Buying used car with RAC warranty

clairev

Hi we're in process of buying a used car from an RAC approved dealer. They're offering a year's warranty for an additional £300. Have done a quick Google and many old reports saying not worth it as there are strict rules that enable them to get out (i.e. Has to be dealership services) if anyone can help with advice please TIA (it's a volvo v50 drive with full dealership service history but we will probably not got to main dealer for servicing!)

Strider590

Most of these warranties on used vehicles don't actually cover anything that is likely to go wrong OR cover items that are expensive to fix. The most common exemption being electrical and ECU faults, which when modern cars are literally computers on wheels, makes a warranty pretty useless.

Ectophile

Before paying for the warranty, ask for a copy of the document and have a good read. In particular, look for what isn't covered.

All too often, anything that is ever likely to go wrong is excluded.

worried_jim

Just put the £300 in the bank, should you need it for a garage bill. Can't see a used warranty being worth the paper it's printed on.

clairev

We decided to not purchase the rac warranty but they gave us it free of charge in the end!???!!

Strider590

^^ Sounds like sneaky upselling to me.

The_Warranty_Group_Closed_Account

Hi Claire,

Hello from The Warranty Group - We’re the administrator for RAC Warranties. It sounds like you’ve purchased your car, so congratulations!

When considering an RAC Warranty, be sure to read through the Terms & Conditions to make sure that the cover is suitable for you and your car. The dealer can give you advice on the cover, so talk it through with them and raise any specific issues you may have or be concerned about.

There are a few different cover levels available with an RAC Warranty, from Silver, Gold to Platinum. Modern cars can sometimes have 20+ ECUs. A Platinum warranty has the best coverage on these, Gold covers slightly less and Silver doesn't cover any ECU work. A dealer will usually only have one of these cover types available and can tell you which it is they're offering.

It’s often worth taking the car back to the dealer you bought it from in the event of a fault, as they’ll know the history of the car and might be able to get you back on the road quicker, but repairs can be carried out at any VAT registered garage.

We hope that helps!

Jim_sta

I purchased my car with one of these warranties and can confirm that they are useless. You’d be better throwing your £300 into the wind.
My turbo broke. And low and behold wasn’t covered as there is a little blanket statement hidden in the terms that stares that an item isn’t covered if it’s deemed to be “at the end of its workable life”.
This came after the car had been in a garage for over a week waiting for their decision. After raising a complaint I was told that any moving part would not be covered unless it actually broke due to a manufacturing error.
This is not in the terms but that’s how they con you.
As for your reply about reading through the terms with the dealer, well, I was not given any reference material and was told everything was covered and would receive all documentation in the post. Obviously I didn’t receive anything.
The complaints procedure is a farce also as I keep getting passed from one department to another and have now been told that my warranty is not regulated by the ombudsman even though it says it is in my terms.
Just stay clear of any warranty like this.

bigisi

Jim_sta wrote: »

I purchased my car with one of these warranties and can confirm that they are useless. You’d be better throwing your £300 into the wind. No you wouldn't,
you'd be better putting it in a savings account in case anything goes wrong with the car.
My turbo broke. And low[sic] and behold wasn’t covered as there is a little blanket statement hidden in the terms that stares[sic] that an item isn’t covered if it’s deemed to be “at the end of its workable life”.
This came after the car had been in a garage for over a week waiting for their decision. After raising a complaint I was told that any moving part would not be covered unless it actually broke due to a manufacturing error.
This is not in the terms but that’s how they con you.
As for your reply about reading through the terms with the dealer, well, I was not given any reference material and was told everything was covered and would receive all documentation in the post. Obviously I didn’t receive anything.
The complaints procedure is a farce also as I keep getting passed from one department to another and have now been told that my warranty is not regulated by the ombudsman even though it says it is in my terms.
Just stay clear of any warranty like this.

Even the tiniest bit of research on this subject would have made you realise this is the case. Hardly anyone else's fault you bought the warranty without researching first.

Stoke

The_Warranty_Group wrote: »

Hi Claire,

Hello from The Warranty Group - We’re the administrator for RAC Warranties. It sounds like you’ve purchased your car, so congratulations!

When considering an RAC Warranty, be sure to read through the Terms & Conditions to make sure that the cover is suitable for you and your car. The dealer can give you advice on the cover, so talk it through with them and raise any specific issues you may have or be concerned about.

There are a few different cover levels available with an RAC Warranty, from Silver, Gold to Platinum. Modern cars can sometimes have 20+ ECUs. A Platinum warranty has the best coverage on these, Gold covers slightly less and Silver doesn't cover any ECU work. A dealer will usually only have one of these cover types available and can tell you which it is they're offering.

It’s often worth taking the car back to the dealer you bought it from in the event of a fault, as they’ll know the history of the car and might be able to get you back on the road quicker, but repairs can be carried out at any VAT registered garage.

We hope that helps!

Interesting. I have the Gold Package and was grin !!!!ed by a cheeky salesman into paying £300 for it.

What would really help me right now, is finding out when you're going to process my claim and send me the money for the serious engine work that is now being undertaken because currently I'm still waiting for your engineers to inspect photos or is it some other excuse, like I got yesterday??? Or something else like the "e-mails have been lost" excuse that you gave me last week. They mysteriously turned up once every e-mail my VAT registered garage started sending was CC'd to me as well....? Amazing. You've done everything you can to make this situation as difficult and unpleasant as possible..... quite evidently with the sole aim of forcing me to lose my rag and just pay to get my car back.

You've messed me (and my garage) about so much in the past 2 weeks that I've done a thousand miles on another car and there is seemingly no end in sight to my very legitimate claim. Luckily that car is mine as long as it needs to be, so you can procrastinate all you want. Your partner/customer, the RAC sold me a car with a full service history (unless they fudged it? which wouldn't surprise me), that within 4k has suffered serious engine issues. I paid for the warranty and considering I've jumped through all the hoops you put up, I'm now waiting patiently for you to co-operate with my very highly respected garage that you've also repeatedly undermined and belittled despite me overlooking their e-mails and seeing absolutely no issue whatsoever.

Your final point is actually irrelevant because the warranty was sold to me as being a national warranty, that didn't require me to take the car 60 miles to get it fixed. I have done exactly what you asked (and more). I read your fairly ambiguous terms and conditions and have played along like a good little customer; I have worked in-line with your borderline pernicious policies and yet I am still getting messed around by your 0330 100 3247 phone number.

Finally, to round this off, please ask whoever it is at the top how they sleep at night. Running a business that appears to solely work to essentially 'defraud' it's own customers in their time of need, it must play on their mind a lot.

Thanks and have a good week!!

PS: To the OP. DON'T DO IT! You'll only be as frustrated as I am.

Stoke

bigisi wrote: »

Even the tiniest bit of research on this subject would have made you realise this is the case. Hardly anyone else's fault you bought the warranty without researching first.

To be fair, I wrongly assumed it was a standard dealer warranty, not a third party one. It's only once you've purchased you realise you are working with The Warranty Group and their shady business practices.

Edit: Just realised the date of the thread.