Extended warranties

[portzy]

With all the talk of the demise of Service+ (all service contracts now seem to have dissapeared from the MB site) I thought that I would start a new thread on the subject of warranties outside the franchised network/s.

This morning I had a quick look at this company. My SLK 280 came it at near enough £600 for a year which didnt seem all that bad to me and the cover looked to be fairly comprehensive. You can save about £50 if you like by having the repairs done via "network" repairers but I specified franchised.

Anyone have any other recommendations / thoughts / experience on these types of warranty?, perhaps using one now? Its peace of mind that I am looking for, not nesessarily to include servicing.

Cheers.

Portzy.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Did you try MB for a quote for the purposes of comparison?

 

[portzy]

Did you try MB for a quote for the purposes of comparison?

Only a couple of weeks ago. They sent me two quotes; one for Service and one for Service+. From memory, the service only was about £60 ish plus vat and the service+ was knocking on the door of £100 plus vat.

The servicing elemement I have no problem with and I dont mind PAYG on that score, she's having a Service E this Saturday anyway so I probably would not have benefited from taking out the basic contract. Its the extended warranty that I was most attracted to.

So, lets say 100 - 60 = £40 (+ vat) = 47 X 12 = £564 per year warranty element with MB.

Expecting £400 eek for the Service E this Saturday; 14 months between services = 400/14 = £29/month servicing element X 12 = £348 per year servicing element.

So, £564 + 348 = £912 for annual servicing + annual warranty.

MB would have been about £1400 I'm estimating.

Portzy.

 

[jpm993]

I had service+ on the E500 and it was well worth the cash. I spend £115 per month but in that time I've had the front and rear shocks changed, discs, pads and servicing. They even changed my near side mirror as they said that the motor wasn't working (which I had never moved since the day I bought the car and didn't even realise). I guess that it gives the local dealer an open cheque book to rip off MB with.

 

[portzy]

I guess that it gives the local dealer an open cheque book to rip off MB with.

Could be why MB have pulled it, in its present guise?

Portzy.

 

[Brian WH]

Could be why MB have pulled it, in its present guise?

Portzy.

Same problem with Lease vehicles, which is why the companies insist on authorising everything over the service before they start.

 

[Rory]

Same problem with Lease vehicles, which is why the companies insist on authorising everything over the service before they start.

ServicePlus worked in the same way. I found my dealer refused to do anything but the most basic and essential work.

 

[vijilants]

With all the talk of the demise of Service+ (all service contracts now seem to have dissapeared from the MB site) I thought that I would start a new thread on the subject of warranties outside the franchised network/s.

This morning I had a quick look at this company. My SLK 280 came it at near enough £600 for a year which didnt seem all that bad to me and the cover looked to be fairly comprehensive. You can save about £50 if you like by having the repairs done via "network" repairers but I specified franchised.

Anyone have any other recommendations / thoughts / experience on these types of warranty?, perhaps using one now? Its peace of mind that I am looking for, not nesessarily to include servicing.


Cheers.

Portzy.

DONT USE THIS COMPANY !!!!!!

I am having major hassles with them at the moment regarding paying up and there is a ton of small print on their policy and they are ever ready to quote it and also ever ready to deny what was said on the phone.

Once this is all sorted I will post the full story.

Try getting a policy with Motorplan - I think they are far more comprehensive includin the covering of the CATs and cheaper if you go for a deal that is 2 years and up.

I got a Quote off motorplan and it worked out to be £600 odd pounds for two years !!

 

[crockers]

DONT USE THIS COMPANY !!!!!!

I am having major hassles with them at the moment regarding paying up and there is a ton of small print on their policy and they are ever ready to quote it and also ever ready to deny what was said on the phone.

Once this is all sorted I will post the full story.

Try getting a policy with Motorplan - I think they are far more comprehensive includin the covering of the CATs and cheaper if you go for a deal that is 2 years and up.

I got a Quote off motorplan and it worked out to be £600 odd pounds for two years !!

Found details here

http://www.kenleycarriage.f9.co.uk/warranty.htm

 

[vijilants]

Found details here

http://www.kenleycarriage.f9.co.uk/warranty.htm

This is where I got my quote from - http://www.deevalley.co.uk/

I gave them a call and they told me that they were Motorplan.

One serious piece of advice - if you are going to take out one of these policies, check whats not covered in the smallprint and not just the part that says whats covered.


Eg; my particular plan says the radiator is covered in the section that says whats covered, but if you read somewhere else in the booklet under whats not covered, it says the radiator is not covered if it fails due to blockage !!!!!

Now when it comes to radiators, they usually fail if they are leaking or they are blocked !!!!!

 

[prprandall51]

Hi Portsy, before signing up for Service Plus (sorry to twist that knife), I looked at the Warranty / Paid service route.

