When car shopping for a new, certified pre-owned, or even a used vehicle, having a warranty is a major part of the consideration process. A warranty is essentially a company’s way of guaranteeing a product’s reliability and quality for a certain time or usage period. It’s a way to assure customers that there won’t be any costly, unnecessary or unplanned failures outside typical ownership.
All new and certified pre-owned vehicles come with manufacturer-backed warranties. Used cars may still carry over their original warranties to some degree, or may be covered by a third-party provider. The most typical warranties for vehicles are powertrain, bumper-to-bumper and corrosion. There are other warranties in other places with their own separate coverages as well, such as tires, accessories and federal emissions control equipment.
Today, all automakers offer their own manufacturer-backed warranty policies for new and certified pre-owned cars. Though are carmakers actually required by law to provide such coverages?
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Are Vehicle Warranties Legally Required?
Even though every automaker offers warranties with their new and certified pre-owned vehicles, they are not explicitly nor technically required to offer them, according to U.S. federal law. Offering comprehensive warranty coverages simply became an industry standard to promote customer confidence and gain retention by guaranteeing the quality of vehicles.
There are however federal guidelines, which are primarily outlined and enforced by the so-called Lemon Laws. In the U.S., lemon laws vary by state. But generally, they exist to protect vehicle buyers and consumers of other goods from poor quality or poor performing goods or products.
In the case of vehicles, these laws require automakers to either buy back or exchange a defective vehicle if it’s been under repair for more than a certain number of instances under a certain period of time—typically under the vehicle’s warranty policy terms.
To work with these Lemon laws, automakers adopted the act of providing warranty coverages to instill trust in their customers and potential buyers that their vehicles can be depended on. Helping to set the precedent and benchmark for warranty honoring, U.S. Congress enacted the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act in 1975, essentially establishing rules that prevent manufacturers from false advertising or enacting unfair or misleading warranty policies.
The Federal Emissions Exception
While powertrain, bumper-to-bumper and corrosion vehicle warranties are not technically and specifically required by law, there is a federally enforced warranty that all new vehicles must comply with. That warranty is a federal emissions control system warranty, or the warranty of all equipment related to emissions control of an internal combustion engine’s exhaust output. This is enforced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through the Clean Air Act and in partnership with the California Air Resources Board, or CARB, as a way to reduce air pollution from fossil fuels.
The EPA through the Clean Air Act mandates that all light-duty vehicles must come with two types of federal emission control warranties: a “Performance Warranty” and a “Design and Defect Warranty.” The Performance Warranty covers any repairs related to any equipment that may cause a new vehicle to fail an emissions test within the first two years or 24,000 miles of use.
Under that same warranty, it requires some specific parts, like the catalytic converters, engine or emissions control computer (ECU), or the vehicle’s onboard diagnostic system to be covered for eight years or 80,000 miles, whichever comes first. The warranties, however, are voided if the repairs were incurred by misuse or tampering.
The Design and Defect Warranty covers the repair of any emissions control or related parts that fail as a result of a defect in manufacturing or materials, or workmanship. This coverage must at least be for two years or 24,000 miles, whichever comes first. Other components may also be covered for a minimum of eight years or 80,000 miles.
Buyer Power
When compared to powertrain and bumper-to-bumper warranties, the federal emissions control warranties are separate because they’re a part of federally mandated emissions to control and limit the output of harmful greenhouse and toxic gasses that are a byproduct of internal combustion engines burning oil-based fuels. These are enforced based on the emissions control standards set by the EPA and CARB over a certain period.
Other than that, there are no federal laws that legally require automakers to offer warranties for their new vehicles. But if any vehicle manufacturer decided to not offer a warranty, they would become the only mainstream automaker to do so. This would highly dissuade customers who have come to expect a manufacturer’s warranty when purchasing an expensive new vehicle.
