Extending my warranty....is it worth it.

[crockers]

Just been quoted £915 to extend my warranty for a further year - have 14 days to make my mind up otherwise it goes up to £1015 + inspection.

I really have a few options here

1. pay the £915 and have a year of Mercedes full cover
2. pay for a 3rd party warranty from say warranty direct - around £600
3. Put the money in the bank and pray I dont spend £900 on repairs..


Any views gratefully received

Car - C320 cdi - mileage 59,500

 

[Chattonmill]

I'll tell you this time next year!

 

[SilverSaloon]

definaly dont bother IMO. i never did in the same situation on my last car.

 

[st13phil]

As vehicles get older the problem is that more items will fail as a result of normal wear and tear and that's not covered by the warranty, meaning that the potential benefit you can derive from the warranty premium diminishes. Save your money and use it to pay for anything that goes wrong.

 

[davidjpowell]

I'll just mention the gearbox - it is not unheard of for these to go, mine did at 2.5 years - part is £3,500.

I would be nervous going without some sort of cover at least for the really big bits.

 

[crockers]

I'll just mention the gearbox - it is not unheard of for these to go, mine did at 2.5 years - part is £3,500.

I would be nervous going without some sort of cover at least for the really big bits.

Wouldn't that item qualify for some sort of goodwill gesture within 6 years??

 

[davidjpowell]

You would hope so, partly I suppose it would depend on if you intend to keep a full mbsh, or use a specialist more.

 

[Dryce]

J
2. pay for a 3rd party warranty from say warranty direct - around £600

Tesco do their 'finest' warranty on a Merc for £419 as long as it's under 3.5litres.

There was a thread 'Warranty' about it yesterday.

 

[Dryce]

J

Any views gratefully received

Does the MB warranty not also require that you use MB servicing? So that factors in additional costs. Particularly if the dealers are now forcing you to have the optional/extra work on top of the service done by them.

I was seriously up for getting Service Plus last December. Cost was quoted at £85/month. I prevaricated and then missed the optimal window for signing up and then it was withdrawn. Total costs for servicing this year will probably come to £570 - including B-Service (by dealer), rear brakes (Indy), and ATF (Indy).

So Service+ represented not too bad a deal if you consider the additional £450 on top of the service charges as a warranty cost. But this year I will have saved that £450.

I'm half tempted to go with something like the Tesco cover as a way of trying to cap exposure to something really unfortunate. And using their first year discounted breakdown cover to cover the loss of Mobilo after my next service (which will be indy).

 

[SilverSaloon]

Hi

i'm not truly convinced by aftermarket warranty companies on Mercs/BMWs etc. A lot of the small print seems to exclude/limt certain things that cars like Mercs are likely to fail on.

keep the money in a bank account to go toward cost of repairs IF they happen. IMO stuff that is likely to go is wear and tear items that a warranty wont cover anyway.

 

[rf065]

If you like to haggle, Warranty Direct are touting for business.
I got 13 months cover for the price of 12, started at £440 and eventually fell to £260 before I accepted.

Russ

 

[chord]

Just been quoted £915 to extend my warranty for a further year - have 14 days to make my mind up otherwise it goes up to £1015 + inspection.

I really have a few options here

1. pay the £915 and have a year of Mercedes full cover
2. pay for a 3rd party warranty from say warranty direct - around £600
3. Put the money in the bank and pray I dont spend £900 on repairs..


Any views gratefully received

Car - C320 cdi - mileage 59,500

If you don't go with the manufacturer for the warranty, check the exclusions and labour rates in the T & C's.

 

[oldcro]

I asked MB about servicing my car and this was their reply.

"Regrettably there are no authorised Mercedes-Benz repairers on the Shetland Islands. It is possible however for any VAT registered workshop to carry out routine servicing on your vehicle so long as servicing is carried out in accordance with the manufacturers guidelines and genuine Mercedes-Benz parts are used.

Any defects that were to occur that could be directly related to work carried out by an independent workshop would not be considered as warrantable."

I received this from DaimlerChrysler Customer Assistance Center, Maastricht in June 2007.

 

[Matt32AMG]

If I was you do I what I do for my SLK32AMG, stick a few quid in a savings account monthly.

I'll stick in maybe 100 - 200 quid a month away, and that generally covers everything from servicing to consumables such as tyres etc...

The biggest and best thing you can do is service the car regularly, particularly lubricants. Mobile 1 Oil may be expensive but cheap compared with an engine rebuild.

 

[crockers]

If you like to haggle, Warranty Direct are touting for business.
I got 13 months cover for the price of 12, started at £440 and eventually fell to £260 before I accepted.

Russ

Just had a phone call - offered me 13 months cover - price from £461 to £392 but I note that one has to pay first £50 of each claim and once mileage exceeds 60,000 pay 10% of parts.

Will wait to see if they lower it any further....

 

[vijilants]

Just had a phone call - offered me 13 months cover - price from £461 to £392 but I note that one has to pay first £50 of each claim and once mileage exceeds 60,000 pay 10% of parts.

Will wait to see if they lower it any further....

I guess it is also down to whether you trust the brand of car

I use warranty direct - here are my experiences:

1) Gearbox controller plate replaced by MB - no problems with claim apart from they initially tried to reject it thinking it was the gearbox ecu - NOTE: GEARBOX ECU NOT COVERED( costs of oil and fluids not covered))

2) Waterpump and radiator replaced by MB - What a nightmare ! Found out that the rad was not covered unless it leaked....mine was allegedly blocked and needed replacing ! Water pump covered. Also major dispute into the time spent diagnosing the problem. MB took two days to diagnose but put down two hours - Warranty direct refused to pay for two hours and only agreed to one hour, when on the phone they had initially agreed all diagnostic costs. After a lot of complaining and letters they eventually paid up for the two hours.

3) Propshaft coupling replaced by MB - no problems.

4) I inquired if the duo valve is covered - only components covered on the heating are the matrix and the blower.

Items 1, 2 and 3 totalled up to a cost of approx £2000 so I certainly got value for money out of the warranty.....the overall cost of the warranty in that period was about £460 ( Probably close to the cost of the parts, which couldn't be avoided even if I didn't have the warranty) All of these failures occurred between 45000 - 62000 miles. (I've never encountered these failures on Japanese vehicles of the same mileage)


A word of warning - have a good read of the small print !!!!

There is a company out there that covers the cats aswell and they may be worth looking into, as that is quite a costly item that can fail.

 

[Spin_bowler]

Keep your money in the bank, earn some interest (albeit not a lot) spend it if and when you have to.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

I note your mileage is a whisker beneath 60,000 miles - once you breach this threshold, MB will only give you a Tier 2 warranty which isn't as good as Tier 1.

My warranty expires in a week or so, and the cost is the same as for yours. Not decided just yet, but unlikely to take it out.

 

[jeremytaylor]

It's a gamble. But I reckon you would be unlucky to clock up £1,000 worth of warranty problems in 1 year (if you are thinking og the MB warranty). Don't forget that even if something did go bang, with a full MBSH from new but no warranty, you could expect some goodwill from Merc.