The MB warranty for my 3 year old E320CDi was around £1000 so I got a quote from Warranty Direct at around £500. I then quizzed them about omitting "Car audio" (in the small print) and they proposed a policy that was an extra £50 that listed only what it didn't cover (which was very little) so Comand would be covered along with all the other wizzy stuff. I recommend that policy over their standard comprehensive cover.

I then went for Service Plus (because it was way cheaper) but I noted that Warranty Direct came back to me about two weeks later with an much improved offfer so I recommend teasing them along to get your best price.

Finally, whilst one poster here is clearly having problems with WD (over which I sympathise and do not comment), Honest John recommends them highly because of the large amount of positive feedback he receives about them. To be honest, their "super-comprehensive" cover is very simply worded with no get out clauses at all. I would feel very safe with a policy like that.

(Sorry I can't give more details, I deleted all my email correspondence with them when I signed up for The Policy That Must Not BE Named.

Philip

 

[hawk20]

ServicePlus worked in the same way. I found my dealer refused to do anything but the most basic and essential work.

Well i've seen nobody else who had that problem.

 

[hawk20]

Could be why MB have pulled it, in its present guise?

Portzy.

They lost a lot of money on it.

Have you asked about an MB Extended Warranty?

Then I suppose one could have an MB extended warranty and a service contract and that would be the equivalent of Service Plus?

 

[st4]

I was told for my W211 when warranty runs out that an MB one will cost c.£600 and have no excess, cover seemed fairly comprehensive.

IIRC the BMW is fairly basic and has a large excess payable per claim (£1000/annum and £200 excess per claim if you renewed afer AUC or manufacturer cover ended).

 

[Rory]

They lost a lot of money on it.

You keep saying that but haven't provided any evidence.

I don't imagine any publically available evidence actually exists - so what is making you keep saying they lost money ("a lot") on it? Unless something horrible happens to my car, they ought to make around £1500 out of me.

My view (and it is only a view) is that the whole ServicePlus thing was cobbled together to fill a gap. I've been told by an MB-UK employee that it was being run on the commercial vehicle maintenance system (hence the quotes in kms - commercial vehicles are operated in kms) and that's why it tended to offer the full service and repair coverage which the "proper" MB scheme (as being run in Germany) doesn't offer.

There is absolutely no reason why it should lose money - on new contracts all they have to do in increase the rates to ensure that their income stays ahead of their outgoings. Yet, although the rates were creeping up, there were no massive increases.

 

[Rory]

I was told for my W211 when warranty runs out that an MB one will cost c.£600 and have no excess, cover seemed fairly comprehensive.

Who told you that?

I was sent quotes for may car as it reached 3 yrs old and they were of the order of £1000.

 

[crockers]

Who told you that?

I was sent quotes for may car as it reached 3 yrs old and they were of the order of £1000.

is that for one year ?

 

[hawk20]

Who told you that?

I was sent quotes for may car as it reached 3 yrs old and they were of the order of £1000.

If you are right that an MB warranty costs about £1,000 (which is around the cost some have quoted for BMW) then it is easy to see how Service Plus lost money. It should cost the same as a service contract plus a warranty. But we all know it cost much less and everyone except Rory thought it was great value. It was. Too good it seems.

 

[Rory]

is that for one year ?

Yes.

Searched a bit and found the letter - it is a little cheaper than I recall for E Class. I thought the steps were pretty even but the E Class doesn't conform.

It was sent from MB Direct (where I bought my car) and the details refer to it as the Mercedes-Benz Mechanical Breakdown Insurance.

Letter is dated Aug 2007. Prices include tax.

A - £537
B, C, SLK - £848
E, CLK, CLS - £871
S, CL, SL, R, M, V - £1,355


What isn't clear is whether the quote is for Tier 1 or Tier 2 cover. It reads as if the price would be the same, the difference being that Tier 2 (for vehicles over 60K miles at time of purchase - (purchase of the warranty, I assume, not the vehicle)) offers much less coverage.

 

[Rory]

If you are right that an MB warranty costs about £1,000 (which is around the cost some have quoted for BMW) then it is easy to see how Service Plus lost money.

I don't think that's a valid conclusion at all. You could be right, but you could equally be dead wrong - none of have any idea of the ratios (unless you have some confirmed inside information?).

For most business, extended warranty / service cover is *hugely* profitable.

It should cost the same as a service contract plus a warranty.
But we all know it cost much less and everyone except Rory thought it was great value. It was. Too good it seems.

I've made exactly that point. From a business point of view it was clearly absurd that ServicePlus was only about the same price as the warranty. So the service element was effectively free. That *had* to be wrong.

Of course it's great value *if* you expect things to go wrong. My beef is that a quality car like a Mercedes should run for an extended period - perhaps 5yrs/90K miles - without needing anything other than routine servicing, so you shouldn't need to feel coerced into buying an extended warranty.