Car Warranty Transfer Explained!

In order to get your car warranty transferred to a person you have sold your car to, a letter has to be made out stating the sale you have made, the person who has bought your car and clearly stating that you want your car warranty rights to be transferred to that person.

In some cases, you might want to get a refund for part of the warranty or transfer to a less expensive package and get a refund in the deal. But some people still wonder are car warranties transferrable or not? We believe that it is better to explain that in the first fold. Indeed car warranties are transferrable. Now let’s get into details of the procedure. It might be stated in your car warranty or extended car warranty document about how you can transfer the warranty to another person in case you sell your car before the car warranty expires.

The car warranty companies know that people do this often so that the owners of the cars get a better bargain. So, first, study your car warranty properly for a transfer to be done and note carefully if any condition could void the transfer procedure.

Understanding the manufacturer’s car warranty

It is a standard practice by manufacturers to maintain national databases that hold all the warranty information and vin numbers of all the vehicles covered by them. When vehicles are sold or bought, the warranty is connected to the vehicles, not the owners, only their names and ownership details are noted and changed.

Now you purchased a vehicle that was about 2 years old and has about 20,000 miles on the odometer, the manufacturer’s warranty will still be valid for another year or about 16000 miles, in most of the case seen. It does not matter how long the warranty still covers, if you sell the car, all the remaining balance of the warranty will be transferred to the new owner – provided you or the new owner have completed the transfer formalities required by the warranty provider.

Making a factory warranty transfer

Many times to transfer the original factory warranty, yours in this case, you may not have to get involved, can you believe that. Really hassle-free. The new owner of the car has to prove the ownership with a title and the registration papers of the car in question. The new owner has to just get in contact with the manufacturer’s warranty division to change and update the records of the warranty with the company as a new owner of the car.

Companies will have pages concerning the transfer procedures on their websites. Perhaps the new owner might have to fax/email the title and the registration particularities to clearly prove ownership. There may or may not be a fee charged for the transfer formalities.

Are aftermarket warranties transferable too?

An aftermarket warranty is usually obtained after the original manufacturer’s car warranty has expired. As there are a number of aftermarket warranties and extended aftermarket warranties, some are transferable and some are not transferable, and this may depend on the terms and conditions set in the warranties.

A warranty company may offer both types of warranties, a transferable warranty, or a non-transferable warranty. It should be noted here that those warranties that can be transferred are usually more expensive. Perhaps purposely kept costlier by the companies because they know the car owners would one day want to sell their cars and would be forced to settle for transferable warranties, adding value to their cars and therefore can demand a good price for their car. Whether you have a manufacturer’s warranty or an aftermarket warranty that is transferable, it cannot be done without following certain procedures.

In most of the cases, the first owner of the car in question is required to get in touch with the warranty company’s division for transfers to authorize them to make the transfer to the new owner. The original owner will be required to give in his/her name, entitlement papers to the car, the registration details of the car, and the type of warranty the car was covered by. Then the original owner is required to furnish all relevant details about the new owner of the same car, proof of his/her ownership of the registered car. The buyer of the car may also be required to contact the warranty company and give them new personal information.

Moreover, the buyer may have to provide different ways to contact him/her for further inquiries or instructions s/he will have to do to implement the transfer. In some cases, the warranty company may want the original owner and the new owner to write out letters to the warranty company. Each party putting everything down in writing all the particulars of the case and affixing their respective signatures on the letters. Perhaps both the concerned parties might have to be present in person at the warranty division so that any kind of foul play is ruled out.

The cost of a warranty transfer

Yes, you had paid more for a transferable warranty, however, if you had not read the details of the transferring procedure, you might be surprised that the cost of making the transfer of the warranty to a new owner of your car was not covered in it.

There are companies that charge you for transfer services. The cost may be determined by a fixed amount or a percentage as specified in the terms and conditions of the warranty. The cost might not be high, just to cover the administrative work done by the department. However, there’s a possibility that the cost might run high from $150 to $200, really depending on the rating of the company, the cost of the warranty coverage.

Additionally, depending on the worth of the car, the more expensive the car is, the higher the cost of the transfer, because the warranty for expensive cars is usually higher. Think about it, replacement parts would be more expensive, and repairing modern expensive cars with the latest diagnostic systems costs much more. So the warranty had to be costlier and this would have a bearing on the transferring service charges. Now even an old model would have its own challenges. Parts might be hard to come by, equipment and tools at the auto shops might have difficulty dealing with the repairs of an old car. Thus car warranty for old cars could be costly and again have an effect on the transfer charges or fees.

What could make a car warranty transfer void?

Now consider this situation. The warranty coverage of your car when transferred to the new owner might now be called a used car warranty. But this warranty will heavily depend on the warranty company, the terms, conditions, and features of the warranty, and the type of vehicle we are dealing with. Understand this, according to the practices of some warranty companies, once you have sold your car to someone else, you have to go through a specific process within a limited time period. Otherwise, the transfer will not be implemented.

The new owner could sue you for not getting the warranty transferred to his/her name as this agreement between you and him/her might be written down and signed by both of you. The buying party would then hold you accountable and can claim compensation for that.

The concluding lines

It is hoped that this article will be quite informative to all car owners and that they are more aware of the legalities and procedures concerning car warranty transfers. There are mistakes that can be made in all these processes that could cause undue complications and time wastage, so we strongly recommend that thorough research be done in practice and by this we mean to go and find out details from your warranty company or check out warranty companies in-person to see the terms and conditions on paper.