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example, are meeting consumers’ needs
warranty coverage with their aftermarket
grams. A customer who orders up a Mini
oper can opt to add accessories like bigger
eels or the John Cooper Works superrger
upgrade kit for the Cooper S.
The appeal is that all the parts will be
talled upon delivery of the vehicle and
covered under Mini’s new-car, fourr/50,000-mile
warranty, something that
ght be voided if the same work were
formed outside the dealership or with
n-factory parts. If Mini’s own parts are
talled by the dealer afterward, they carry
balance of the new-car warranty or run
o years from date of installation, whichevis
greater. An additional plus is that the
t of the aftermarket parts can be rolled
o the car’s price where the benefits of
ancing come into play.
Scion has an even larger parts bin from
ich to choose, but a slightly different
business model. Most of the performance
parts that Scion dealers sell are from Toyota
Racing Development and are warranted
through TRD and not Scion. The terms are
three-years/36,000-miles comprehensive,
All warranties are honored at Toyota/Scion
dealerships.
And while you can add things like a spo
er, exhaust and even a performance clutch
into the price of a new car, some parts like
the tC’s supercharger can only be sold and
installed after purchase (due to emission
regulations).
Other items like the cold-air intake are
clearly marked for “off-highway use only”
(read: racetracks or other closed courses). So
if you opt for one, there is no warranty, and
the fine print on the Scion website states
that the installation of this part may
adversely affect the warranty coverage of
your vehicle. However, the intake would
only conflict with coverage if the intake
specifically caused a problem.
Nissan follows a similar policy with its
line of Nismo parts, which are divided into
two categories: S-tune and R-tune. S-tune
parts include common upgrades such as
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