Warranties - Are they worth it - Advice

[wombleman]

Hi

As I am looking to buy a Sept 2004 E270 CDI with 83K on the clock, I was wondering whether or not you experts think it would be worth banging a warranty on it.

It comes with 28 days Engine & Gearbox warranty and that is it.

If I do take the plunge it has to be with a company who will pay out and not wriggle out of their obligation!!!

Any help and advise appreciated.

Thanks

 

[BTB 500]

Statistically, warranties are not worth it (like any insurance). That's how the companies make a profit.

But for peace of mind ... yes, IMHO.

 

[Rory]

The main issue you'll have, particularly on an older car, is that they'll only pay out if there's a very black & white failure of a covered part.

If something is a bit iffy, then all the diagnosis will be down to you, and often the cause of the fault isn't that clear cut.

 

[RobertoMercini]

I had an RAC Silver one for 3 months with the last car I had, when I read through what was covered and in what circumstances it wasn't pleasant. I was glad I hadnt actually paid for it. Can't speak for other policies but that particular one seemed to direct me towards it being the dealers responsibility for most of the part failures that were apparently covered by the policy before they would consider paying out.

In short, they seem complicated, aren't cheap and probably won't cover half of what you think they do.

All IMHO

 

[EDZ649]

When the manufacturer warranty ran out on my L200 I bought a further years warranty from Mitsubishi which cost less than £300.

I have made two claims on it, one for an EGR valve replacement and one for a rear leaf spring. It has paid for itself easily.

I have had aftermarket Auto protect warranties on other vehicles and made claims without any hassle. One thing they won't do is pay main dealer labour rates and very often they will only authorise the use of pattern parts, like alternators, starter motors etc.

If the vehicle has to go to a main dealer for diagnostics they will agree to pay upto £60 per hour labour but this was a couple of years ago. Things may have changed since.

 

[SilverSaloon]

When the standard 3 year warranty ran out on my BMW i was offered to extend it. Instead i put the cost of this aside to pay for any problems, which over 2 years wasnt used up, so i say not to and put the money in the bank. depends on the deal of the warranty however. The BMW one was quite expensive for a year. (£1500~ iirc)

We have a years warranty on the Alfa (paid for us by the dealer as good-will after a **** up).

we have never claimed on it, as the excess is often more or less the cost of an indi to fix the problem and even if its not you have the hassle of putting it to a dealer to diagnose the fault which may turn out to be not covered then you ahve to pay in full yourself..... IMO they are only worth it if a really serious thing happens, which usually doesnt. its a risk but i play it since i've owned lots of cars over the years and not one of them have had a really serious issue, so i dont bother. also i do as much work as i can myself on my cars so this is also a factor for me as i can usually fix cheaper....

 

[Cherokee]

Boring I know but read and understand the policy very carefully before shelling out your money. My experience may not sound relevant but it could well be!

I took out breakdown insurance on a light aircraft engine. Expensive insurance but they cost fortunes to fix. However the wording said that if any signs of problems occurred you should stop using the engine or else the insurance would be invalid. So when chunks of metal were found in the oil filter I stopped using the engine and put in a claim.

Not one penny did I recover! The engine had not 'failed or broken down' according to the insurance company. I think it should have been called catastrophic failure insurance as that is the only circumstance that would have been covered.

 

[SilverSaloon]

Not one penny did I recover! The engine had not 'failed or broken down' according to the insurance company. I think it should have been called catastrophic failure insurance as that is the only circumstance that would have been covered.

couldnt you of started using it again until it conked out and then put in the claim? i hate it when companies offer stuff and happily take your money and then when it comes to actually paying back out they try every way to riddle out of their obligations.

 

[Cherokee]

Not really Silverspoon. They would have said I broke the terms of the agreement by using the engine with a known problem. Regardless of that, I would not have been too happy if it chose to conk out somewhere over the English Channel!!

 

[Cherokee]

Sincere apologies SilverSaloon for stupidly mispelling your handle!

 

[SilverSaloon]

Sincere apologies SilverSaloon for stupidly mispelling your handle!

hehe, i forgot it was an aircraft.

 

[Rory]

I read the OP's car as being older than it is - it's Sept 2004, which is a month older than mine, although my car has only done 47K miles.

I recently took a Warranty Direct policy, as my car has just come off the now defunct MB ServicePlus. I hummed and harred about it, but I was concerned about daft things like the COMAND unit failing etc.

I did have a bit of too'ing and fro'ing with WD as their schedule documentation is a bit light on details but I ended up getting all the cover I wanted, no excess, wear and tear exclusion reduced from 90 days to 45 day (so the date when my MOT is due I'll be well outside that) and franchised dealer repair rates, for about £500.

I was paying £70/mth for ServicePlus and the car won't need servicing in the next 12mths unless my mileage increases a lot, so I'm happy with the cost.

