Used car warranties.

I’d say only if it’s an extension to the manufacturers warranty like what happens with BMW approved used.

I only have experience of an aftermarket AA branded one but from that I would say not worth it. From memory it only covered faulty parts & their replacement directly & not the time needed for investigation of the problem & associated stripping down/reassembly so I still ended up with a sizeable bill at the end.

I didn't buy an extended warranty for the 2.5yr old car I recently bought. Car original warranty is only 3yrs.

I bought electric so no need for me to worry about turbo or other combustion engine faults.

The other wear and tear stuff should be cheap enough to replace when needed. Hopefully much cheaper than any extended warranty?

I just used Arnold Clark two year warranty to replace a turbo on a car I bought 8 months ago. No charge associated, other than the time it took them fannying around to get approval from the warranty company.

Generally a bad idea, but you can get lucky. I bought one for the Merc and I have made my money back - just.  But, you need a sympathetic garage and they aren't that easy to find.  Some garages won't deal with the warranty people because they are obviously extremely defensive.  I found one that did, and had experience on how to play the game.

But as above, the list of things that aren't covered is huge - including turbo and intake pipes, which I find shocking - but there are also some useful things on it too. Air-con condenser was covered and even the evaporator that I thought I needed - that would have been a huge job.

You don't have to use their garages, you can use any VAT registered garage and they don't have to deal with the company directly - you can pay the garage and claim back after. BUT you have to make sure that the work you have done is exactly covered by the warranty.  You can call the warranty company and ask for clarification on the specific issue and agree beforehand that they'll pay.

They also don't cover the whole bill.  They cover labour to access the part that needs fixing but they don't cover any incidental work to other things that you need as part of the stripping down process.  So for example if you need to drain coolant to get at something, they don't pay for the new coolant, or the time spent refilling and bleeding it or whatever else needs doing, and they won't pay for parts that need replacing on the way to something else e.g. if you have to remove something to get at your failed part and it needs a new seal or gasket or new stretch bolts to refit, you don't get that either.  I claimed for my intake manifold and timing chain tensioner, both times I paid about 20% of the bill.

They want to focus on parts that have failed, rather than other remedial actions.  For example, the intake manifold is a common issue on the engine, there was a bad process at the factory that resulted in the bolts being over or under tightened so they snap which results in a boost leak.  If it'd been only that it would not have been covered, but mine had also cracked which needed a replacement. Because it needed a new actual part, it was covered.  Bonkers, I know but there you go.

VW/Skoda do a 2 year warranty for cars between 3 and 6 years old. £672.

But that also covers 2 services, 2 MOTs, and 2 years breakdown.

I had it for 2 years on my Skoda. Had to stick my car into the dealer for a free inspection before buying it.

https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/en/owners-and-services/servicing-and-parts/service-plans/all-in.html

I'm not a gambling man, but I'd definitely gamble on covering my own repair costs rather than spending £1k on a warranty that would potentially be a battle to actually make use of.

Depends on the policy they're all different

Yeah, policy small print important - devil is definitely in the details.

FWIW, I took out a warranty from Motorpoint when we bought a 4 yr old Seat from them at the tail end of covid.

Earlier this year the fuel rail failed, and all diagnostics, parts and labour from the main Seat dealer were covered by the warranty. Came out financially better off (excluding the fact the fact there was a failure in the first place, of course).

As per meikle_partans experience above, not fast, in addition due to hard to get parts, but we were happy.

My car has a DSG gearbox so i renewed mine with SEAT just to cover that really.

Extended manufacturers warranty is probably worth it on approved used cars, otherwise all too often ends up a fight with the warranty co as they are no more than insurance policies in reality.

I got an extended one on a Volvo select used v40 last year, so far £1500 work done & still don't think they have solved the oil consumption issue, but they have said come what may it will be sorted 👍 and that is on an 8yr old car with 90k on the clock

+1 for approved used being the only ones worth anything.

