What Car? Q&A - Will an MG warranty be honoured?

Q: If I purchase an MG TF, will the warranty be honoured and will there be sufficient parts for the foreseeable future?
Robert Scott

A: Capital Bank Motor, which owns the remaining stock of MG Rovers, is offering them to dealers with a two-year warranty. So, although there's some cover, it's one year less than you would have got from MG Rover before it called in the administrators.

If you're buying new, check that it's one of these cars so that you get this cover. If you find another new car that was already on the books of a dealer before the Capital Bank Motor warranty was introduced, it might not come with any protection. In this case you'll have to budget from around £720 for three years of comprehensive cover from an independent warranty provider such as Warranty Direct.

Existing MG Rover warranties on used cars are now worthless. In the past, workshops would have recovered the cost of repairs from MG Rover but, with the company gone, you would have to stump up the cash for any repairs.

If the car you're considering doesn't come with any warranty, you could still argue that the dealer should cover the cost of repairs under the Sale of Goods Act. It's not as cut and dried as a warranty but, if you can show that the car was not of satisfactory quality when it was bought, the dealer should pay.

Consider arguing for repairs to items that would have been covered by the MG Rover warranty.

In the first six months of ownership, it will be down to the dealer to prove any fault wasn't there when the car was sold to you. After this period, it's down to you to prove that it was.

The supply of parts is a far simpler matter. With hundreds of thousands of MG Rovers running around on the roads, suppliers will happily continue to make spare parts for the cars. You shouldn't have any problems getting spares for your car.