It's a sad state when I figure the dealership is going to do everything in their power to blame me for damage that I believe to be a manufacturing defect covered under the warranty. Imagine my surprise when I took my car in when the rear end was making noise and they found the problem during inspection, and said that they would need to rebuild the entire rear end... but it was covered under the powertrain warranty without any question. Furthermore, they found the water pump was leaking a tiny amount and fixed that under warranty, too. And the inspection was free because they found warranty issues.

I feel depressed at how cynical I am sometimes, but there's no feeling like being wrong about something like when you expect someone to try screwing/blaming you to save money.

The dealer gets paid by the manufacturer to perform warranty repairs. In these cases, it is the dealer and you vs the manufacturer, much like "pain doctors" and dentists who milk your insurance.