EU situation should be looked at by everyone [LWN.net]

EU situation should be looked at by everyone

Posted Dec 14, 2023 9:07 UTC (Thu) by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
In reply to: EU situation should be looked at by everyone by Cyberax
Parent article: Bottomley: Solving the Looming Developer Liability Problem

You're stuffed! Simple as!

Which is why you should always look seriously askance at any (sales) company that says "we guarantee our own products". If the company goes bust, the guarantee goes with it.

As was mentioned elsewhere, typically BMW will provide a guarantee with the Mini, which the dealer then transfers to you. You now have a CONTRACT with BMW, mediated by the dealer, and if the dealer goes bust BMW will guarantee the contract. Likewise if the dealer was mere agent your contract is with BMW, not the dealer.

Elsewhere you should look for companies that say "we have an insurance contract that covers our guarantees" - you now have a CONTRACT with the INSURANCE COMPANY (or will have, when the receiver transfers it over to you, which they have no choice about). Or the supplier provides a warranty - that's more hassle and grief than going through the retailer, but it least it's a back-stop.

Cheers,
Wol

EU situation should be looked at by everyone

Posted Dec 14, 2023 10:05 UTC (Thu) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (1 responses)

Oh, and to add, in the case of a manufacturer recall, in practice it works that you can always return your car to ANY dealer. Because BMW's contract with the dealer says that "ANY car you provide warranty/recall/stuff-like-that work on, you bill to BMW". Which is why you can't go to a non-BMW dealer, because there's no contract.

Cheers,
Wol

EU situation should be looked at by everyone

Posted Dec 14, 2023 10:46 UTC (Thu) by farnz (subscriber, #17727) [Link]

Manufacturer recalls are slightly different; those exist because to get a V5C (registration document showing that the car is allowed on the road), you must first show that the car meets requirements.

There's two ways to do this:

The expensive way; get individual vehicle approval from DVSA. If this is the case, then there's no recall mechanism available, since the actual vehicle being registered is inspected and confirmed to be OK. However, it costs more per vehicle, and carries the risk that the vehicle will fail and need remedial work before it can be registered.
The cheap way; get type approval via the Vehicle Certification Agency. Type approval does not involve inspection, necessarily (just paperwork), but the flip-side of type approval is that if you (or the authorities) discover that your vehicle does not meet the paperwork, you have to pay to fix it via the recall mechanism.

This is entirely separate from general liability - it's part of having the rights to use type approval to get a V5C instead of having to use individual vehicle approval.