Extended Car Warranties-Are they worth it?

sdm197

Hi Everyone:wave:

My car has just gone out of warranty, and I dont have any experience of either extended Manufacturers warranties or 3rd party ones.

Do any of you have any good ones to recommend? Or is it best just to leave it to chance?

Any advice welcome,

SDM197.

familyfitz

We have owned a Toyota Avensis Tourer for about 5 yrs and have continued to take out a manufacturers warranty up to present.Not sheap but reasons below.

This has been down to knowing (among many Toytoa owners and even unofficially from mechanic at the garage) there is a huge issue with massive oil loss from the 1.8VVTi engine (which we have) and which we are experiencing but the Toyota garage refuse to except our car suffers (adding over a litre of oil/month....less than 1000 miles driven per month-by a long way).

As an aside from the oil issue though, this car seems to have had so much work done on it year after year (currently standing at about £3000 worth since August - few smaller jobs then £2000 job (for another known issue) just before Xmas.

So, for us, the warranty has been worth it, if not to sort the oil loss issue but for the other problems. BUT, my brother as an AA patrolman, still says he doesnt usually attend breakdowns of the Avensis and argued about the work 'required' pre Christmas. He says its a known problem of garages making money out of those with the warranties i.e. doing extra jobs, to make amends for finacial losses in other areas of the servicing etc.

He is pushing us to take out a warranty with the AA come August when we can no longer extend out manufacturers one. I really cant remember the details but for a minimal fee in comparison to the manufacturers one, the car is covered for I think 3 o4 jobs per year each up to about £500 pounds. The details are sketchy but in the right ball park I think.We were talking about it last week but my memory isnt great.Worth checking out perhaps?

Sorry for the long winded reply but gives you a feel for our experience. I kept brushing aside the AA one but now, seeing just how much stuff this car has had done to it, I am really beginning to wonder on the merits of the work.

AdrianHi

See what the manufacturers extended warranty price is like.
You could have doen with sorting this before the previous warranty expired. Most warranty companies are going to want 3 months before they become liable for claims now.

Warranty Direct gets mostly good reports with a published and what I think is fair policy regarding wear and tear - based on the cas mileage.