3rd Party Warranty

[nickmann]

Hi All,

My Signature Warranty is about to expire so I asked the dealer about a renewal. They came up with a very unnattractive set of numbers - £500 premium for a max of £1000 claims. I think not.

After some Googlng I have come up with Warranty Direct at £316 and £5000 limit. Seems a lot better than AA or RAC which don't seem to cover much.

Has anyone used them? Got any comments / tips / don't do it? etc.

Thanks.

 

[anarchy-inc]

Hi All,

My Signature Warranty is about to expire so I asked the dealer about a renewal. They came up with a very unnattractive set of numbers - £500 premium for a max of £1000 claims. I think not.

After some Googlng I have come up with Warranty Direct at £316 and £5000 limit. Seems a lot better than AA or RAC which don't seem to cover much.

Has anyone used them? Got any comments / tips / don't do it? etc.

Thanks.

Never used them bu I'd be interested to know why you think they are better than the RAC. I have them for my CLK (and wife's Rav4) as I thought it was needed considering I do 30k miles a year. But, I've never had to make a claim either . . .

 

[nickmann]

Never used them bu I'd be interested to know why you think they are better than the RAC. I have them for my CLK (and wife's Rav4) as I thought it was needed considering I do 30k miles a year. But, I've never had to make a claim either . . .

It was having to use their approved repairer, and no ABS cover that did it. The WD policy allows main dealer repairs, and covers the ABS. You may have the 5-star option which would cover your ABS, but cos my car is old they only offer 3-star for me. Couldn't find anyone at all who does aircon and ECU for my 1997 car.

I was looking for ECU(s), auto box, aircon and ABS, as I reckon they are the expensive bits. Which is probably why they're not covered!@!

 

[anarchy-inc]

That explains it. My wife's is a 1998 model and mine 2000 so they are both covered by 5-star. It "seems" to cover everything except the Kompressor. One thing they don't cover of course is the cam-belt which we just had replaced on the Rav4 (££££) but luckily the CLK has no cam-belt!

 

[John Peerce]

This is a very topical subject for me, i am glad someone has raised it. I have been looking to get third party warranty on my 1999 car, and was keen on "reputable" companies that wouldnt try and wriggle out of paying when the time comes, so I thought about the AA and the RAC.

When i bought my car from a non-merc dealer it came with a commercial "Autocare" warranty thrown in. Soon after this purchase i discovered that my car had various problems, but the warranty company refused to pay for nearly all of them, claiming these were "wear and tear". However months later they agreed to pay to replace the air-con compressor (£700 labour and parts). By the way, that company was Warranty Holdings (WHA) one of the biggest warranty companies in Europe, and it went into adminstration in April 2004 (my claim was in the summer 2003, lucky eh !).

The AA stopped selling warranty in November (maybe related to WHA going bust ?), so that leaves the RAC. However, I don't know if i can buy the warranty directly from the RAC or is this warranty only bundled at the time cars are sold from dealers ?

problem is I just couldnt see any section relating to warranty on their website. Could anyone post a link here please or at least provide a phone number where i might get a quote and info.

P.S. There is a website run by the RAC called racwarranty.com, but that site is aimed at dealers only, and as far as i can see there is no section there where i can get an online quote..

P.P.S warranty direct sound interesting, and i also would like to know if anyone here has any experience of using them and whether they were helpful when the there was a need to make a claim (my previous experience with the WHA leaves me sceptical)

 

[Tan]

The AA stopped selling warranty in November, so that leaves the RAC. However, I don't know if i can buy the warranty directly from the RAC or is this warranty only bundled at the time cars are sold from dealers ?

)

Oooh! I didnt know that, I have an AA warranty. Hope that its still active.
Flip side if I can't renew it with them I best make the most of it now. Shame though, they have been very good over the past couple of years.

I will be watching this topic with interest as I will need a new warranty in a couple of months.

 

[John Peerce]

Hi Tan, here is the link where it says that AA warranty is no longer sold (but my guess they will honour all existing warranties until they run out)

http://www.theaa.com/allaboutcars/warranty/warranty_holding_page.jsp

The "parts and labout cover" which they mention on that page is not the same, its a different plan with nowhere near the level of cover that the AA warranty would have offered.

