Used Car Warranty, Worthwhile???

infernalaffairs

When buying a used car is it worth spending the extra taking out the optional warranty. A dealer I'm looking at offers an optional 6 months warranty for £100 through 'Warrantywise'

Thanks

AdrianHi

infernalaffairs wrote: »

When buying a used car is it worth spending the extra taking out the optional warranty. A dealer I'm looking at offers an optional 6 months warranty for £100 through 'Warrantywise'

Thanks

£100 minus say 10% commission for the car dealer, about 5% tax, 15% admin costs and your left with £70 to fund the cover.
£70 is way too little to provide the funds for a warranty product.
You can alsmost guarantee this will be one of those warranty companies that always wriggles out of a claim on "wear and tear" or "that's not covered sir/madame"because it's not a new car.
If you were buying a 3 year old car for £10,000+ and it was say a higher risk turbo diesel it might be worth buying a 12 months warranty costing a more realistic £350-£400 for an "all options ticked" from a company like warranty direct who have a reasonable policy on wear and tear.

infernalaffairs

According to the dealer the £100 is at his cost price for premium cover, when I go to the website it says only standard cover is available for the car I've seen and this quotes approx. £124.

It does say cover does not include breakdown due to wear & tear unless noted in the warranty schedule so I see your point.

Wig

Look at this thread
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1025511

I would ask them a few questions...

If the wiper motor failed.... would it be covered?
If the windows stopped working would it be covered?
If the gearbox bearing failed would it be covered?
If the wheel bearing failed w i b c?
If the CV joint broke w i b c ?

If the car failed an MOT for corrosion to brake pipes, or body panels/chassis/suspension points would it be covered?

If the timing belt snapped causing major engine failure would it be covered?

If they keep saying "no" ask them "What the hell would be covered?"


BTW in my repl in that other thread I mentioned a legal case Lutton v... That was a case where a used car was bought 3 years old with a 3 month warranty. The car had many minor faults some of which were fixed. The buyer rejected the car after 7 weeks. The court held that the presence of the warranty meant both parties expected an element of trouble free motoring, when the buyer did not get that the court decided it was acceptable for her to reject to car under SOGA.

In another case (Thain) an 8 ish year car without warranty costing £3K which failed after 2 weeks and became worthless and the court held that this was acceptable, and the buyer got nothing - I find this case to be crazy, but it just shows what can happen.

EDIT: To add, if they keep saying yes to those questions, have the questions and the answers written onto the purchase agreement.
IANALTINLA

And I was amazed to find 1 minute after writing this post I googled IANALTINLA and I got this post as a result in google, just 1 min after I wrote it, that's amazing, I thought google scanned websites occasionally and stored the Info, not search in realtime.

AdrianHi

Wig wrote: »

I thought google scanned websites occasionally and stored the Info, not search in realtime.

That is true, but sites of higher importance (Page Rank) that change content frequently (minute by minute in the case of a busy forum like this) get indexed "frequently" rather than "occasionally". Indexing can take quite some time and may be in progress over a period of hours.

You definitely need to be clear on what is and is not covered and what the policy is for wear and tear. In warranty directs case they cover a reducing percentage of parts cost but always 100% labour as the car goes past 70K 80K 90K+ mileage milestones and they offer a menu of additional cover items, which in my view all need to be selected for the cover to be of worth. I've heard negative and positive reports on claims experiences with WD.

boxofrogs

Currently fighting over my warranty.

Autoroute Assist are the culprits. Garage I bought a car from sold it to me. Had a 3 year one and made a claim after 2 for a window motor. They paid out but only after a bit of hassle.

Tried to claim recently for a broken turbo, but the warranty people have stopped trading. Tried to chase up the underwriters but i've been told Autoroute Assist copied and pasted terms and conditons into their brochure...so I've nowhere left to go.

Got Trading Standards involved but there's little hope. They are looking into the possibility of persuing the garage, but....

It seems the warranty company can turn you down for a variety of reasons, or just stop trading and they leave you high and dry.

I was careful to ask the right questions about what was covered, and it was emphasised that it was insurance backed (bits were, like gap insurance), but not the mechanical bit I need.