Buying Second hand from a dealer/supermarket - extended warranty versus SoGA

Theo_Cupier

I'm about to plunge into the second hand car market again.

After experiencing pain with previous private purchases, I intend to buy from a dealer this time to give myself a little more protection than caveat emptor.

I would appreciate people's opinions on whether third party warranties (eg the AA Warranty which Car Giant sell) are worth buying. Assume that I am buying a relatively new (circa 4 year old) vehicle with around average mileage for its age.

Do they offer any valuable protection to the buyer/owner which would not already be covered by the Sale of Goods Act and the dealer's responsibility to sell a product of "merchantable quality"?

I have read some threads on this board which say dealer checks aren't necessarily up to much (the Car Giant 114 point check by way of example) but most dealers, including Car Giant wax lyrical about the good quality of their vehicles. This suggests that it is reasonable for me to expect to purchase a quality product from them and so I would like to think that this would stand me in good stead legally, should a problem arise.

Equally, given that there are negative comments about some vehicle warranties and attempts to exclude their liability for a fault, is such a warranty necessarily going to give me less hassle than relying on SoGA with the dealer in the event of a fault?

I am prepared to pay for an extended or 3rd party warranty if it will genuinely give me "worry free motoring" on a dealer-bought used car, but equally I don't see the point in spending extra money just to double up on protection I could already get through proper use of SoGA.

I'd appreciate the advice of those with experience, either where Car Giant are the dealer, or in general terms when purchasing from reputable dealers.

harveybobbles

Why would you want to buy a warranty for something that is already covered...? (ie a 12 month old car)
Not only is that silly, but the garage is breaking the law by breeching the FSA rules...

Dont be thinking that the SOGA is some kind of free warranty - I mean where would you draw the line? My neighbours Mother in LAw has a G reg Fiesta Ghia - now tomorrow morning if it should fail to start do you think she'd be covered under the SOGA...?

Theo_Cupier

Thanks for the response harveybobbles.

Well, I said "about a 4 year old car", not a 12 month old car, or a 21 year old (G-reg) car so I'm not quite sure how your examples relate to my question...

I realise the question depends on the state of the original manufacturer's warranty. Let's assume that the manufacturer warranty has expired (or is just about to) which seems reasonable for a 4 year old car, I think...

I'm not expecting SoGA to cover me for the entire lifetime of the car, any more than I would expect a warranty to last beyond its expiry, though SoGA will presumably have a slightly less "black and white" cut off point than a warranty (ie the extent of liability decreases over time). But my understanding is that SoGA provides a period where the buyer is covered by the expectation that the goods sold to him are of merchantable quality and hence defects which occur would revert to the vendor to rectify, to some extent.

What I'm interested in is people's knowledge or experiences of where SoGA has worked on second hand car purchases of the type in my hypothetical example, which might suggest a 3rd party warranty is not needed - or places where people know SoGA hasn't covered them but a warranty has.

Hope that clarifies, harveybobbles.

I see you're a motor trader... what would YOU expect to be covered by your obligations under SoGA on a 4 year old vehicle out of manufacturer warranty and what would you expect to be a matter for a 3rd party warranty?

pwllbwdr

I think he thought you meant a 1 year old Citroen C4.

Theo_Cupier

pwllbwdr wrote: »

I think he thought you meant a 1 year old Citroen C4.

Ahh, yes, I see how that could have happened. No, definitely mean "c4 year old" as in "circa [approx] 4 year old" not a 1 year old Citroen! Edited the OP now for clarity...
:beer:

Anyway, back to the plot... 3rd party warranties v SoGA.

Inactive

Theo_Cupier wrote: »

.

I realise the question depends on the state of the original manufacturer's warranty. Let's assume that the manufacturer warranty has expired (or is just about to) which seems reasonable for a 4 year old car, I think...

Consider buying a 4 year old Hyundai with a service history, it will have a years manufacturers warranty remaining.

Theo_Cupier

computershack wrote: »

A year old car doesn't mean that it won't be expected to have any faults however you'd not expect it to have any major faults. Many of the faults it could have are likely to be consumables such as brake pads, clutch, tyres etc. SoGA is not going to get you a new clutch or brake pads fitted.

So can I assume from what you say that if the clutch went on a 4 year old car within a couple of months of buying it second hand that SoGA would not cover me?

But on the other hand, consumables like clutches and break pads aren't covered by most of the 3rd party warranties either.

My intention here is to do a compare & contrast between SoGA and warranties and this doesn't seem to come down in favour of either... The search goes on - what do 3rd party warranties cover that SoGA wouldn't?

farmerboy

One thing to remember with these add on warranties is they only cover the cost of the actual broken part and replacing it.

Had this with my discovery, it wouldn't start somedays like it was out of fuel, rang AA (who the warranty was with), no problems take it to x garage, but you'll have to pay any investigation work and parts replaced that don't fix the problem. In the end I tried several part that it could be, with no joy, then took it to a specialist who diagonsed the actual problem because I had ruled out some option, in the end it cost me £95 at the specialist. Had I taken it to the AA garage the bill would have been IRO £500, but the AA would have only stood the £95 for fitting the faulty part

harveybobbles

I dont think you can compare extended warranties to the SOGA.

A clutch can be made to last the lifetime of a car. It all depends on how its driven.

SOGA is to make sure that the product you're buying is for for the purpose it was intened for.

Theo_Cupier

harveybobbles wrote: »

I dont think you can compare extended warranties to the SOGA.

A clutch can be made to last the lifetime of a car. It all depends on how its driven.

SOGA is to make sure that the product you're buying is for for the purpose it was intened for.

Ok, so 3 months after I buy a second hand car from you something major happens like the head gasket or the gearbox fails.

Is that going to be covered by SoGA or not? Would you accept liability for that failure of the car you sold me or would it be warranty territory?

harveybobbles

Well we cover all our cars for one month on EVERY component. Extended warranties are available for 1 or 2 years for £175 or £236 parts and labour included.

A gearbox wouldnt just fail - there would be tell tail/early signs, but I know what you mean.

On our invoices where it has all the car details and prices etc, there is a box where we write in the warranty - if a customer doesnt want a warranty then we write "declined" in the box and get said customer to sign it.

Anyway, if your head gasket failed after 3 months then we'd do it in house and charge you just for the parts or sometimes if were not too busy we'd do the job at cost anyway.

We like to be flexible.