April 13, 2014

Dear Sir,

I am in the process of buying a new car and was immediately drawn to Kia for the five year warranty. However, I was shocked to hear that to maintain the warranty you are required not only one, but two services per year. On top of that, these services must be carried out by the local dealer for an annual cost of nearly $700. I did a little research and Kia’s owner’s manual does indeed specify that level of service and a quick read of the US warranty (not sure if that is exactly the same as ours) would indicate you need to follow the owner’s manual. Fair enough I suppose.

However, the US and other countries have legally banned the requirement that service be carried out by the dealer for obvious anti-competitive reasons. It seems to me that if you adequately document the process, some of it can even be done yourself by those laws. For example Kia’s six month service is primarily for simple things like changing the filters. I also looked at Ford’s UK site (the warranty — I assume — would be very similar to ours) and it specifically states that regular service does not need to be performed by the dealer. Ford’s services are annual (not sure what Bermuda Motors requires for Ford). I was hoping that The Royal Gazette might do a little more digging than I am able to do and see why Bermuda has not addressed the obviously anti-competitive practice of dealer required services.

CAR BUYER