Hypothetical warranty nightmare
Hi King Koup,
I also enjoy doing some maintenance work on my cars. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to do any yet with my Forte. With warranties you have to be careful to read all of the fine print. I've created a hypothetical situation below. Perhaps this would never happen, but I don't think it's too far fetched.
"Tony" takes his Forte into the dealership to have them look at it. It's three years old and has 60,000 miles on it. He's concerned because it has started to burn oil.
Mechanic: Sir we've had a chance to look at your car and two of your four cylinders have failed a compression test. Oil is getting past those rings and that's why you're burning oil.
Tony: Ok I'd like to get the repair done under warranty
Mechanic: Ok sir. I've had a look on the computer but we don't have any record here of your scheduled maintenance being done with us. Did you have it done at another garage?
Tony: No, I did all of the maintenance myself. And I have all of my receipts here as proof.
Mechanic: Ah, I'm sorry sir but all these receipts prove was that someone purchased these items on the indicated dates. It doesn't prove that it was you that purchased them. It doesn't prove that they were installed on your vehicle. And if they were, it doesn't prove that they were installed correctly.
Now I'm not saying for a minute that this is what you'll face if you do your own maintenance work. And the mechanic would be a real prick to respond this way, but, technically he would have a valid argument. And given the price of rebuilding an engine They might give you more of a hard time. Just food for thought.
Mark
For those of you that are more familiar with the warranty than I, what is actually required to be done by the dealer? I've always done my own oil/filter, I can manage to look at my fluids and say yep there's enough in there. Spray some lube on the hinges etc.

I'm sure there are cheaper places to get your tires rotated, break pads are easy enough to install. They try and get you to come in every 5 months/5000 miles or every 7.5 months/7500 miles. So really what is really required to not void the warranty?