Date:         Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:22:16 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: Merffler options?
Comments: To: mcneely4@COX.NET
In-Reply-To:  <13217320.45692.1253195130076.JavaMail.mcneely4@127.0.0.1>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 09:45 AM 9/17/2009, Dave Mcneely wrote:
>But, if one enforces the warranty, will Midas weasel?  Wouldn't seem to
>make business sense.

No, they honor it cheerfully, at all the Midas shops I've been.  But
it's the muffler itself (if you buy one that is warranted that way),
not the labor, and the pipes and such are warranted for a
year.  That's why you could look at it as a come-on.  But it's not a
hard sell in my experience, though they definitely present it as a
good idea.  IIRC they tend to have three grades, and either the top
one or the top two have the lifetime warranty.  Top one, I would think.

Never had a problem with early life-cycle whatever-is-necessary, and
never had a pipe fail in a year, so I don't know what their
medium-term labor warranty is if any.  No paperwork runaround; they
fill it out for you at the beginning and give you a folder to stick
it in; you show the paper in any Midas shop anywhere and you'll get
decent (in my experience) service according to whatever they
legitimately owe you plus their normal rates for the rest.

Never tried to hand them a dead muffler and ask for a new one.  No
idea what they'd do, been a long time since I read one of their
warranties.  But all these (non-s/s) parts are expendable here in
salt country.  Don't think they carry much for Vanagon beyond the
muffler, though I'm pretty sure they'll shop locally for parts if
they have to.  That may vary shop-to-shop.  My dealings with them
have mostly involved Toyota, and long ago, Fiat and Saab, total of
~10 mostly east-coast shops.  I think I *may* have had a Vanagon
muffler from them once, and if so I think it might have been a Walker
brand that actually got fitted -- but I might be thinking about one I
got from my mechanic in the early days, warranted but lots more
fiddly about the terms and how to exercise them -- and I never did
exercise them.

Yours,
David