Warranty on 2nd hand car

[smyrk]

hi there looking to buy a second hand c250 sport. 2011 so just out of its warranty i believe. We know the previous owner very well and have known the car since he's had it so know he hasn't had any problems. However theres a lot of electrics in these cars and i know parts aren't cheap so was just wondering if other people have there cars covered by the warranty schemes.
Ive been told that mercededs maybe offer a scheme like this but i can only find information on extending factory warranty. cheers in advance

 

[MB8701]

To be honest there are only two options to cover all basis. The mercedes options - call your local dealer and they will provide details and warranty direct which I have always seen good things about - as long as you follow their rules.

What I mean by follow their rules is that before going ahead with any repair - call them and make sure its authorized by them first.

 

[C350 Carl]

My car is covered by the Mercedes Tier 1 Warranty. But i bought it from a Mercedes Dealer.

Once it runs out though i will be switching to Warranty Direct.

 

[rifiki]

If the warranty cost say £60 per month why not save £60 per month and if nothing goes wrong you still have the money not the warranty outfit.

 

[C350 Carl]

If the warranty cost say £60 per month why not save £60 per month and if nothing goes wrong you still have the money not the warranty outfit.

What if you end up needing something like a new AC system fitted which could cost a few £k? £60 p/m only gets you 720 a year. So you need a good 3+yrs trouble free before you have the chance to afford it.

 

[V12]

If you need to fix your costs then go for it.
99 times out of 100 it will work out cheaper not to take the warranty, especially on a c class which is the most reliable Mercedes.

Whole AC system replacing? Huh!?

 

[Paddcomp]

My tier 1 warranty runs out in November so thought I'd price up WD, seeing as I was on their site as the microwave is broken again.
Instant quote of £767 for my CLS 350 GE, this was the same for independent or dealer repairs.
Not sure if this is high or average, also not priced up continued tier 1 either.

Not decided yet but I'll probably opt for a self funded pot.

 

[C350 Carl]

Whole AC system replacing? Huh!?

By that i meant something like the AC Compressor and didn't actually mean everything in the car to do with the AC.

Whilst i agree that a lot of the time (but certainly not 99 times out of 100 or warranty companies would soon go out of business) it was just an example that some of the repairs that MAY be required can cost several thousand pounds.

For example i know quite a few people who have required the Mechatronics unit in the DSG gearbox (similar to Mercedes 7G but far far better) replacing on their VW Cars. That fix costs circa £1600 depending on labour costs (the part alone is Just shy of £1200).

I know people that have required, due to poor maintenance by previous owner and some stretching of the truth with service records, a complete new DSG gearbox which is around £7k to do.

New ABS Controller (Which fail a lot more commonly than people think) can cost quite a lot of money.

Then you have the Mercedes premium on top.

So whilst i agree paying into a warranty fund may not be financially worth it in some cases. In others it is and it's all about peace of mind that should something expensive go wrong you don't end up with a huge bill.

I have a warranty, service care plan and i put £100 a month away into an account that is purely for car costs (things like Brakes, Tyres, MOT's etc) once the account reaches a set amount i then just pay the extra £100 into my normal savings account.

But ETTO and you makes your choices and you pays your money.

 

[V12]

The internet is full of scare mongering and this forum is no exception. Indi garages don't even have a true picture of how much things go wrong , they only hear from people during the bad times!

Only mugs pay £7000 for a gearbox...

 

[rifiki]

Quite true, if nothing goes wrong you don't hear about it.

 

[johns E350]

For example i know quite a few people who have required the Mechatronics unit in the DSG gearbox (similar to Mercedes 7G but far far better) replacing on their VW Cars.

Why is it far far better

 

[C350 Carl]

For example i know quite a few people who have required the Mechatronics unit in the DSG gearbox (similar to Mercedes 7G but far far better) replacing on their VW Cars.

Why is it far far better

For a start it is true Dual Clutch so changes gear far faster than the 7G ever could. Upshift is in 8 milliseconds and downshift is about 500-600 milliseconds due to blipping the throttle. So it reacts straight away. I've often found myself having to press the downshift paddle 3 times to go down 2 gears in the C350.

