What's the lowdown on emissions warranties?

May 09, 2004 9 Replies

I'm thinking of buying a certified used VW and am concerned about experiencing the ever frequent sensor, foul the converter, mega repair bill syndrome. When I do research at Edmunds it says that the emissions warranty expires after



2yrs/24,000 miles. I can not find the details of the certified program warranty. Would it cover emissions repairs? A dealer told me that federal law requires
8yrs, 80,000 miles. Is this true? Why then would Edmunds say that initial warranty was only 2yr/24,000?

Your dealer should provide the list of what's covered. But Basically if it's a VW certified car the should have a 2yr/24,000mile warranty almost as good as if it was a new car. . The cat has a 8yr/80kwarranty.

2-24 is for all emissons stuff. Seems silly if you have a 4 year 50 warranty. I think the caveat is the 4-50 is to the original owner and the 2-24 is to any other purchasers. It also has the 8-80 for catalytic converter, Engine Electronic Control Module and On Board Emissions Diagnostics Device.

Ask the dealer for the owners manual. Details >I'm thinking of buying a certified used VW and am concerned about experiencing

Jim B.

OK, but the caveat would be: You're 20 miles from the dealer your check engine light comes on and you continue driving and foul the c converter then it's your fault, right? I have not owned a new car in about 10 years and I hear horror stories from people who spent mass amounts of money to correct their VW emissions problems. If I buy a 2004 is this less likely to happen?

If the MIL is on and it's not flashing then 99% of the time it's OK to drive. Flashing MIL indicates a misfire which might *F* your cat but I don't think it will happen in 20miles. Unless you did something wrong then it's not your fault the MIL came on is it? The "horror stories" you here are from only the ones with problems with their VW and you don't see many owners here posting they never had problems, correct? Yes, a 2004 is less likely to have problems but it can happen. A warranty claim might look like this... say you're flying down the road and the waterpump dies causing the engine to overheat. In the process you continue to drive the car to get it off the highway or drive it home several miles away. So the car hits the dealer and the waterpump is replaced under VW warranty or an extended warranty claim. The tech starts your car and find the headgasket is bad along with having a warped head. Now at our dealer the additional repairs are related to the original waterpump failure. It's not your fault you had to drive the car to what you felt was a "safe" place to stop? Does this help?

Starting in 2002 the warranty was 4 & 50K no matter if you are the first, second, third, etc owner.

I was just quoting what my 2003 owners manual stated regarding the

4-50. Of course read>Starting in 2002 the warranty was 4 & 50K no matter if you are the first,

Jim B.

The emissions warranty is in the warranty section of the owner's manual.

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