If a Heating Element in my Front Seat Overheated and Burned a Hole in the Leather Interior, Will my Auto Insurance Cover It?

Owners of an automobile put much effort on maintaining and taking care of it. They will do their best to make its interiors and exteriors become the most beautiful thing among various automobiles. However, there comes a point when accidentally, something happens, such as an overheated heating element in the front seat that may burn a hole in the leather interior. This may cause a problem to the owner. One of the things that he or she may ask is, will my auto insurance cover the repairs?

When this happens, one needs to read and understand the terms of his or her insurance policy, as well as speak with the agent of the auto insurance. Usually, an overheated heating element may not be part of the coverage of your auto insurance because it is a mechanical problem of the automobile and not something that is typically considered to be a covered loss by an automobile insurance company.

Speaking with one’s insurance agent will be a big help on the matter since one is given the opportunity to review the terms of the policy as well as the guidelines of the automobile insurance company. One can check if there is any way that the damages may fall under comprehensive coverage. Comprehensive insurance covers the automobile for losses due to incidents aside from collision. As an example, insurance that is comprehensive covers the damage to a car if it got stolen, or even damaged by fire, animals, or flood. It pays the repairs to the automobile less the deductible that one chooses for these situations as well as other incidents like vandalism and glass breakage.

One’s automobile insurance will likely explain that it is not covered since the reason was burnt leather due to a heating element that eventually overheated. This is a mechanical failure of the vehicle. With this, one may want to contact the manufacturer of the vehicle to check if the heating element was under any warranty, or if it had been recalled because of overheating. If a policyholder has an extended warranty on the vehicle, you can have it checked if the heating element and the damage to your vehicle can be covered under warranty terms.

To see, as well as to check if there was indeed a recall for the vehicle’s front seat heating element, one can try calling the manufacturer’s number listed in the owner’s manual. An owner can also try checking the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) site. A section of their site deals with issues and problems on safety. Here, they have a search engine on recalls, and this allows one to search the NHTSA campaigns on recall. One can search by year, model, or make, and even by component of the vehicle, in order to narrow one’s search.

If one’s agent is not able to discuss, more so, explain to the owner what to do in this kind of situation, or even fulfill one’s car insurance needs, it is deemed best to contact or look for online support.