Tracking your car? Say goodbye to the warranty!

Tracking your car? Say goodbye to the warranty!

Many people criticise supercar owners because they do not use their cars the right way. Most people expect supercar owners to track their cars and always have them in sport mode etc etc. Usually these people criticising don’t own a supercar, or even have their drivers license but that doesn’t withhold them from voicing their opinion. It is remarkable however that not many supercar owners track their cars. This may have many different reasons, of course the owner may not like to track their car, or the cost of tracking is too high. However what many people don’t know is that most car manufacturers have a special clause in the warranty information voiding the warranty for damage or repairs due to usage on the racetrack.

To give an example: in all of Porsche’s warranty booklets (including those in the GT4 and GT3RS) it says that the warranty is void under “Abuse, accident, acts of God, competition, racing, track use, or other events”. Basically Porsche says that your car is not under warranty when used on the track. Especially for track oriented cars like the GT4, GT3 and GT3RS this is at the very least surprising.
Dodge also won’t service the car under warranty for damage caused by track or race use. In the warranty booklet of the 2016 Challenger SRT8 (Hellcat) it says “Your warranties don’t cover the costs of repairing dagga or conditions caused by racing, nor do they cover the repair of any defects that are found as the result of participating in a racing event”.

Tracking your car? Say goodbye to the warranty!
from McLaren Life

Almost all major car manufacturers have clauses like these, with the big exception being McLaren. McLaren is one of the few manufacturers that explicitly mention that track use is covered by warranty, as long as it is not competitive or professional (so no timed laps). McLaren also organises many track days for McLaren owners so it also says in the warranty booklet that the car is also under warranty during these events (organised by McLaren). This is good news for the 675LT owners who have purchased the car because of its phenomenal track qualities!

Tracking your car? Say goodbye to the warranty!
from McLaren Life

The main question of course is how the dealer finds out wether the car was tracked or not. It is not like they track the GPS movement of the car and check if it has been near a track, however most dealerships read the info on the cars internal computer when it is in the service bay. By reading out the info gathered by the cars computer it is possible to see how the car was driven. With this info it is relatively easy to deduct if the car has been put through extreme conditions, which can indicate track usage.
There are many stories online of customers who heard that their repair was not covered under warranty because of track use, however there are also many stories of people having a different experience. They say their dealer still serviced the car under warranty eventnoug they disclosed they had used the car on the track and that the damage was most likely caused because of the track usage. As always your dealer experience highly depends on the relation you have with your dealership because it is up to the dealer to decide wether they will cover the repair under warranty or not.

Thanks to bayareanady for the tip.
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