Our Warranty Policy
At Southdowns Motorhome Centre, we want you to enjoy complete peace of mind from the moment you start your journey with us. That’s why every vehicle we sell is protected by reliable, trusted warranty support.
Below, you’ll find a clear breakdown of what’s included, how each warranty works, and what to do if you ever need to make a claim.
Manufacturer Warranty
Mercedes Engine Warranty: With any new Mercedes vehicle bought from Southdowns, you receive a 2-year Mercedes Warranty, subject to an annual service at a Mercedes commercial dealer, which Southdowns can arrange. Included in this is also Great Britain and Europe’s roadside assistance, which will help in the event of a breakdown. If you are abroad, it won’t repatriate you back to England, as this is a premium service. To keep the warranty in place, you will need a service within the first two years after the registration date, after which you will then be informed on the Mercedes dashboard of any service required. Mercedes does not offer any extended warranty.
Fiat Engine Warranty: With any new Fiat vehicle bought from Southdowns, you receive a 2-year Fiat warranty, subject to a service at 2 years before the first date of registration or 30,000 miles. This must be completed at a Fiat commercial dealer, which Southdowns can arrange. Included in this is also Great Britain and Europe’s roadside assistance, which will help in the event of a breakdown. If you are abroad, it won’t repatriate you back to England, as this is a premium service. Thereafter, a Fiat service is required every 2 years or 30,000 miles, whichever comes first.
Fiat offers an extended warranty option for up to 15 days after the DVLA registration date. These are available to purchase through the franchised dealer network only. The options are as follows.
- Additional 1 year or 37,000 miles – £279.60 (inc VAT)
- Additional 2 years or 48,000 miles – £567.60 (inc VAT)
- Additional 3 years or 60,000 miles – £952.80 (inc VAT)
Hymer Vehicles: All new Hymer vehicles come with a 2-year warranty on fixtures and fittings and a 6-year water ingress warranty. If you have a Hymer motorhome, this is subject to an annual water ingress check and an underseal spray. If you have a Hymer van conversion, this is subject to an annual water ingress check and habitation check. We also recommend a gas safety inspection once a year to ensure all gas appliances are safe to use.
Burstner Vehicles: Burstner vehicles purchased from 2019 up to and including model year 2025 have a 2-year warranty on fixtures and fittings, and a 10-year water ingress warranty (subject to an annual damp check). From model year 2026, the water ingress warranty will be 6 years, also subject to an annual damp check. We also recommend a gas safety inspection once a year to ensure all gas appliances are safe to use.
Carthago Vehicles: All new Carthago vehicles come with a 2-year warranty on fixtures and fittings and a 10-year water ingress warranty. If you have a Carthago motorhome, this is subject to an annual water ingress check. If you have a Carthago van conversion (Malibu), this is subject to an annual water ingress check and habitation check. We also recommend a gas safety inspection once a year to ensure all gas appliances are safe to use.
Carado Vehicles: All new Carado vehicles have a 2-year warranty on fixtures and fittings and a 7-year water ingress warranty. This is subject to an annual damp check. We also recommend a gas safety inspection once a year to ensure all gas appliances are safe to use.
Please Note – Your warranty is split between engine (e.g Mercedes) and habitation (e.g Hymer). For your engine warranty you can take your vehicle to any manufacture approved garage, or we can arrange this on your behalf. However, your habitation warranty is back-to-base, meaning you are required to bring your vehicle back to Southdowns Motorhome Centre for any warranty work to be completed. This is the customer’s responsibility to arrange. Whilst it is not a requirement for all vehicles, we recommend that while your vehicle is still under its 2 year warranty period, you schedule a habitation check with us, this allows us to identify any potential problems and get them fixed during your warranty period. As a rule of thumb, any annual checks should be done within 30 days of your registration date anniversary.
Additional AWS Enhanced Habitation Warranty: All new vehicles we supply come with an additional 1-year Enhanced Habitation Warranty through the AWS (Approved Workshop Scheme), on top of your manufacturer’s standard warranty. Any of the 570 AWS-approved workshops across the UK can carry out the work, so you don’t need to return to Southdowns. Find out more here.
Manufacturer Warranty Claim Process
At Southdowns Motorhome Centre, we are happy to assist in warranty claims wherever possible. For all warranty claims, we follow a process highlighted below that is given to us by the manufacturer.
If you notice an issue or a potential issue with your vehicle, please advise Southdowns immediately. Where possible it may be that our team can assist over the phone to resolve your problem. If we cannot resolve your issue and the vehicle is still within its warranty period, we will check that all the required servicing has been completed before contacting the manufacturer. If any servicing stated in your warranty document has not been completed e.g the annual water ingress check, then we will not be able to progress with the claim due to the warranty being invalid.
Evidence of the issue in most instances must be provided by yourself in the form of photos and videos that we can forward to the manufacturer and we will advise you of what is needed at the time of the initial claim. Once we have this information we can begin the pre-approval process.
The pre-approval process can take 2-3 weeks for the manufacturer to confirm whether they approve or reject the warranty claim we have made on your behalf. If the warranty claim is rejected we will advise you of the next steps, however in most instances if we believe it has been wrongly rejected we will automatically contest it, to try get you the best possible result.
Once your claim has been approved by the manufacture, we can then go ahead and order the parts required to resolve the issue. Unfortunately, due to supply chain issues, some vehicle parts are taking longer to arrive with us than usual. This means we can be waiting up to 4-6 months in rare instances for a specific part to arrive. As soon as the part has arrived with us, we will notify you immediately and aim to book you in with our service team as soon as possible.
You can contact our service team directly via email service@southdownsmotorhomes.co.uk or telephone on 02392 674820
Engineer Insurance & Aftercare Warranty
You can view the New Warranty Prices and the Used Warranty Prices for available cover options.
Enhanced Habitation Warranty Booklet – New Vehicles
View the detailed booklet covering your motorhomes warranty: what’s included, how to claim, and what optional upgrades are available. Please click below to see full details.
Camper & Motorhome Warranty – Used Vehicle
Get the full warranty booklet for used vehicles: find out what’s covered as standard, extra benefits, the claim process and terms and conditions. Please click below to see full details.
For full warranty information, please ask your sales representative on 02392 674820, as warranty information is subject to change and may differ slightly from above.