 

[anarchy-inc]

P.S. There is a website run by the RAC called racwarranty.com, but that site is aimed at dealers only, and as far as i can see there is no section there where i can get an online quote..

That is the right site but it really only shows what is and isn't covered. I think you may be right that this is only sold when buying a car from a dealer that offers them.

 

[jimti]

over 100K

when I looked into this, I couldn't get any cover because the car has done over 100K, any one know if there are any companies that cover higher mileage cars?

 

[big x]

Try warrantywise I think they cover aircon and everything else however warrantydirect are the only company I've seen that don't knock back payouts for wear and tear.

adam

 

[nickmann]

This is a very topical subject for me, i am glad someone has raised it. I have been looking to get third party warranty on my 1999 car, and was keen on "reputable" companies that wouldnt try and wriggle out of paying when the time comes, so I thought about the AA and the RAC.

so that leaves the RAC. However, I don't know if i can buy the warranty directly from the RAC or is this warranty only bundled at the time cars are sold from dealers ?

problem is I just couldnt see any section relating to warranty on their website. Could anyone post a link here please or at least provide a phone number where i might get a quote and info.

I think the one you want is http://www.quotelinedirect.co.uk/main/index.asp for RAC warranties. It is not sold directly by the RAC.

 

[nickmann]

when I looked into this, I couldn't get any cover because the car has done over 100K, any one know if there are any companies that cover higher mileage cars?

Try http://www.warrantyworks.co.uk

 

[silverarrow]

warranty holdings was used by mbz after they were ditchedby the rac due to too many claims i have used warranty direct but rejected glow plugs point blank because mbz call them something different they were good a few yrs ago but if you cover high miles you will have a claim on a gold or platinium policy would like you all to know you may not get mbz parts i had a friend who had turbo go replaced with something generic not main agent part or warranty on new part

 

[jimti]

Try http://www.warrantyworks.co.uk

it quotes £166.01 for £150 worth of cover,

 

[anarchy-inc]

Anyone know if any of these things cover the Kompressor? My fear is that they might consider it a Turbo (to a non-experienced help desk person they might seem the same) and not cover it.

 

[uumode]

Hi All,

My Signature Warranty is about to expire so I asked the dealer about a renewal. They came up with a very unnattractive set of numbers - £500 premium for a max of £1000 claims. I think not.

After some Googlng I have come up with Warranty Direct at £316 and £5000 limit. Seems a lot better than AA or RAC which don't seem to cover much.

Has anyone used them? Got any comments / tips / don't do it? etc.

Thanks.

Signature Warranty (provided by RAC) cover is superceeded by 'Mercedes-Benz approved used'... (Signature warranties stopped being issued in roughly autumn 2003) maybe get quote from them? The newer MB used approved covers wear and tear as well, but they went into administration last year, (from vague memory I think it might have been Warranty Holdings too!) so I'm not sure who is providing MB used car warranty at the moment!

 

[nickmann]

Signature Warranty (provided by RAC) cover is superceeded by 'Mercedes-Benz approved used'... (Signature warranties stopped being issued in roughly autumn 2003) maybe get quote from them? The newer MB used approved covers wear and tear as well, but they went into administration last year, (from vague memory I think it might have been Warranty Holdings too!) so I'm not sure who is providing MB used car warranty at the moment!

Yes, sorry you are right, I got the name wrong. It's a Mercedes-Benz Approved Used 5-star warranty that I have. It is issued by WH, which went bust in April '04, but their policies were picked up by another underwriter (Eon I think).

I don't want to use them again as they are hardly worth the paper they are printed on - they pay a max labour rate of £28.50 an hour for repairs, and nothing for diagnostics. This is fine if your ECU dies - hardly any diags required, and not much labour to replace it, but not much cop for faults that need tracing etc. For example I have a gearbox fault at the moment that is going to take a fair bit of diagnosing, which I will have to pay for. Then I will get approx 40% of the labour costs back on repair, and probably find out there is an equally low cap on parts cover!!

Still looking for a 3rd party warranty that pays dealer labour rates, but it looks like there is only WarrantyDirect that specifically offers this, and they don't cover all the hardware.