I asked on a big US site and got zero response, so it sounds like either the policy has changed, or nobody cares anymore.
And I guess in Europe few bought the extended warranty – since we clearly do have some IFD owners here on EuroGA.
Some years later, what is the current situation on Avidyne warranty? Any experiences someone could post? Does Avidyne have a European base for processing any returns?
I am looking at 2×IFD540 (or 550?) to get LPV.
Airborne_Again wrote:
Not quite. By EU legislation the manufacturer/dealer has an obligation to rectify defects for two years if the defect is original, but it is up to you to prove that. The first six months IIRC, it is taken for granted that the defect is original unless the manufacturer/dealer can prove that it was not.
Interesting. I did not know that. I never had to prove that a defect was original and I thought it was their burden for the first two years (I never heard of it either). But then I’m lucky. Normal practice for consumer gear as far as I could see around me is to either replace it right away or send it in for examination and/ or repair. And we do call the minimum legal protection legal warranty. PS: I would have thought that expecting a consumer to prove that a defect is original is unreasonable.
I have combined two very similar threads into this one. I would recommend reading the posts further back, some of which probably explain the matter quite well.
As regards warranties, it’s a bit of a moot point because in Europe
With a product like this you don’t ever want to put yourself in a position where the warranty needs to be invoked, because prob99 the scenario will involve a grounded aircraft. Admittedly that’s hard, but it is a bit like a warranty on the engine in a SEP 
The obvious solution (keeping a spare box on the shelf) is expensive – c. €15k. I keep various spares on the shelf (and with a non glass cockpit it’s a lot easier) but not quite at this level…
The huge loss of functionality is why I would install two of these, fully duplicated, each capable of driving the autopilot (easily done via the SN3500 EHSI’s GPS1/GPS2 selector and the unified FCS output with roll steering).
Martin wrote:
And I thought the minimum warranty period is two years (for consumers). For those two years, you’re fully protected.
Not quite. By EU legislation the manufacturer/dealer has an obligation to rectify defects for two years if the defect is original, but it is up to you to prove that. The first six months IIRC, it is taken for granted that the defect is original unless the manufacturer/dealer can prove that it was not.
A “warranty” is a voluntary commitment by the manufacturer/dealer.
@Peter And I thought the minimum warranty period is two years (for consumers). For those two years, you’re fully protected. Anything above that is contractual (not sure about the rules, I don’t deal with consumers; something tells me that an indemnification clause is worthless if it can be proven that their product was the cause, it could even be illegal to have it in the first place).
AIUI, you are not obliged to take that extended warranty. It’s a straight tradeoff between the extra liability, and the value of the extra years’ warranty which will depend on your view of how likely the unit is to pack up if it didn’t pack up within the first year.
Also, IMHO, IANAL, etc, a private individual buyer will not be bound by such a warranty in Europe. Only if you own the plane as e.g. Ben Aviation Ltd (which admittedly is what many private owners do) do you lose the protection. Or if the UK leaves the EU in June 
Ben is referring to AeroPlan. I would recommend anyone interested/concerned to actually read it.
And after reading it and you still don’t want to sign up for it, no problem – totally your choice.
For the record, the warranty story is:
12 month product warranty. Everybody gets that.
Additional 12 months of warranty for registering the unit for a total of 2 years. Registering is optional but encouraged.
Additional 2 years of warranty for signing up for Aeroplan for a total of 4 years. Signing up for Aeroplan completely optional.
There has been quite a bit of activity about the IFD540 failures on the Avidyne forum. The noise level may not be a true indication of the number of underlying problems (<10 if you believe Avidyne statements). The number of affected boxes is of course higher than 10, but maybe not as high as it sounds from the noise level. The number of incidents also needs to be put in the perspective of >1000 installed boxes (again, if you believe Avidyne). Quite a few of the issues appear to be related to a tight fit and physical connection alignment when installing into a Garmin 530 tray due to a very slightly larger IFD540.
Nonetheless, each in-flight failure is a potential accident and therefore a risk for Avidyne (not to say the pilot, etc). It seems that many of the early buyers are being conservative with their use of the box, with some limiting use to VFR for a while until confidence builds up, and others having a backup alternative in their aircraft to cover eventualities. The backup alternative is always a good idea, even with Garmin boxes, but needs to be built into the panel design with consideration for different scenarios. Nothing is perfect when devices fail.
It might be that Avidyne is using the warranty extension credit to try to lure as many onto the plan as possible to insure against their costs for any accidents that might occur during the high-risk period of birth pains. Avidyne will of course weigh and make their own decisions about reputation damage vs advantage, just like any manufacturer of a consumer product. There has been a lot of flaming of Apple and they are still very successful.
Pre-buyers get a 2 year warranty (AeroPlan warranty extension adds 1 year to that at no charge). Current buyers get 1 year warranty and the AeroPlan warranty extension adds 2 years to that at no charge. As a pre-buyer, I won’t take the extension or sign the waiver. If the box is not stable after 2 years, I’ll just need to bit the bullet and pay the $1200 flat rate fee for repair. That’s what I’ve done with my Garmin transponder and the flat fee amortization over the time in service is still a better deal than the insurance of an extended warranty. Self-insurance is often a good alternative if one saves for it or acknowledges the risk. The biggest difference may well be the priority handling and turnaround time. My hope is that the box will be so popular that it may be possible to find a loaner in case of RMA. Time will tell if that is realistic. My opinion is that it compares more than favourably overall with a Garmin 750, depending a bit on pilot preferences. The menu system is FMS-like and superior to Garmin’s and it sounds like the box is very popular in the US… time will tell if it meets Europe needs.
Vince
