I think it is remarkable that Diamond survived the issues they had with Theilert. It will be interesting whether they have learnt from Thielert's mistakes with the Austro engine.
I think they survived it because any "business" owner was not protected by EU consumer regs and had to accept Diamond's Ts & Cs which separated the engine and airframe liability. I would bet that the majority of European DA40/42 buyers are either training ops, or private flyers buying the plane via a company (or even a business "name") to rent it out and/or to reclaim the VAT. Anybody buying via Denmark would
AFAIK have been a "business" buyer because the lawyer out there is obviously a business.
Only a Private Joe Bloggs buying in his own name would have had the whole-plane under one warranty. And then this has any meaning only if you are actually willing to SUE.
Speaking to some owners, the Diamond factory has been
extremely pro-active in keeping cold-feet customers on the side and to stop cash p*ssing out of every corner no matter what it takes. A friend of mine who ordered a DA42 but wanted out because they could not deliver it (with working engines), and
was able to cancel, was offered the earth and everything on it by Diamond's boss face to face, including a special discount on the D-Jet. The man could obviously have a 2nd career selling ice to Eskimos; expecting somebody to show such a piece of faith... in this case it didn't work and the chap (a smart businessman himself) got out.
And those who had nowhere to go were (in every case I have spoken to) treated the way one would expect to be treated by a company which has to conserve cash totally regardless of the long term hit on its reputation. I know several DA42 owners personally, quite well. All would
AFAIK jump ship instantly, but it is always cheaper for them to throw 5 (nearly 6) digits at their plane than to take the hit on offloading it at a derisory price. Only those going personally bankrupt will be doing the latter.
I can see
renters being happy with the plane. I have flown in a DA42 and it is a nice plane. Smoother than my TB20 but then I would expect that of a twin. A slick modern cockpit with a significantly lower noise level than unpressurised avgas burners. But, like a grandparent, you hand the kids back in the evening
I've been in a manufacturing business for 31 years and would never treat my customers in this way. It stinks. I can see Diamond had to do it because a businessman's 1st duty is to protect the business even if it means shafting everybody outside, but he should not have put himself in that position in the first place. He should have tested the product properly. The failures appeared very early on so it's obvious that very little real testing went on. The certification process means nothing when it comes to long term reliability; it is a set of exercises done by a test pilot. He should have built a dozen planes and gave them to a sample of the user base, monitoring them constantly, and ran that for a year.
But then I am in B2B where long term reputation and solid products and customer service are 100% of the game.