More than one million motorists will find their car service
bills getting a little cheaper from today as they can choose where
to have their car serviced without invalidating their warranties.
Servicing
restrictions on new-car warranties have been voluntarily dropped
by the motor industry after the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said
it would take action under European Union competition law if it
didn't.
Servicing
restrictions have been part of warranty small print for years.
They
were widely seen as an industry scam to force customers to pay extra
for main dealer servicing which, according to the OFT, typically
costs about £80 more than an identical service at a non-franchised
dealer.
Car
Makers who lifted their servicing restriction under OFT pressure
were:
Citroen,
Ford, BMW, Volkswagen, Peugeot, Daimler, Chrysler, Renault and MG
Rover.
Other
vehicle manufacturers had already compiled with the ruling.
"The
car industry's response to the OFT's recommendations to remove servicing
restrictions is good news," said John Vickers, the OFT chairman.
Mr
Vickers added: "Consumers should now benefit from increased
choice and competition between franchised and independent garages."
Ford
was putting a brave face on the car warranty changes yesterday.
A
spokesman said: "We were more than happy to change the warranty
conditions, with the caveat that the vehicle is serviced according
to the makers' schedule and only Ford parts or parts of an equivalent
quality are used on the car."
"Ford
franchised dealers will have to be competitive in this new market
place."
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