£150 to find if covered under guarantee

[RickDal]

Second hand car bought in Jan of this year. 2 years old. Few niggles so phoned service dept of MG local garage to discuss if covered under guarantee. Was advised to book in to allow technicians to evaluate problems. If items not covered, a fee of £150 would be charged to cover technician costs. What item were not covered I asked. She didn’t know.
Any on else had this problem and do MG have a list? I’m reluctant to book in and incur this surcharge just to test MG’s guarantee.
Rick

 

[Jomarkh]

MG always try that. Just wait until you have 3/4 small issues and they want £150 for each item

 

[Rolfe]

Everybody gets threatened with this. I'm not sure if anyone has actually ended up having to pay it though.

 

[redwood98]

Second hand car bought in Jan of this year. 2 years old. Few niggles so phoned service dept of MG local garage to discuss if covered under guarantee. Was advised to book in to allow technicians to evaluate problems. If items not covered, a fee of £150 would be charged to cover technician costs. What item were not covered I asked. She didn’t know.
Any on else had this problem and do MG have a list? I’m reluctant to book in and incur this surcharge just to test MG’s guarantee.
Rick

Maybe if you add 3rd party things that could affect the car like for example frunks. They are always recommended to be removed before to be safe. I imagine for stuff like that they may find a reason to charge you.

 

[Kenp1]

Standard with most car manufacturers, when I had a gearbox fault on my Kia they said there would be a diagnostics fee if it wasn't a warranty issue.

 

[gary333]

Standard with most car manufacturers, when I had a gearbox fault on my Kia they said there would be a diagnostics fee if it wasn't a warranty issue.

That's due to you have a crappy dealer! My local Hyundai and Kia do not charge for this.

 

[Kenp1]

That's due to you have a crappy dealer! My local Hyundai and Kia do not charge for this.

Completely wrong, depends on the issue, a garage isn't going to spend hours diagnosing an issue and then not charge me if I decide not to have the work done.

 

[RickDal]

Why don't MG post a list of items NOT covered. They must know. I have issues with both rear wheel pressure indicators registering incorrectly, a steering wheel heater that only heats 3/4 of the wheel and drivers side locking handle that won't lock/unlock, Remote ok.

 

[gary333]

Completely wrong, depends on the issue, a garage isn't going to spend hours diagnosing an issue and then not charge me if I decide not to have the work done.

Don’t be silly, we’re on about warranty work not a wishy washy stuff like on the third Friday of each February the car clicks under dashboard for 2 seconds.. A gearbox failing is an obvious fault and any threat of diagnostic is down to a crap dealer!

My Hyundai had the reduction gear bearings fail 3 times, the boot struts fail, the air con compressor give up intermittently, a front LED light fail, issues with parking brake switch and various bits of trim go wrong amongst other electrical gremlins like no auto holding and guess how much a was quoted each time for “diagnostics”…. Zero! Guess how much the courtesy car was… zero

My Mrs has a Kia that’s had its issues too, never any threat of “diagnostics” from our local dealer.

Go to a poor dealer like Cars2 and they want you to pay, you get a decent dealer like Reeds and never any mention of “diagnostics”. The warranty on Hyundai and Kia are light years ahead of the jokers at MG!

 

[Alb]

Why don't MG post a list of items NOT covered.

That's exactly what they do in the Guarantee Statement!

 

[Kenp1]

Don’t be silly, we’re on about warranty work not a wishy washy stuff like on the third Friday of each February the car clicks under dashboard for 2 seconds.. A gearbox failing is an obvious fault and any threat of diagnostic is down to a crap dealer!

My Hyundai had the reduction gear bearings fail 3 times, the boot struts fail, the air con compressor give up intermittently, a front LED light fail, issues with parking brake switch and various bits of trim go wrong amongst other electrical gremlins like no auto holding and guess how much a was quoted each time for “diagnostics”…. Zero! Guess how much the courtesy car was… zero

My Mrs has a Kia that’s had its issues too, never any threat of “diagnostics” from our local dealer.

Go to a poor dealer like Cars2 and they want you to pay, you get a decent dealer like Reeds and never any mention of “diagnostics”. The warranty on Hyundai and Kia are light years ahead of the jokers at MG!

You've just proved my point, depends on the fault. I had a few things done no questions asked.

The gearbox issue was obviously a more complicated issue, they could have come back and said one of the clutches was worn and it wouldn't have been covered. I could then have taken the car somewhere else to be repaired and they would have been out of pocket.

 

[Anon70]

This is the warranty document from the MG website, you can see what items are covered and for how long. If you can prove there was an issue from the factory or something that was a factory issue caused any current problem then you would also have some cover.

https://www.mg.co.uk/sites/default/files/2025-11/MG_Online_Warranty_Statement_Nov_2025.pdf

 

[siteguru]

That warranty document likely doesn't apply to my car ... the October 2021 one does, as I bought my car in November 2022.

 

[tsedge]

It is common these days for dealers to ask for customers to pay a diagnostic fee if they cannot reproduce or diagnose a fault.

That's because they are only paid by the manufacturer for warranty work.

With MGs you only get 3 months from new when diagnosis is free. Now, a good garage will push that out because they want to keep you happy, but there are limits.

This isn't just an MG practice, it is widespread. MG have maybe taken it further than some.

It is controversial but one of the reasons it exists is that there are timewasters who are constantly complaining about every last detail on their cars.

 

[tsedge]

Everybody gets threatened with this. I'm not sure if anyone has actually ended up having to pay it though.

I have paid this once, although it is £75 at my local dealer.

 

[Kenp1]

When you look at the warranty document it looks reasonable, but I've read the issues people have had on here.

The one that does surprise me is the infotainment covered for 3 years, that seems to be one of the most reliable items in all makes of cars, and it's not just MG, Kia only covers this for 3 years as well.

 

[Scotsman]

Don’t be silly, we’re on about warranty work not a wishy washy stuff like on the third Friday of each February the car clicks under dashboard for 2 seconds.. A gearbox failing is an obvious fault and any threat of diagnostic is down to a crap dealer!

My Hyundai had the reduction gear bearings fail 3 times, the boot struts fail, the air con compressor give up intermittently, a front LED light fail, issues with parking brake switch and various bits of trim go wrong amongst other electrical gremlins like no auto holding and guess how much a was quoted each time for “diagnostics”…. Zero! Guess how much the courtesy car was… zero

My Mrs has a Kia that’s had its issues too, never any threat of “diagnostics” from our local dealer.

Go to a poor dealer like Cars2 and they want you to pay, you get a decent dealer like Reeds and never any mention of “diagnostics”. The warranty on Hyundai and Kia are light years ahead of the jokers at MG!

Hope you don't mind me joining in but you don't need a car plugged in for the above things you have mentioned so that's why you weren't charged anything for diagnosis diagnosis is for electrical engine gearbox issues plugged into computer to help find the fault , hence why you weren't charged anything, I had my mg checked for free and free courtesy car . Ps I think you need to check the reliability of Kia Hyundai the same car they are not without their major issues. We all know MG has it's faults but it's a relatively new car compared to Kia Hyundai, for us that remember both Korean cars when they came out they were the biggest pile of shit on the road . Just a reminder the Chinese will be the biggest manufacturer of cars soon . And all the Korean Japanese etc will be a distant memory? just my thoughts though.