According to the images in the TDR thread that started this recent discussion, the customer was reimbursed directly by DC, not the dealer.

The dealer initially denied warranty coverage. The customer, armed with his warranty booklet, maintenance records, and receipts, sent a demand letter to the dealer. DC sent the customer a check reimbursing him for his covered repair.

 

Ahhh,

Sounds "case by case" then, for now at least.

Anyway, I certainly wish everyone luck with it, but I foresee this as just another reason for three paragraph rants in the near future.

 

I'd be scraping up receipts and contacting dealer/DC!

 

OK, with the "on the odometer" language missing from the statement, the 8/136 thing does start to move into the realm of reality.

Are there any attorneys here that can chime in on the meaning of the exact wording shown in a given warranty statement? Betcha attorneys either wrote the language, approved it, or both. Help!

 

Yep.

If I was an attorney, I'd maybe lay things out like this (referring to the 2000 and 2001 warranty booklets):
* Several warranties are said to "begin" at the delivery event (the Basic warranty explicitly, others by reference to the beginning of the Basic warranty)
* The Cummins warranty is explicitly said to "begin" at a different event - the end of the Basic warranty
* The end of the Basic warranty is explicitly defined: 36 months or 36,000 miles, whichever occurs first
* The duration of the Cummins warranty is defined as 5 years or 100,000 miles, whichever occurs first
* "Begins", absent any other definition, means that we start counting time/mileage at the specified event. It would be difficult to argue that it means "continues" or "takes over", though we really started counting time/mileage at some other event, unless such language is there (and it's not)
* Since DC did tie the beginnings of other warranty periods to the delivery event, it was clearly within their ability to do so
* Since it was obviously within DC's ability to state that the Cummins warranty period started at the delivery event, but they didn't do so, that warranty's time/mileage limits cannot start at delivery - they must start at the "begins" event explicitly defined.

 

Couldn't there be an issue of when it the Cummins warranty begins if you didn't have your truck serviced at the dealers? They wouldn't know if you clocked 36k on in a year, or if it took 3 years.

On a side note, a lawsuit against Ford was settled, paying out millions for people who had to replace the TFI unit in the distributor on cars and trucks from 89-95. Took 11 years to do, but it happened. Maybe this will be something similar. And those were much cheaper than an IP/LP.

 

That's exactly why it is inaccurate to refer to the combined warranties as 8 year/136000 miles. The accurate way to talk about the warranties is to say that they are consecutive vs. concurrent. Notice that my original post on the TDR never mentions 8/136000.

I was aware many years ago that D/C had no provision to determine when the Basic Warranty ended and the Cummins Diesel Engine Limited Warranty began. I saw this as DaimlerChrysler's problem—not mine.

 

I was at the dealer today and asked about this situation. The service writer said that Cummins warrants just the engine for the additional term and you would have to "take that up with them." I said you mean for example that the local Cummins people, Motor Trucks NW, would be the one's working on my truck and he said, "Yes, if they are a Cummins dealer." That's very interesting.

 

My original post dealt with 1999-2001 Cummins/Rams. Try reading it completely, links included.

Why would anybody, other than a non-reader, ask a Dodge dealer if anything was covered under warranty? The information in the D/C computer can be changed with but a keystroke. It's kind of like letting the fox guard the hen house.

-Thomas

 

I got $100 that says you won't get them to TOUCH your truck for warranty work.

Your dealer is sorely mistaken.