Is AA Warranty from Car Giant worthwhile?

mluton

I had my 12 month AA warranty gold cover "free" with my car and in 14 months I have had £4k worth of work done. New gearbox, new inlet manifold, new actuator and new EGR valve all covered. They Sorted everythig out direct with the dealer. Lesson learnt don't buy a mk5 vauxhall astra diesel.

Gold gives you unlimited claims and value up to the value of the car.

After the year was up I was quoted £250 for another years cover.

Flyboy152

tmonkey wrote: »

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:

There is no such thing as a useless warranty, it is the value for money that is placed on the warranty that is important. If the warranty only covers the windscreen wipers, but cost you a pound for three years, is very good value for money. However, if it cost you two hundred pounds then no, it isn't, but it will get your wipers repaired if you needed it, thereby the warranty is not useless, just very poor value for money.

The AA warranty isn't bad in terms of cover and claims history, but seven hundred pounds, is very poor value for money and can be sourced at a much lower price for exactly the same product.

Remember, these places will try to charge as much as possble for such add-ons as the commission is often much higher than they will get on the car itself. I presume you have also been offered a GAP insurance policy as well; I would recommend shopping around for one for those too.

My opinion of CarGiant is well documented throughout this forum and I would be very careful about buying a car from them without a warranty. Also do not accept the addition of the one hundred pound administration fee either. Tell them that you do not belive that it costs them one hundred pounds to do a HPi check, especially as it cost them only about three pounds.

Zach2k

mluton wrote: »

I had my 12 month AA warranty gold cover "free" with my car and in 14 months I have had £4k worth of work done. New gearbox, new inlet manifold, new actuator and new EGR valve all covered. They Sorted everythig out direct with the dealer. Lesson learnt don't buy a mk5 vauxhall astra diesel.

Gold gives you unlimited claims and value up to the value of the car.

After the year was up I was quoted £250 for another years cover.

Hey mluton, is AA gold cover warranty same as AA 5 star warranty?

Because my EGR valve has packed up and I'm being told by AA that it's not covered under 5 star warranty

I paid a good amount for 5 star AA warranty at start of year. My engine started cutting of when I slowed down and after taking it to a Halfords AA autocentre, they 'diagnosed' it for £50 which they said AA may or may not give back and said my EGR valve now needs replacing. After 3 weeks Halfords got back to me and said AA say EGR valve isnt covered in the 5 star AA warranty

Now I know pretty much nothing about cars, stumbled across this thread after searching for EGR and AA, but it does say in the 5 star warranty under whats covered:

"inlet and exhaust valves"

Now the mechanic from the garage says the EGR valve (stands for exhaust gas regeneration valve) is the only exhaust valve that he knows of in my car and is baffled its not covered. I called AA up and the stupid lady keeps saying "well it says exhaust valves and not specifically exhaust gas regeneration valve" and then later 'the EGR doesnt fall under engine subheading anyway". I then spoke to the manager and he said the same thing.

I'm really disappointed with the AA, they just seem to be playing around with words. Even if 'exhaust valve' and 'EGR valve' are completely different things how can a 5 star warranty not cover such an item which I am told is in many if not most cars. I'm now going to have to fork out several hundreds it seems.

So far I have to agree with so many others when they say the AA warranty isnt worth the paper its written on.

Flyboy152

Zach2k wrote: »

Hey mluton, is AA gold cover warranty same as AA 5 star warranty?

Because my EGR valve has packed up and I'm being told by AA that it's not covered under 5 star warranty

I paid a good amount for 5 star AA warranty at start of year. My engine started cutting of when I slowed down and after taking it to a Halfords AA autocentre, they 'diagnosed' it for £50 which they said AA may or may not give back and said my EGR valve now needs replacing. After 3 weeks Halfords got back to me and said AA say EGR valve isnt covered in the 5 star AA warranty

Now I know pretty much nothing about cars, stumbled across this thread after searching for EGR and AA, but it does say in the 5 star warranty under whats covered:

"inlet and exhaust valves"

Now the mechanic from the garage says the EGR valve (stands for exhaust gas regeneration valve) is the only exhaust valve that he knows of in my car and is baffled its not covered. I called AA up and the stupid lady keeps saying "well it says exhaust valves and not specifically exhaust gas regeneration valve" and then later 'the EGR doesnt fall under engine subheading anyway". I then spoke to the manager and he said the same thing.

