Car warranties

westernpromise

I’ve searched the site for this but I can’t find anything so I’m asking here. Does anyone have any experience of after market car warranties?

I bought a used E Class Mercedes about a year ago and I’m very happy with it, but the warranty has now expired, and their website quotes me £1,022 to extend it for a year. I’ve had a bit of a search online and quickly found another quote at £489, i.e. well under half that. That is even with the franchised dealer box ticked.

Obviously I am minded to go with the cheap one, but are these policies likely to be significantly different from one another?

gilbert_and_sullivan

A very apt names you've chosen.

If you are old enough you'll remember the ads for Turkish Delight (or was it Fry's Chocolate Cream?), often featuring a lovely dark haired dark eyed lady of middle eastern appearance, 'full of eastern promise' was the line used.

Well aftermarket warranties are full of western promise, we take you money, bank it or spend it on racehorses range rovers trophy bleached blond wives and champers, and have every intention of avoiding honouring our promise.

If you set fire to that £489 at least you can warm your hands on it.
You might get lucky, some posters claim they've done well from their warranty's, but i personally don't know anyone who's had a positive outcome from such a thing.

Maker's warranties, such as approved used are usually very good, but if it were me i'd rather spend good money on first class preventative maintenance by my MB indy and put any left over in a spare account.

bigjl

These kinds of aftermarket breakdown insurance policies are great if you problem fits within the T&C of the Policy. Otherwise they can be a waste of money.

Personally I would put the money to one side just in case.

Iceweasel

westernpromise wrote: »

I’ve searched the site for this but I can’t find anything so I’m asking here. Does anyone have any experience of after market car warranties?

I bought a used E Class Mercedes about a year ago and I’m very happy with it, but the warranty has now expired, and their website quotes me £1,022 to extend it for a year. I’ve had a bit of a search online and quickly found another quote at £489, i.e. well under half that. That is even with the franchised dealer box ticked.

Obviously I am minded to go with the cheap one, but are these policies likely to be significantly different from one another?

Why don't you just ask a taxi driver - they know all about that type of car.

AdrianC

Simply put, any after-market used car warranty is a gamble that your car is going to be much less reliable and much more expensive than average.

After all, the warranty company are selling their product for one reason only - to make a profit from what's left of the income (your premium) after all the expenses (the claims they pay plus their admin and marketing costs) are spent.

£500 doesn't go far on an E-class at dealer labour rates. So... how unlucky do you feel?

EdGasket

Google the name of the warranty company you are thinking of using followed by 'review' and see what comes up.

As an aside, someone I know had the AA warranty and the timing belt snapped on his vauxhall; not due to be replaced until 90K anyway according to the manufacturer; he had done 50K. However they asked for proof of servicing even though there was no servicing on the timing belt; then when satisfied on that, they demanded photographs of the disassembled engine?? This was weeks after the job was completed! He never did get paid and gave up.