Another forum member recommended me so I got 13mths for the price of 12 and he gets a cheque for £40.

 

[davidjpowell]

Never clear cut. The only aftermarket warranty I had was one run by Dixons (car people not electronics) who are now defunct.

It was a 3 year unlimited mileage warranty and pretty much offered full manufacturer cover. Very nice as Pug had a 60k cap in their own warranty.

They paid out on a window motor, egr sensor, head gasket and fuel pipe.

Most of these warranties to me seem more intended to take the risk of liability away from the seller rather than protecting the purchaser.

 

[MarkJunedd]

The only warranty worth anything is the manufacturers from new. These aftermarket ones are a complete waste of time and money. There are so many exclusions and conditions and you normally have to pay for the repair then put a claim in to be reimbursed. Thats when the fun starts and you eventually end up taking them to small claims for your money back. I bought a Rover 800 Vitesse a few years ago and despite the issues associated with this car, mine was fine. Anyway I was offered a 12 month 'gold' warranty for about £200 (i think) and when I got home with the car and was looking through the paperwork I noticed the exclusions on the warranty. A section was there on vehicles not covered by this 'gold' warranty. Imagine my surprise when I read that No Turbo charged Vehicles are covered and no Rover 800 range are covered. I was back at the dealers first thing the next morning to get my money back and I nearly came to blows with the numpty as he tried to assure me that the car was covered. I refused to leave until he gave me a refund in cash despite him promising that he would send me a cheque.

 

[Alps]

ok just collected my car from the dealers after a replacemtn oil cooler worth £500 + labour. even though this was covered, the perishing hoses werent, so i still had to fork out £300!

so in total my warranty just covered about £750 worth of work, so i cant complain!

i will be renewing my warranty and upgrading to a tier 1, i have a list of things need doing which are covered that the car will go in with which should offset the cost nicely

 

[Londonscottish]

Well I called Autoprotect who do mine and asked how it worked.

The first disadvantage is they won't pay for any diagnostic work - that's down to me. Great.

After I've paid for the diagnostic work and if they do agree to stump up for any repairs (more wriggle opportunity here....) they'll only pay out £48.50 an hour or so for labour. So they've got me a second time.

So to start using the policy (unless a fault is ridiculously easy to spot) I'll be out of pocket......and once my car is in bits I may find they won't cover the cost of the repair I'm faced with because I've used the wrong wording and accidentally given them a reason to turn me down.

So I will then have a choice of (a) spending even more money to get the car put together again or (b) spending the full cost of the repair.

The only sensible way to approach this would be to use a garage who are familiar in dealing with the warranty company in question ans who can avoid the pitalls - in my case this would mean talking the car to Ascot where I bought it which is about as convenient as living in Edinburgh and talking your car to Glasgow.

Hmmmmmm......I'm not entirely convinced....

 

[Rory]

The first disadvantage is they won't pay for any diagnostic work - that's down to me. Great.

That's standard practice, and there are more and more reports that franchised dealers won't do diagnostic work under the 0-3 year warranty unless you agree to pay if no fault is found. That's because they can only claim it back from the manufacturer if they find something wrong.

Warranties are insurance policies - so when you claim, there needs to be a specific black and white fault, ie a con rod has come through the engine block, or the alternator has siezed etc.

If it's something a bit subtle - ie a diesel that's poor at cold starting, then there's a whole load of things that could cause that and no warranty policy is going to fund the work necessary and the random parts replacement that might be necessary to get to the bottom of that.

 

[D-18]

In my experience, the manufacturer's warranty is usually pretty good - including aftermarket ones like Ford Direct / Network Q. The other ones are all a bit more questionable. I took out a Warranty Direct policy on my previous car when the manufacturer's cover expired. My experience was similar to Cherokee's - I would only have been covered in the case of breakdown / catastrophic failure.

The car had a broken front spring which was only identified at MoT time. Because it was discovered as part of an inspection, it was not covered by the warranty. Had the broken spring ripped into a tyre on the road and caused a breakdown, that would have been OK. I ended up paying out about £700 as I had to replace both front struts, not just the springs. Since then I have chosen to self-insure rather than pay for aftermarket cover.

It's always a bit of a gamble, but in my my case if the car is OK for the first three years of its life then I'll assume it isn't a lemon and take my chances. Plus, I do a small annual mileage and use public transport to get to work, so I can do without the car if neccessary. You need to look at your own circumstances and decide how much the peace of mind of a warranty is worth.

 

[Mudster]

What is the average cost of a Tier 1 or tier 2 warranty?

I can understand this would be a necessity on a CL or AMG car...

 

[Alps]

Mudster, not much in it tbh, tier1 renewal for mine is £1039 & tier2 is £999. no brainer!

warranty direct is £1400!