Used van - worth buying 1 year warranty please?

hethmar

Having sought advice on here re a second hand van for our son who recently passed his test, we have put a deposit on a 2002 Renault Kangoo 1500 diesel van. It has one previous owner and 88k miles.

The garage seem decent enough (?) and they have done the HPI check and have said they can give a 3 months warranty but it would probably be better for us to pay £80 for a 12 months warranty with a separate company so that we can go to any garage for repairs?. As we are a couple of hours drive from the garage this is appealing.

So my question is, should we ask the garage for their 3 months warranty or go with the 12 months one they are offering with the independent company? Do these warranties really cover faults listed? There are several plans and the chap recommended a 4 star plan with VGS?
They are valletting the van as it had only just been taken in from a main dealer. They specialise in Renault so I am assuming the car will be decent enough. They didnt have the service book on Saturday and said they will check if the cam belt has been changed and if not will do it for us. They are ringing tomorrow when hopefully the service book should be with them. OH asked if they would also change the water pump (for which he was willing to pay)if the cam belt was changed but they said that it was really not necessary to do this unless there was an obvious fault with the pump??

Also the remote key didnt seem to lock the passenger door. They said it had probably got out of synch and they would sort it before we collect the van Thursday evening. Could there be any other reason for it not working?

goldspanners

just make sure everything works like they said it would.
the water pump should be changed if its driven by the timing belt. some are run off auxiliary drive belts which are easier to change. but if its run off the timing belt then insist it is changed with the belt and any associated tensioners and pulleys. its usually a tensioner or water pump that leads to premature timing belt failure,not the actual belt itself.

hethmar

Are these warranties worthwhile do you think?

hethmar

Just an update. The garage just rang said the service book hasnt come through yet so rather than take a chance they will change the cam belt anyway and if we want them to do the pump at the same time it will cost £50. Ive told them to go ahead. They seem pretty decent to do that.