When does your new car warranty actually start?

You'll often hear the phrase "check the fine print" when it comes to buying a new car, but there are some things you would, quite wrongly as it turns out, assume you can take for granted.

Surely, you would think, your new car's warranty only begins on the day that you get the keys and drive it out of the dealership? I mean, obviously, it doesn't have much need for a warranty before it gets driven. And the warranty is one of those included costs, quite a significant one when you think about it, that you are paying for when you hand your money over to the manufacturer, via your helpful dealer.

Unfortunately, in some cases it turns out that buyers might end up with less new car warranty than they were expecting, if they're not wary, and perhaps a little bit paranoid about checking every single detail, come purchase time.

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What does my warranty cover?

When does car warranty start?

Yes, in theory, it does start the moment a new car is sold - it's a "new car" warranty, after all. And yes, you might assume that, because you're buying it new, you are the first owner of this car, but unfortunately that might not be the case.

It's not that someone has been driving around your car and then winding the odometer back to zero, it's just that your dealer may have, for financial reasons, "bought" your car and then parked it on his forecourt for some time before you came along to snatch it up.

And this would mean that your warranty period had already started ticking down, before you paid your money.

Warranty starts when the car is declared as sold, not when the customer takes delivery

So why would car dealers do this, and why would manufacturers let them, or even encourage them to do so?

Well, it's all about fudging the sale figures, and getting paid bonuses to do so.

It's a cut-throat game, the car business, and every company wants to tell a story about how well it's doing. Whether that story is factual is, er, another story.

Contrary to widespread belief, new-car sales are not calculated according to vehicle registration data supplied by government authorities.

Instead, the figures are collated by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries via the manufacturers using an "honesty system".

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What should I do if I'm unhappy with my car warranty service?

However, CarsGuide has found widespread variation in the way car companies report their figures.

It works like this: dealers are offered incentives at the end of the month to hit sales targets. They are told to declare a car as sold or risk missing a bonus.

Some cars are sold straight away while others sit in storage unregistered until the dealer can find a real buyer.

In most cases such cars come with a big discount. In other instances, however, the warranty starts the moment the car is declared as sold, not when the customer takes delivery. 

As an NRMA spokesman said: "People buying vehicles would rightly expect the warranty start the day they take their new car home. We would encourage consumers to check with the dealer before they sign a contract and before they take delivery as to when the warranty will start."

So, yes, by all means, read every line of your contract, check the fine print, then check it again. Or, in this case, it's as simple as asking - can you just show me the date that my new car warranty will start from? Or is my warranty from date of purchase or delivery?

That should force them to tell you the whole truth, at least about your warranty.

Have you been surprised by your warranty ending sooner than you thought? Let us know in the comments below.