Autoprotect warranty

NorhternMonkey

Hello,

Need some advise.

I bought a car (54 Plate mondeo 2.0 TDCi) back in Feb :money::beer::T
It came with a warranty from Autoprotect which I thought was really good news. However I have just put the car in to have it checked as it was really rattley, turns out it was the Aux belt tensioner (good job garage for the quick Diagnostics) so the garage spoke to autoprotect who said that unless its a sudden mechanical failure its not covered because it genreal wear and tear.

I find it hard to get my head round the fact of Autoprotect will no cover the part because I have caught it before it gives up, they also added that because I have tried to claim it if it dose break its not covered?!!
Any suggestions on what I should do?

Cheers

NM

:mad:

harveybobbles

I have used auto Protect for years and they are very good. I act as an agent for their products.

No warranty company will cover something that is about to fail. They will only cover it once it fails and they will happily pay out.

With warranties - its either broke or working - there is no inbetween, sadly. All this will now be loggeed on your file and they will do their best to wriggle out of paying out for it.

fartington

well if you are their agent, you wont say anything bad. They are rip-off merchants, and the people that answer the phone are oiks. avoid

shuffle

I have an Auto Protect warranty on a Ford Focus Diesel that I bought 2nd hand 3 months ago from a Honda Main Dealer.

The Turbo has blown on the car and Auto Protect insisted I had to pay the garage to remove the turbo so they could collect it for diagnostic. I had to chase them after almost 2 weeks for them to tell me they wouldn't cover the cost of repair as the turbo had gone due to "carbon build up causing the main shaft to break".

So, this is a non-serviceable, sealed unit which has suddenly gone on a car which has done only 59,000 miles and they are saying it is due to carbon build up and is therefore "fair wear and tear"? The Ford Main Dealer who are fixing the car tell me that they expect this part to last the lifetime of the car, which is why no mention is made in the Service Book about getting it checked. (As it is a sealed unit it is impossible to check.)

If the part is sealed and is unable to be looked at, let alone serviced, no-one could know it was likely to fail. This is surely the whole point of a warranty?

If the "carbon build-up" is due to exhaust gases (which drive the turbo) the MOT (passed when the car was bought by me) would have flagged up a smoky exhaust.

If the carbon build up is due to any other means, (e.g. a faulty oil seal allowing oil into the very hot turbo which would cause a carbon build up) then these are explicitly covered under the warranty.

Exclusions under the warranty do include neglect, corrosion or foreign matter entering the faulty part. As the turbo is a sealed unit then it must have failed for any of these to have happened.

I sense a fight with them and a complaint to the FSA who allegedly regulate these scammers. :mad:

gilbert_and_sullivan

shuffle wrote: »

I have an Auto Protect warranty on a Ford Focus Diesel that I bought 2nd hand 3 months ago from a Honda Main Dealer.

Focus Diesels have a deserved reputation for turbo failure, regular as clockwork.

If the Ford garage think it should last the life of the car why don't they warrant it as such and change it for free by getting Ford to stump up some goodwill, some hopes of that.

As for the OP, how many threads do we need all over the internet before people realise these warranties are only of any use if you run out of bog roll, they either come free with the car in which case they are free bog roll (not really free you've paid for it in the price of the car), or you pay a lot of money for them which means they are expensive bog roll.

forgotmyname

You could have ignored the noise but it maybe like that for another 100,000 miles without failing.

If it did fail it could damage other parts and those are not covered either.

Davejo33

Don't be fooled it's autoprotect too!! Bought a 54 plate Vauxhall Zafira 2.0 DTi in May this year and came with a six month warranty. The car was getting difficult to get in gear, noisy and vibrated, on the service the garage was asked to check the clutch and reported they suspected a Dual Mass Flywheel failure. They contacted Customer (Auto) Protect who stated yes it was covered. They stripped it down and confirmed it was the problem they diagnosed, Customer (Auto) Protect said they would send out an Independant Engineer who quoted fair wear and tear. He stated in his report that in the 5 months since the vehicle had been purchased it had covered 3842 miles (below average mileage) the fault was not present on purchase and it was fair wear and tear!!! Customer (still Auto) Protect also stated in their letter:

The definition of ‘Mechanical Breakdown’, as defined in the warranty booklet on page 2, ‘is the failure of an item included under the ‘Parts Listed’, causing a sudden stoppage of its function, for a reason other than wear and tear, normal deterioration or negligence. Damage caused by the effects of overheating or abuse is not regarded as a mechanical breakdown under the terms of this Agreement’

So same old story you shouldn't have checked it until it totally failed
and even then it would be fair wear and tear. My garage spoke to LUK who produce the part and even they stated it was a mechanical failure and they bloody make the things!!! So now I have a £1200 bill and have to get another engineers report to prove the fault, at my cost, and try to claim although if they do pay out it will not cover the clutch most likely damaged by the failure of the flywheel. I am aware the vehicle is still within 6 months of purchase so have contacted the garage under the sale of goods act and have also informed the finance company who legally own the vehicle. If anyone has ever known this bunch of bandits to have ever paid out for anything without a proof of failure signed off by the all mighty himself :A then let us know otherwise anyone looking at purchasing a warranty off these clowns, save you cash, put it on the National Lottery your chances of winning are far greater!!

the_devil_made_me_do_it

I, fortunatly or unfortunatly got an autoprotect Gold 1 yr warranty free with the car I have just bought.

Gonna have to keep my fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong with the car if this is what I can expect from this company.

In fact, it's amazing how these con-merchants are able to carry on if they very rarely pay out on jobs covered in their warranties.

property.advert

If a dealer tries to tell you just how good and expensive these piece of crap warranties are then you should ask him to significantly discount the price of the car and use that saved money to start a rainy day fund for your new scrap metal.

the_devil_made_me_do_it

Thing is your average car buyer isn't going to know how bad this company is. It takes forums like this to try & inform people.

If I didn't regularly check out this forum, I wouldn't have been any the wiser & I'm sure that goes for lots of people.

lauraeast23

We too have been done over by this company

CAM belt has broke on our van, only fitted 26ish k miles ago, only once the garage took the engine out they told the warranty companty that the tensioner was fitted incorrectly and now auto protect are saying they wont pay out so we have a £600 bill so far and no hope of getting any of the actual costs paid