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Hi,

I bought a 2004 Toyota Vitz from a dealership in December 2013, also purchasing a 5 year warranty. 2 weeks later (whilst on holiday), the electric window regulators broke and the window fell down into the car door panel. We had the window temporarily wedged up for the rest of the holiday. Upon our return I took the car to a mechanic that was covered by the warranty we bought (Protecta), but after he had had the car for a few hours he called to say Protecta won't cover it and we will have to pay. It cost quite a lot to fix, and I emailed the car dealership and they said I should have come to them in the first place and then they might have paid one of their 'trusted' mechanics to fix it (but who knows) and as it stands, they refuse to refund us for the work. It feels like they are scamming me on a loophole, but I also see that maybe I should have contacted them before the mechanic, it just didn't occur to me as I was (wrongly) confident in the Protecta warranty.

Do I have a leg to stand on or should I just let it go?

Legally you should have given the selling dealer the opportunity to put it right in which case the Consumer Guarantees Act (CGA), which covers you for a reasonable amount of time, would have applied and the dealer would’ve fixed the problem.
   
The CGA states that you need to give the selling dealer the opportunity to put it right. For this reason the dealer can refuse to pay for the repair.

However, you should get a report from the repairer and take this along with the invoice to the car yard and try negotiating a reasonable outcome - maybe a 50/50 split in the repair cost. Hopefully you can recoup some of the costs but it is up to the dealer.

The warranty you have is most likely a mechanical breakdown insurance that doesn't cover items such as window regulators. You need to read the policy before purchasing to understand what you are paying for.