Yes! 100%. It is a common misbelief that all maintenance work must be done by the dealership to withhold a vehicle’s warranty. This is not true. Dealerships are required by law to honor your warranty regardless of where the maintenance work was performed. From the Federal Trade Commission:
“…the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, which is enforced by the FTC, makes it illegal for manufacturers or dealers to claim that your warranty is void or to deny coverage under your warranty simply because someone other than the dealer did the work.” (FTC.gov, July – 2011)
The only time that we recommend using the dealership is under the one of the following scenarios:
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Recalls – all federal NHTSA recall work must be performed at dealership at no cost to the customer.
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SRS – we recommend the dealership perform any airbag, seat belt, or impact related work. Additionally, these are typically under recall (see above).
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Warranty – if your vehicle is brand new, dealerships will typically repair major components at no charge until a certain point, typically 36k, 60k, or 100k miles, depending on the manufacturer. This does not include standard wear-and-tear maintenance like oil changes, tires, brakes, etc.