Fwiw the Seat approved used warranty has been solid, replacing a wheel bearing, speed sensor and some issues with the dash.

No longer an issue as on the last mot they wrote down the wrong mileage. Try pxing a car with lower mileage now than your last mot.

Grrrrrrr.

I bought my 7  year old van from an rac approved garage and was offered the 2 year rac warranty at pretty much cost price. Seemed like a reasonable deal despite my eyes being open to limitations.
In the less than a year I’ve had the van the warranty has covered a new turbo , new alternator and new discs and pads. Didn’t include a wheel bearing or alternator harness but  I’m obviously more than happy I took it out. Repairs would have been twice what I paid.

Bought a 2nd hand van a few year ago now. Independant garage, few dodgy reviews so I took out a years warranty with it, glad I did as one of the injectors went a few month after buying it, covered by the  warranty (which luckily was cheaper than doing the injector)

I had the Seat extended warranty but they charge a £99 diagnostic fee to check any faults.

So you could be told "sorry mate that's not covered by the warranty. And that bit of advice will cost £99 thanks".

From whom?

A used car from a dealer, you have the same statutory rights as if you were buying new.

An extended warranty, I'd be checking very carefully as to what is and isn't covered.

Like any insurance sometimes you will ‘win’ and sometimes you will ‘lose’. Car repairs can run to several £k.

An extended warranty from Seat on a car owned almost from new. They list what is/isn't covered but sometimes faults may be traced back to failures not covered by the warranty. So you've just got to be sure which isn't always easy for non-mechanics.

Seems like VAG owners are very fond of them .  If only everything was as reliable as a Volkswagen...

The Porsche extended warranty is supposed to be very good. It will cost you £1,000's but saves you even more apparently.

So you could be told “sorry mate that’s not covered by the warranty. And that bit of advice will cost £99 thanks”.

True, but unless you have the ability to DIY and potentially fix then you are going to have to pay that anyway. And if you are DIYing then, well, you've brought it on yourself 🙂

Ive got an RS4 the parts on it are obscene. sadly its outside of extended warranty but the DSG box is about 5k the rear diff bout 9k and all the bits in between are mega bucks.

Ill be having a warranty.

on the flip side a guy at work took his new to him X5 in for warranty work and they would only pay up to £500 of a potential bill that was many times that.

Anything thats a run about (i.e manual box, not high performance) i wouldn't bother. Parts will be cheaper to get it fixed yourself.

The Porsche extended warranty

Ive got an RS4

Never buy a car you can't afford to maintain. I've seen people wailing over the cost of Ferrari wheel nuts, well, if you can afford a Ferrari... ?

Approved exta cover as part of a car purchase.

2.0Tdi egr valve, total job 1k as its buried at the bottom of the engine and needs a subframe moving...

Never buy a car you can’t afford to maintain. I’ve seen people wailing over the cost of Ferrari wheel nuts, well, if you can afford a Ferrari… ?

Or get a warranty?

Just been debating this here, I have a BMW X3 which the 3 year warranty expires next week, it has had a few issues over the last 2 years which have been dealt with by BMW. Gone with the BMW extended warranty, though did consider Warrantywise (was, strangely, recomended by BMW franachised dealer), but reading through their terms and conditions I couldn't make head nor tail of what was, or was not covered. Fingers crossed I've made the right descission.

Hah.

I was told that the Leaf I bought recently had 'a warranty' for 6 months. Ok, I wasn't expecting it so it's a bonus. The list of stuff it covers is relatively short but almost all of it is ICE specific :). The only things that are actually covered I think are the diff and driveshafts, and the brake master cylinder!

Also max covered value is £750, which is pathetic - so if you are offered this by a dealer check the T&Cs first.

I’m not a gambling man, but I’d definitely gamble on covering my own repair costs rather than spending £1k on a warranty that would potentially be a battle to actually make use of.

agreed. they aren't doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, it is a business.

and trying to extract another grand out of you when you are just buying a new (to you) car seems like the worst possible time to try to do so.