I'm really disappointed with the AA, they just seem to be playing around with words. Even if 'exhaust valve' and 'EGR valve' are completely different things how can a 5 star warranty not cover such an item which I am told is in many if not most cars. I'm now going to have to fork out several hundreds it seems.

So far I have to agree with so many others when they say the AA warranty isnt worth the paper its written on.

What does it list as exclusions in the terms and conditions?

Zach2k

Flyboy152 wrote: »

What does it list as exclusions in the terms and conditions?

It doesnt. It simply says if the part isnt listed below then its not included. They list 'exhaust valves' but the damaged part in my car is 'exhaust gas recirculation valve' not just 'exhaust valve' hence they wont cover it.

Flyboy152

Zach2k wrote: »

It doesnt. It simply says if the part isnt listed below then its not included. They list 'exhaust valves' but the damaged part in my car is 'exhaust gas recirculation valve' not just 'exhaust valve' hence they wont cover it.

It is not like the AA to shirk their responsibilities to their customers. Have you been in direct communication with The AA?

Zach2k

Flyboy152 wrote: »

It is not like the AA to shirk their responsibilities to their customers. Have you been in direct communication with The AA?

I talked to whichever third party company it is that represents them - basically the 'claims line' number that AA provided.

The lady who answered the call clearly didnt know anything about cars, but she immediately said 'sorry its not word for word as under whats covered so we cant help you'.

After I persisted for a while, she spoke to her manager - not to find out whether they can help a genuine customer who had put good faith into their warranty, but simply to confirm that her stance of claim refusal was correct.

I then spoke to her manager who simply parrot fashioned repeated the same thing the woman did - their warranty says 'exhaust valve' and my 'exhaust gas recirculation valve' despite being some form of exhaust valve had two extra words and hence is not listed word for word under their 'whats covered' section and hence I'm not covered.

Their whole attitude was of how can we refuse this customer, who we sold a five star warranty, how can we refuse him a genuine claim and then stand our ground. Call me naive but I found it sickening.

Flyboy152

I think you need to appeal in writing, following their complaints procedures. If there is no satisfactory outcome, you can refer it to the Financial Services Ombudsman.

I think you have come across some jobsworths here and you need to talk to someone who actually has the discretion to make decisions. Have you spoken to any complaints escalation department (I am sorry, I don't know how The AA deal with such things)?

Zach2k

Flyboy152 wrote: »

I think you need to appeal in writing, following their complaints procedures. If there is no satisfactory outcome, you can refer it to the Financial Services Ombudsman.

I think you have come across some jobsworths here and you need to talk to someone who actually has the discretion to make decisions. Have you spoken to any complaints escalation department (I am sorry, I don't know how The AA deal with such things)?

Thanks for your input and kind help Flyboy. What exactly is a jobsworth?

The number I called was the claims number for the AA warranty - they do have a different name (cant remember what it was) but apparently they are the ones who make the decision. The lady and her manager who I spoke to said my claim didnt fall under what was covered hence they werent authorising it. They were reading AA's warranty handbook and basing their decision on that so it really did seem they were the ones who had the discretion to make decisions.

I may well give the financial ombudsman a go, but in the mean time I'm going to have to fork out several hundreds to get my car fixed on top of the hundreds I paid for the warranty which I thought would cover me for such events and then hope, perhaps in vain, to get a refund later in the year.

I will never ever get an AA warranty again after today's experience. Maybe other people have had better experiences but to me they're just cold, ruthless, money grabbing scam artists

funkycoldribena

Zach2k wrote: »

Thanks for your input and kind help Flyboy. What exactly is a jobsworth?

Someone who follows things to the exact rule and wont bend at all for anything.