Is AA Warranty from Car Giant worthwhile?

tmonkey

I've been quoted £700 for the warranty for a used Honda purchased a few days ago, and have taken it as part of the finance as I was told I could cancel within 14 days if I changed my mind. It's been 2 days already and I'm really not sure if it's worth sticking with, alot of posts on various forums say car warranties in general are useless but I'm not sure what to believe!

Anyone have any recent experience of using the AA warranty?

Thanks :beer:

Oldfatgrumpy

Hello, no experience of Car Giant /AA warranty but I'm sure others will be along with advice. Read the small print v.carefully, I had a completely useless warranty some years back. When my head gasket went and my engine was filled as a result with a water/oil emulsion that set like rubber in all the cooling channels, it turned out that all I was covered for was the actual cost of the failed part, and not for any labour whatsoever. Repair would involve a total disassembly and clean-out of the entire engine which I couldn't afford. Long story short, ended up with me selling a £6000 car for parts, for £800.

tmonkey

Thanks for the response Oldfatgrumpy.

The only problem with me looking at the small print is that I'm a complete novice with cars, this is my first car so I'm not sure what does what and which part of the cover is good or not.

The car I have is a Civic 2008, with the Manufacturer Warranty expiring in Sep 2011 (after which the AA Warranty would start). The car is due for a service before September (and MOT). If it passes a service within the next month, would it be advisable to get a warranty? I've heard that Honda's are meant to be very reliable, hence why I went for one!

Any help is greatly appreciated!

leosayer

What the £ limit per claim?

What's the excess?

What isn't covered?

UncleZen

£700 sounds like a lot to me, you dont say how long thats for.
The honda civic has a good reputation and if it was me, I wouldnt bother with £700 warranty

bigjl

My feeling is that the £700 for the warranty will be more if you add it to the finance.

And I would rather have the money in the bank to service the car etc.

CG do the hard sell on warranties when you are signing the HP paperwork.

Tried it on the wife when she bought her Clio in 2009 and on the BiL when he bought his Vectra there a week or so ago. Both declined the kind offer.

I may be tempted to have one on an automatic car, though a recon box could be as little as £900 but could also be as much as £2000. But then again there are lots of get out clauses, though I would think an AA backed warranty to be decent enough I would consider one of the AA Mechanical Breakdown repairs policies, paid monthly and seperate to the selling dealer.

As mentioned very few issues with a recent Honda Civic, just the issues with interior quality, mechanically they should be bulletproof.

jcb208

Its proberbly a lot cheaper to buy direct from the AA

worried_jim

Try http://www.warrantydirect.co.uk/ for a quote.

gabitzul

It is EXTREMELY expensive; I have just done a warrantydirect quote for you assuming that the car is a mid-model ES, 1.8 petrol, 50-60k miles and with a forecast of under 30k miles per year.

The cost of the Extra Care (full) option is £323 per annum.

Have a read on their website. When I had my 2006 Civic 2.2 diesel I had it insured with them and claimed for a stuck front passanger door, which they paid to be fixed at the local Honda dealer without moaning (£130 job, minus £50 excess if I remember correctly).

I have since then sold the car and cancelled the warranty but I would recommend them.

jma362k

I bought a car from a reputable garage in july last year who supplied the vehicle with a 12 month Gold Warranty from the AA which i paid for on top of the vehicle for peace of mind.
The car was a Nissan Xtrail 2.2Dci and overall i am very happy with the car although 3 months or so after buying it i started to smell oil burning so took it back to the garage who diagnosed the smell as a leaking intercooler, i then explained the vehicle was covered by the AA and they said they would call them and get authorisation, 10 mins later and a call from the garage, (Bad news) The AA will not pay out so i rang them myself and asked why.
There reply was simple if its not listed its not covered and if it is listed it is covered, so long and short of it i was left with a bill of £700 plus fitting to get the vehicle fixed.
it was then some time after that that i had to take the car back to the garage with binding brakes again the garage advised me that one of the front brake calipers had seized they rang the AA once again and recieved authority the cary out the repairs with non genuine parts (cheap caliper) and all was fine until today when i found the brakes were binding again this time a different wheel.
The garage rang the AA for authority but was told that they will not pay out for the caliper when asked why the AA say that the caliper has most deffinatly failed due to Wear and tear, so i rang them myself and asked why they replaced the first caliper but not this one they said that this one has failed due to wear and tear.
Now how can they say that when they cant even see the item and surely if the caliper was leaking then yes its wear and tear but its not leaking.
another reason why they may not want to pay out is maybe because i have about 10 days left until the warranty ends and i have not taken them up on there renewal offer which is double what it was last year, all in all i am left once again with a bill to pay which means i have had to pay out over £1000 in all since taking out the AA waranty 12 months ago plus the premium for the waranty in the first place.
BE WARNED AA WARANTY IS NOT WORTH THE PAPER ITS PRINTED ON DO YOURSELF A FAVOUR AND SAVE YOUR MONEY.

Green.Lander

I had a water pump go on a corsa and the AA paid out no issues. then i had a water leak and had to fork out myself. if its free than thats fine but i would not pay £700