Hi I’m looking to lease a BMW, benz or buy a used porsche. Do any of you know how the warranty works if I am in the military and I get assigned overseas such as japan/korea/Germany?
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The warranty doesn’t care about personal circumstances. The factory warranty starts on a set date (In-service date) and counts down from there. Even if you had 200 miles on a vehicle, it could be out of warranty based on time.
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His question pertains to how service would be handled if he got shipped to Germany and took the car with him, if I understand him correctly.
The issue is each country is a separate entity as far as accounting goes. In other words, would his US issued warranty be valid in Germany. That’s a good question, actually.
I would suspect there would be problems having a USA warranty honored in another country, but I could be wrong.
As cars are region specific his warranty will not carry over to another country.
Can’t you walk away from the lease if you get deployed overseas?
For certain American manufacturers buying used canadian vehicles (under 36/12) in america will leave you with no warranty, curious how that would work with the German cars as well.
Only if deployed to a combat zone according to a military poster a few weeks back
Regarding the warranty, you’d probably have the best luck reading a warranty booklet online. My suspicion would be that it will NOT transfer overseas. I know for sure that Canadian vehicles do not carry warranty if they’re moved to the US and vice versa.
Oooh the region-specific accounting makes sense but at the same time, some companies have global warranties (porsche has 2 years, and i think bmw two years. i’m not sure about benz; chevy for example has full 3 year warranty as long as the region has a chevy service center) and i was wondering if there were any exceptions to the clause on the overseas warranty because technically when we get assigned to overseas, the bases are still considered American soil.
Also, we can walk away from lease but what good does that do if I need a car there anyway?
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Im a veteran that’s been overseas and here’s my opinion. I would wait until you have an assigned base, if its Europe then look into it, but if its Japan I wouldn’t do it since their cars steering column are on the opposite side which means you’d have to unbuckle and go to the opposite side… I was in Okinawa, not Tokyo but in Oki there was a toll before any highway entrance so that would get annoying pretty quick.
oh very low chance it would b japan. more likely germany or korea as i’m in the army. thanks for the input! by the way do we need to register the vehicle state side before we can ship it or is title sufficient?
Yes, but the dealerships don’t sit on US bases, do they? If not, I doubt an exception would be made. Maybe with GM.
You need to buy a warranty that services a uS spec vehicle overseas. Military Auto Source and most BMW military sales dealerships offer factory warranties for US spec vehicles.
I just got to Germany and dealt with the same thing.
Also, euro spec cars don’t come with warranties. Warranties are apparently an american thing.
For MB the warranty reverts to their worldwide warranty 1 yr unlimited miles. So if you’re considering a PO vehicle you would likely be out of warranty. You may consider exploring the military sales programs the various manufacturers have.
Only BMW/Mini and Volvo have dedicated military’s sales programs. The rest are offered through military auto source. They are not price competitive, but you don’t pay taxes. The most I’ve gotten discounts on their cars (any car) was 6% off MSRP and then they charge you for their own shipping. For me it was about 1.4k and then there’s additional dealer fees.
I was quoted 38.5k for a 36.7k dollar GTI autobahn. Needless to say, I did not go with MAS.
hmm but MAS was more like you can pick up the car once you get back or sumttn. In any case their pricing was very uncompetitive. My question is then, if I lease I can still return it in 3 years and the warranty should cover any kind of problems with the car right? (given that i drive it without a serious problem within the 3 years of lease)
by the way, do extended warranties work the same way? as in if i buy the used car with 4 years more additional warranty and come back when only one is left, I use the warranty to fix everything?
If you buy an extended warranty of 4 years, are gone for 3, you’d get 1 year upon return, provided you didn’t go over mileage.
So, provided your warranty concerns weren’t detrimental to drivability, yes, you’d be able to repair upon returning.
You can lease cars for two/three/four years here. I know BMw military sales offers a leasing option.
The leases aren’t that good, however.
Any car you lease I the US and take to Europe most likely won’t have the same warranty coverage. You’d have to buy the international package which is offered through the dealers once you get there.
As someone who just got in country two weeks ago, the best advise I can offer you is WAIT until you get where you’re going and then take the time to look around and do research.
You will not be buying a car same day. I did a simple registration transfer from someone already registered in the US system overseas and it took me 4 days to do. Just wait until you get there to find a car. Or if you ship your car, you’ll most likely be without a car for about 2 months.
Your choice.
PS, I think you’re putting way too much thought into warranties when you don’t even know what your orders are. Take it one step at a time. Things are different overseas and you won’t know until you get there what things are like.
yea military dedicated auto sales are fixed price more often than not.
Thanks for the kind advices. I didn’t really think about the 2 months wait, although it prolly won’t make too much of a difference. I looked at local economy for SOFA vehicles and I coudln’t find any thing remotely similar to what i was looking for.
Part of the reason I’m putting so much thought into the warranty issue is because if I can’t find a lease i want and end up buying a used car that’s 2-3 years old and take it overseas where warranty might not be available, I’m pretty much paying for a warranty that I can’t take advantage of + the fact that its gonna be very expensive to repair. (ie panamera).
I do have a good idea of where it’s gonna be because it’s kinda like all of nothing deal for me as in it’s what i wanted #1 or somewhere in the middle of nowhere here (more likely than not i’ll get my preference but no guarantees)
Are you new to the military? Unless your job specifically only has two or three locations where you can be based at; don’t expect anything to be a done deal. Over 10 years experience and you’re never truly there until you’re actually on the ground.
With that being said, if warranty is such an issue, then just buy a used car with low mileage outside of warranty.
I’m not quite sure what you’re expecting overseas, the road system and speed limits are completely different than in the states. I looked for months ahead of time to find the right car for me, a Seat Leon Cupra. I ended up buying a Mercedes CLA 180 shooting brake with 122 hp. Let me tell you, it’s more than enough considering average speed limit isn’t higher than 30 mph.
I find the car selection in Europe and asia to be superior to what’s on offer in the US. The only real difference is American cars have significantly
More power. My recommendation is to take advantage of having access to cars you can’t get in the states.
no i’m not. the COL in charge of staffing my MOS around the world was pretty clear about his intentions with me. Of course, there’s no guarantee but it’s a good starting point.
In terms of car selection, I agree there can be more choices but more choices don’t necessarily mean better choices. The states has the biggest automobile market and for that reason, every manufacturer who has a decent enough foothold in the automobile industry tries to sell here. Granted, some manufacturers may not have competitive edge here due to tariffs depending on what country they are from, but I honestly don’t think there are many “hidden gem” manufacturers. In the end we benefit because the costs of cars are cheaper here than anywhere else in the world imho.