Richard Ray

I have a different viewpoint on this ethanol/gasohol warranty answer.... Greg P makes an assumption that the plastic the gas tank is made out of is not defective but I claim the exact opposite based upon his own answer...  I am a second generation independent claims adjuster, a para-legal and, now, an attorney... first of all, under civil law a company has a duty owed to the general public if he is on notice that a certain situation has occurred pertaining to a product he manufactures that can be adversely affected by something his product is designed to inter-react with (carry) such a gasohol and a gas tank.....  In the situation of a gas tank, the manufacturer has been put on "Notice" that his product may fail , a, in that, as Greg P. states, it is not only common knowledge that certain plastics are adversely affected by the alcohol content in gasoline but has been shown scientifically by the manufacturers of plastics. Since they have a duty owed to the general public that their product, which is being used to carrying gasoline, is safe to do so especially within the ever changing requirements the government is allowing the producers of gasoline to mix into their product, namely ethanol, that their plastic will not be  adversely affected by same. Now, the gas tank manufacturers have several options available to them if they want to continue to use such plastic that is not suitable for ethanol products which are marking their product clearly enough that anyone using same will note a warning label stating not to use ethanol gasolines (which is still a very dangerous position to take since over time such warning may become unreadable or someone who doesn't read english may use the product improperly and seriously injure themselves.... or just not use these plastics in making gas tanks and switch to some other product that is not affected by the alcohol content in gasoline. Otherwise they are liable for using a plastic that is adversely affected by gasohol... and, therefore, the gas tank is defective under the warranty unless the manufacturer of same clearly states to their buyers NOT TO USE GASOLINE WITH ALCOHOL IN IT.

Now, as we have seen countless times by companies that they can say it is not covered and until somebody wants to spend a lot of money testing their position in court, they will get away with such a position... However, since it is a gas tank and such defective plastic could possibly cause extreme injury which any attorney would be happy to take such an injury claim on a contingency fee or if the manufacturer continues with such a position over a longer length of time then a group of attorneys would file a class action suit and make a whole lot of money due to their ignorance. Like in the MacDonald case or the current GM defective cars that they failed to recall....  Audi tried that with their transmission problems which resulted in several deaths (including a 6 year old boy) causing Audi to almost go out of business as a result. This plastic gas tank has the same potential to create a deadly injury if the plastic fails while someone is using the trimmer and gas  spills all over them and catches on fire.,... Believe me, their is liability there as there would be under an implied warranty.... just FYI of me over processing the question of implied warranty on a plastic gas tank.... It should be covered under the warranty but whether or not the manufacturer accepts it under the warranty is another issue all together...