Extended car warranty and servicing

bingo87

We bought a used car 6 months ago and took a 3 year extended warranty out on it. At the time I seem to remember that part of the warranty conditions were that we have the car serviced by the car dealership. The salesman mentioned an approximate figure of £150 for a service. I remember this quite well for two reasons - I have a friend who owns a garage and he charges around the £135 for a similar service, so I thought their price was on the reasonable side, and secondly, when buying the car we were surrounded by signs all around the car showroom offering car servicing plans from £9.99 a month and if the figure had been higher we would have enquired about that.

Service is now due - and they are quoting £287 + another £70 for the air con and something else.

I have all the paperwork in front of me, and have the warranty schedule, but I haven't been given a copy of the terms and conditions. I just wanted to check if anyone knows whether we have to have the servicing done at the garage, and where do we stand regarding the fact we were told a completely different price for servicing? Is it just our word against theirs?

It's a Motor Assured, Vertu Motors policy and the car was purchased at Bristol Street Motors.

The car is also on HP with Black Horse, but the warranty was paid outright (not sure if that makes any difference!)

Any advice would be welcome, thank you.

Biketrials08

What car is it, I'm assuming a Ford, I'd be very surprised if the warranty company demand you take it to the exact dealer you bought from more likely a franchise of the brand? Search online for the policy and the terms can usually be found. If it is just a franchise service required then phone around, I had a £90 difference on the first service of our Ford.

jaydeeuk1

Best thing is, when you do come to use the warranty you'll most likely find it useless, and won't cover anything.

How much did you pay for the extended warranty and how old / what make and model is the car?

bingo87

Biketrials08 wrote: »

What car is it, I'm assuming a Ford, I'd be very surprised if the warranty company demand you take it to the exact dealer you bought from more likely a franchise of the brand? Search online for the policy and the terms can usually be found. If it is just a franchise service required then phone around, I had a £90 difference on the first service of our Ford.

It's a Peugeot, and from a bit of online research it looks like the warranty company are a product of Vertu Motors, who trade as Bristol Street Motors - so they are not an external warranty company.

I can't find the policy t & c online, but I will contact the dealership tomorrow for a copy - but just wondered if anyone knows whether the contract is watertight or it's just a recommendation.

bingo87

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

Best thing is, when you do come to use the warranty you'll most likely find it useless, and won't cover anything.

How much did you pay for the extended warranty and how old / what make and model is the car?

Not sure how much we paid for the warranty, and I was aware it only covered major problems, not wear and tear. Having just been handed a bill for an eyewatering £850 for another car, the extended warranty seemed like a good deal at the time:)

The car is a Peugeot 207, year of mfg 2009.

bingo87

I've just found the terms and conditions, and we are tied to using them for servicing for the whole 3 years of the warranty.

I have checked other prices for servicing the same vehicle, and they are coming in at the £190 maximum, so it seems that Bristol Street Motors are planning to rip us off for the next 3 years.

oscarward

IIRC Peugeot have a 2 year/ 20k miles service schedule.

bingo87

oscarward wrote: »

IIRC Peugeot have a 2 year/ 20k miles service schedule.

It's a diesel, so I think it's less - the website I looked at for a 207 HDi said it needs servicing every 12500 miles. We do 350 miles a week in it, so it's probably going to need servicing every 35 weeks :eek:

londonTiger

imo ths should be a factor when choosing a warranty company. You should be allowed to take it to any VAT registered service place to keep your warranty in check.

Something to bear in mind I uess, when a salesman is trying to get you to buy warranty, you should ernsure you can take it to any VAT registered service place.

Also their verbal statement about service costing £150 is unenforcable. There are so many different types of services and the fact that a service can require replacing some worn parts (like brakes and bushing) so the price is variable. So there's no way you can hold them to that - they'll just say it was an estimate.

Ectophile

bingo87 wrote: »

It's a diesel, so I think it's less - the website I looked at for a 207 HDi said it needs servicing every 12500 miles. We do 350 miles a week in it, so it's probably going to need servicing every 35 weeks :eek:

It's not that many years ago that cars used to have a 6 month / 6000 mile service interval.

bingo87

Thanks to everyone who responded. I'll be doing a little digging today, so I'll let you know what happens.