Warrenty, Calender time versus real time.

[lots of boats]

Hi.

My Tohatsu TLDI warranty is based on one year of commercial use. However. The ECU in the Tohatsu 90 TLDI records the approximate number of hours of use, in range of steps that doesn't clock the exact time. I just learned in the past few days that the optimax and the E Tec both record the exact number of hours of use.

Either way, there is a record with each motor that can be used to determine the hours, and if I was given a choice, I would prefer to purchase motors that came with a warranty that reflected the manufacturer's confidence that the equipment was going to withstand a certain amount of use.

What do the rest of the forum uses think who actually buy and use motors?

 

[JoLin]

Re: Warrenty, Calender time versus real time.

Agree completely.

An outboard warranty based on calendar time is essentially meaningless due to the wide disparity of use by the individual owners. You can bet that however you slice it, warranties as currently written by the manufacturers come down very heavily in their favor unless the manufacturer seriously screws up (as in FICHT).

Warranties based on actual running time would really tell you how well these motors are built. And with current electronics, it would be pretty easy for the motors themselves to log any "events" that would indicate owner abuse, such as "no oil" and "over-rev" conditions. Manufacturers could easily protect themselves from warranty abuses while at the same time providing a meaningful basis for comparison. Doubt you'd ever get them to do it, however, since thanks to the auto industry, consumers are used to the current smoke and mirrors method

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Warrenty, Calender time versus real time.

and you will pay more for it. this is basically a duplicate of your other post.

 

[lots of boats]

Re: Warrenty, Calender time versus real time.

No, this isn't a duplicate, because when I asked the question before I didn't know that some engines could accuratly log engine hours and some can keep an accurate record of events.

EDIT

Lets hear what some of the other consumers have to say about engine warranties on motors that essentially cost as much as a car, but instead of having a parts warranty that would go even 500 hrs, which would be less than 25,000 miles on a car, the warranty for most people, given the use they will be able to put on the equipment, only lasts for a fraction of that.

For instance I read on a forum where a customer used an outboard 200 hrs in six years and was really pleased. That is similar to less than 10,000 miles.


Cheers.

 

[JB]

Re: Warrenty, Calender time versus real time.

Maybe not an exact duplicate, LOB, but merely a resubmission of a poor proposal with a trivial change.

Outboards, like cars, often suffer more in storage or non-use than in use. The calendar warranty protects the maker from that up to a certain limit. It also protects the user from defects or failures up to a certain limit. In cars, the amount of usage can shorten that limit, but not extend it.

Are you proposing that warranties on ECU engines be for X years or Y hours, whichever comes first? Of course not. You are proposing that the warranty covers Y hours, no matter how long it takes, under whatever conditions.

Not gonna happen.

Get off this anti-Tohatsu kick, LOB. We are getting sick of it.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Warrenty, Calender time versus real time.

Corporations are required to hold warranty monies in escrow until the expiration of the warranty period. The money can not be added to the bottom line until the warranty period has passed.

So......from an accounting perspective a warranty has to be related to a predetermined amount of time based on the calendar year.

It's that simple

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Warrenty, Calender time versus real time.

Comparing outboard use with car use is not a realistic comparison. Your car at 60 - 70 MPH is reving at 2000 RPM or less and rarely if ever sees anything over 4000 RPM. When on-plane, outboards are almost always at 3500 RPM or higher and at wide open throttle are in the 5500 - 6000 RPM range.

 

[JB]

Re: Warrenty, Calender time versus real time.

Both are doing exactly what they were designed, and warranted, to do, Silvertip. That makes the analogy valid.

 

[lots of boats]

Re: Warrenty, Calender time versus real time.

Hi

dingbat: could you elaborate a bit more. For instance, how does a company determine ahead of time what the expected cost of warranty claims will be?

JB: I regret that you don't like my questions and comments about Tohatsu, it was just PDL that I hit on this forum, it wasn't until after I made a few posts that I tracked the GURU around to other forums and found a pattern. My experience with Tohatsu is just that, and I choose to share it.

Nothing ever changes without questions like I have posed about warranties, and manufacturers respond to what customes want, and when people buy products, much of the value they place on something is in the warranty. There has never been changes without a lot of bawling going on from the status quo, so go for it. It doesn't mean that motors can't be improved, that styles of use will not change, or that some more creative way than telling a customer he is SOL after a time period has elapsed isn't going to ever happen.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Warrenty, Calender time versus real time.

you have had you say as to your displeasure, multiple times. it has gotten to the point of bashing. closed.