concerns the extension of the so-called ‘reverse burden of proof in the event of conformity’. This means that instead of six months after the purchase of a used car, the selling party must demonstrate that his or her complaint is unjustified in the event of a complaint from the buyer. “If that doesn’t work, they must solve the problem on time and without hassle,” says Bovag.
More freedom
A doubling of the warranty period suggested a significant increase in the number of warranty claims. In addition to the Bovag’s advice to create reserve funds for this, the selling parties were also given more freedom. De Waal: “We have moved away from the requirement that a used car had to cost at least €4,500 to qualify for the Bovag warranty. A more expensive car can be promoted without it just as well as a cheaper car with a Bovag warranty. An (additional) price may also be charged for the Bovag guarantee, but of course not for the legal guarantee.”
No doubling
“Of course, not all affiliated companies were happy with it. We have had quite a few meetings to explain things. Yet satisfaction now predominates. The number of warranty claims has not doubled. In fact, the chance of a defect in the second six-month period is remarkably lower than in the first period. I also don’t know any companies that have collapsed because of this,” De Waal concludes.
No more complaints
We hear the same sounds from a spokesperson for Vakgarage (almost 350 affiliated garage companies). “We have advised our members to carefully inspect cheaper trade-ins and make a selection. That worked, because we see that the number of complaints has certainly not increased. However, our used cars are generally younger and more expensive than before.”
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl