Car Warranties for Second Hand Cars?

ayers

I am planning on buying a second hand car that's 5 years old from a car dealer. I am planning on buying it outright as I do not want to buy it on finance. Due to the cost of the car, I was thinking it best to buy a 12 month car warranty (e.g. AA Warranty) just in case but wanted to know if a 12 month warranty is really worth it? Can you please provide me with a bit of advise of this?

Thank you.

TELLIT01

What warranty is the dealer offering, and what mileage is on the car.  I've never extended the warranty on any car I've had in the last 30 years.  My last 2 cars were both 9 years old when I traded them in and I'd had no mechanical problems with either of them.

ayers

Thanks for replying. I assumed that if buying a car that's 5 years old from a dealer, it's very likely they will not offer a warranty. I was looking at an petrol Audi A4 2017 plate that has approximately 50,000 miles or less on the clock.

JohnnyB70

In my opinion warranties such as this are not worth the cost. Remember, the company selling it expects to make a profit, so they are expecting to pay out less than you pay them.

The way that they tend to make that work is by excluding all sorts of things that are likely to to wrong, and putting a cap on the amount that they will cover.

A purchase from a dealer already comes with a reasonable level of consumer protection. I’d always prefer to save the money, put it aside, and just accept that if a fault does develop then it gets paid for out of my own money.

ayers

Thanks JohnnyB70. That seems to make a lot of sense to me. The money that I pay on the warranty can go towards a saving pot. Thanks again.

TELLIT01

ayers said:

Thanks for replying. I assumed that if buying a car that's 5 years old from a dealer, it's very likely they will not offer a warranty. I was looking at an petrol Audi A4 2017 plate that has approximately 50,000 miles or less on the clock.

I would expect a dealer to offer at least a 3 month warranty on any car, that's just evidence that they are confident that the car is sound.  I've just checked a couple of local second hand car dealers at random and they both offer 3 month/3000 mile warranty.  If a dealer isn't confident enough in a car to offer that as a minimum, I would walk away.

ayers

Thanks for pointing that out to me TELLIT01. You've possibly saved me a lot of money and headache!

cajef

Just bought a low mileage five year old Suzuki car for my OH from a Suzuki main dealer, they have put a twelve month warranty on it without us asking.

ayers

Thanks for the info Cajef. If you don't mind me asking, who is the 12 month warranty with?

cajef

ayers said:

Thanks for the info Cajef. If you don't mind me asking, who is the 12 month warranty with?

The company is a main dealer for several makes of vehicles in Cornwall Renault, Dacia, Seat, Suzuki and Vauxhall, although it is a Suzuki they happened to have the car in the Renault dealership so the warranty is actually with their Renault dealership.

ayers

Thanks for letting me know.