Warranty costs increased from expected 8% to 12% in 2024. Cost drivers: more vehicles; EVs are costing 3x more in warranty; new models released, and; more expensive technology. It reminds me of when Toyota ate Detroit's poor quality. Source: He also shared "aging out" of the skilled shop workers who used to populate the service centers. Bob Wilson
i don't understand how mfgs can ignore this after all the lessons learned in the past century. i can only think wall street pressure...
The issue is multifaceted to name a few below: 1. OEM's pursuit of the lowest bidder to manufacture their parts and not doing spot checks to ensure quality standards. 2. OEM stating that everything is proprietary information so your limited to swapping out whole assemblies. 3. The 'brain drain', aging out of highly technical people that repair down to the component level. Replacing a few capacitors and transistors is a lot cheaper than buying an entire assembly for a few grand.... Shout out for "Right to Repair legislation". While this doesn't really touch upon warranty repairs, this will reduce overall repair cost through competition. Back when I started in the industry; Our facility wouldn't buy anything that didn't include detailed electronic schematics. It's actually written into our purchase agreements. I withheld payments on several million dollar plus purchases, because they breached that clause in the PO. About 8 years in, I was over-ruled by upper management. Told them good luck getting this facility back up and running after an EMP or natural disaster. Two years later, I was asked why repair cost was skyrocketing. We actually got a good dose of this when the first wave of COVID hit. Luckily, I horded a bunch of obsolete equipment destined for the land-fill. Equipment ordered for COVID didn't arrive till two years later. FWIW: To this day; I believe that clause still exists in our PO's.
What? What? A company might not be run by qualified, experienced engineers but rather MBA wanna bees? Bob Wilson
