Originally Posted by
Minion1
A few years ago Cannondale tried to redefine lifetime warranty as the frames having a finite lifespan, so the warranty on an alloy frame was 5 years and a carbon frame had a ten year lifespan, hence a ten year warranty. That was slapped down, really quickly, because they tried to retroactively apply it to customers who had bought their bikes before they tried this on (this was in the Dorel days) who had the expectation of an actual lifetime warranty on the frame they purchased at the time. I don't know what the current warranty looks like, but I do recall they had to backtrack from this position otherwise they would be on a hiding to nothing with the consumer commission.
Though it was clearly wrong for Dorel to try to retroactively weasel out on warranty coverage, I can see why they would want to. Their management must have thought that offering a lifetime warranty on any consumer product, much less a bicycle frame that might be used and abused for hundreds of thousands of miles, is insane.
If Schwinn had never introduced the idea of a lifetime warranty to (I think) promote sales of their electroforged frames, a lot of bike manufacturers the world over would have been much happier in the decades to come.