Door hinge not covered by McLaren warranty - huh?

Ok, so I'm clearly not alone! Thank you for all the info. I've asked the dealership to push back on the warranty company and to check with McLaren NA. I'll report back - hopefully the warranty company back down from their BS stance or McLaren NA step in.

FWIW here is a picture of the crack. It's quite hard to see as the crack is hard against the door and you have to sort of put your head between the door and body of the car and then look "up". But it's definitely there. As for how serious it is, I'm not sure but engineers don't put four bolts if they only need three.




There was a question of wear and tear from @ImHuntingWabbits . The crack on my car is on the passenger side which gets far less use than the driver. I have heard that the doors are very heavy (as they form a piece of the side impact safety system) and it takes two people to safely lower them down when undoing the bolts. So that hinge does have its work cut out. And, again, I definitely would not want the hinge to suddenly fail either while driving or getting in or out of the car (that could cause serious injury).

There was also a point about alignment @VGJ , well that passenger door was misaligned and it caused the door to rub against the jam which then wore through the wrap and paint down to the metal on both door and jam. That I see as annoying but cosmetic and have learned to live with.

And finally @Zarakoff, yes, the e
xtended warranty (which cost US$5200 for 12 months - I looked it up on the contract of sale) does seem to have questionable value. I won't be getting it again.

So re the door hinge that kicked this thread off, it's still cracked and still using it but McLaren has agreed to fix it. I think McLaren are finally just doing the "right thing" but possibly the insurance company admitted they were on the hook. It definitely isn't "trim" and isn't "bodywork" which they also tried to claim. I do know that it took me a LOT of phone calls both with the dealer and the insurer to finally get this taken care of.

With that said, the part has been "on order" without an ETA since March. The dealer is being good and chasing it but it's just not materializing.

I don't know if the new hinge is an improved one (with extra reinforcing etc) or a like-for-like replacement.

And just for clarity's sake, I think the core problem (as with most contracts that end up in an argument) is due to a lack of clarity. The key clause is this one:

General Exclusions -> [CPO Limited Warranty] does not cover... section (d) -> "Bodywork, Paintwork, trim and upholstery or the deterioration of any other part, assembly or component as a consequence of wear and tear or exposure to the elements. "

Click to expand...

So, if I look at the general "theme" of that clause, it's talking about asthetic items: paint, seat/interior trims etc. But it then throws in a very wide "any other part, assembly or component" which, depending on how you read it, could be almost anything in the car (inside or out). I feel McLaren and their insurers/underwriters would be wise to more clearly list what is excluded. For instance, is the door lock mechanism covered? What if the motor in the rear-view mirror fails? Or the latch on the frunk? There are just so many things that fall into a very gray zone.