Having owned DSG cars previously and currently a 7G C350 CDI currently i can safely say the DSG is a lot better.

To give you an idea the DSG is the same technology that is used in:

All RS and S Audi but can be specced on some other engines. Named S-Tronic
Golf R, GTI GTD etc.
Skoda in certain cars including the Octavia vRS that i had and the Diesel Estate i also owned.
Bugatti Veyron - Clutch packs beefed up and software altered to take into account extra gears, torque and shift points etc.

Direct-shift gearbox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[V12]

Shame they can't make it reliable really.

 

[C350 Carl]

Shame they can't make it reliable really.

What makes you think it isn't? It is reliable now. My car had 330lbft going through it for 36k of 38k miles no problem. But then I serviced it every 20k rather than the recommended 40k. When I sold the car with 38k on the clock it had already had 2 DSG services. The cars with the issue are all around the 08/58 plate cars.

VAG America issued a recall and replaced all affected car owners mechatronics units FoC.
The issue dosen't make them unreliable. It just makes the car gear change very clunky when cold. Which it shouldn't be.

They are that confident with it now that you get a 10yr warranty on the box as long as you stick to the service regimes.

The one they have had issues with recently was the 7spd box which is a dry plate rather than wet plate setup. But that is only found on smaller engined cars and they have issued fixes for it.

But I suppose any manufacturer can have issues. I see a lot of people saying the 7G box is bad and has lots of issues and the the 7G+ is better. Any new technology will have teething problems. If you bought a 458 not too long ago you ran the risk of it spontaneously combusting!

I don't think the 7G box is actually that bad in my C350. It's just not as good as DSG.

Maybe you should drive one in something like an RS Audi. You will see then just how good it is.

I'm not trying to start a pi55ing competition either. I was asked why i thought it was far better and I explained. You have got the impression they're not reliable so just clarifying that actually they are. They're just expensive to fix if they go wrong and I've no doubt a 7G would be too.

 

[V12]

If they're reliable then when why do you need a warranty and why would you bring them up in this thread?

 

[Rory]

So whilst i agree paying into a warranty fund may not be financially worth it in some cases. In others it is and it's all about peace of mind that should something expensive go wrong you don't end up with a huge bill.

Totally agree with this - you're buying peace of mind. Same with any kind of insurance, with the exception of car insurance which you have to buy by law.

I have Warranty Direct cover. Costs £43 per month and I can lose that in noise. The car has to be available for work so I can't mess around looking for cheap fixes if it breaks so I got the dealer rate cover (the car has to be dealer serviced to use this, but there's nothing stopping you going to an indie).

As it happens I've done a lot less miles than I expected - I've only made one claim (for a road spring) and that worked OK.

I was concerned about things like the COMAND unit packing up - they do just go and a new one is £3K.

 

[C350 Carl]

If they're reliable then when why do you need a warranty and why would you bring them up in this thread?

Are you for real? Or are you just being awkward on purpose? Let me put this is plain English as you seem to be trying to act clever but it's not working.

I brought it up because I was making the point that some things are very expensive to repair if they go wrong. I gave examples of such. NO car is 100% reliable or you wouldn't get a manufacturer warranty. I've already said that for some a warranty on a secondhand car might not be financially sound. But for peace of mind on a car that has expensive items to fix IF they go wrong then to others it makes better sense to have a warranty.

I brought the gearbox up as an example as I don't have as much background knowledge on Mercedes cars as I do VAG cars, having owned VAG's for the last 10yrs or so.

It's called sensible discussion which seems to be alien to you.

 

[lxi]

Warranty Direct seem to be the best - I've used them for many years & to date have always had claims paid out well in excess of the annual premium.

There are different levels of cover - I have always gone for the top level.

They will deal on price

 

[ARTiSAN]

Getting back to warranty companies .... the price quoted by WD online is much higher than you'll end up paying. Don't accept the online price and you'll get a phone call the next day offering a better deal. You can usually get extended cover or a higher level of cover .... just don't purchase it online.

Yes you could save the money every month however it only takes one not so major item to fail and with labour costs you get most of it back. It's also peace of mind.

 

[C36fan]

I just done mine with wd and it costed me£900 I hope it pays of!!