‘Dealers are so shady.’
Warranty disputes are an unpleasant but sometimes expected part of car ownership, especially for major powertrain components that have failed or for electrical problems that are tough to pinpoint. But a radio antenna causing a dealership to decline a covered repair feels pretty out of the ordinary and not at all reasonable.
A viral TikTok from car-repair and auto-content enthusiast Menjicar (@menjicar) takes us through a recent job he performed for the owner of an undisclosed Chevrolet model that was still under warranty. Even so, the dealership determined that the total loss of radio reception was caused by damage outside the warranty coverage.
“They were saying it was due to water damage, but actually, it’s something really, really simple,” the narrator said in the clip that’s been viewed more than 21,000 times.
While the dealership chalked up the malfunction to a vague claim of water damage, Menjicar quickly discovered that the car’s roof-mounted antenna had been torn off. The damage left behind a base with no remaining threads to reconnect a new antenna.
Still, it was a fairly simple fix: Replace the antenna base by completing two electrical connections and a single mounting bolt. With the base installed, the new antenna was secured easily to the car, and the radio began working immediately. In the video, it was speculated that the antenna likely snapped off during a car wash.
Viewers of the clip piled into the comments section to criticize the dealership’s handling of the diagnosis, with some accusing the service department of overlooking an obvious issue or attempting to upsell a full radio replacement instead of identifying a simple fix.
“Dealership knew what was wrong with it. They just wanted to charge her for a new radio,” one skeptical commenter speculated.
There were also arguments that the denial may have been technically correct, since warranties don’t cover damage caused by external forces, even on low-mileage vehicles.
One viewer said, “Warranty isn’t gonna cover parts you broke. warranty is for malfunctions and issues that stem directly from the manufacturer.”
The dealership’s decision to decline such a simple repair seems, at best, curious and fairly unfriendly to the customer, no matter what caused the damage. Any question of whether the decision was defensible is murky at best, and perhaps unsurprising, since most factory warranties, including those from Chevrolet, exclude damage caused by external forces. That language gives the provider cover to deny repairs for a wide set of circumstances, including accidents, vandalism, or something as mundane and unexceptional as a car wash.
If the antenna mast was torn off, the dealer could reasonably argue that the failure didn’t stem from a manufacturing defect, even if the car was still well within its coverage period. So, purely from a legal and business sense, the dealership could have been acting within its rights. Where it becomes harder to justify, though, is when you consider the diagnostic process that was used. Several commenters thought the issue should have been obvious during the vehicle’s initial inspection. Some noted that the roof-mounted antennas on vehicles like the Chevrolet Trax and the Buick Encore are prone to damage in automatic car washes, suggesting the failure may be more common than many owners realize.
It also makes sense to scrutinize the dealership for its inability to properly identify such a simple repair. Some of this can be traced to the fact that modern service departments bill diagnostic time separately, so once a technician determines that a failure falls outside warranty coverage, there’s less incentive to dig deeper for the most economical fix. From that vantage point, replacing an entire radio module is a clean, billable solution, even if it ultimately addresses the symptom rather than the cause.
The video also shows how vulnerable some modern vehicle designs can be to everyday use, with mounted antennas exposed to weather, debris, and automatic car washes. When they fail, the result can look like a more serious electrical problem. Since infotainment systems rely heavily on uninterrupted signal input, a damaged antenna can render a fully functional radio completely useless and cause confusion for both owners and service advisors.
Since this was such an unusual case, it shouldn’t be taken as evidence that warranties are useless, but it certainly does show how narrowly they can be written. Even on low-mileage vehicles, external damage is typically excluded regardless of how minor or common the cause might be. The reality is that a second opinion is extremely valuable, especially when an initial diagnosis leads to a costly repair recommendation.
All of this serves as a reminder for owners to do some pre-visit troubleshooting and problem-solving so they can ask specific questions before approving major work. Another smart move, as Menjicar was happy to demonstrate, is having an independent mechanic on hand to provide a second opinion that may be delivered with a little more tact and specificity.
Motor1 reached out to Menjicar via direct message and commented on the clip. We’ll update this if they respond.
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– The Motor1.com Team