To warranty or not?

[Chipper]

Basically I've had my 2012 Audi A8 for two year now. It's covered 57000 miles and has been faultless. Full Audi service history and returns an average of 36/38mpg ,tyres last 25000 miles , 100% reliable with Quattro safety. It also has the right imagine for me and my business.It 's been bloody ace!

The thing is though, it's worth about £21000 as a trade in. I've tried several other vehicles but none of them get near to what the A8 offers. I've considered swapping it for the new facelift A8 but I just can't see the point in forking out another £20000 to do this when my car is fine apart from Audi only providing a miserly 60000 limit on their warranty.

Basically I'd like to know from people with experience who either have the 3.0 engine or an Audi A8 that have done big mileages. Should I get an Audi warranty or a third party for peace of mind or just go it alone as I feel this car is capable of serious big mileage.

Many thanks

[blueg33]

I had a 2007 3.0 tdi tiptronic A6 from new which I kept for 7 years. I didnt extend the warranty and had no issues whatsoever. I did get Audi to MOT the car and with that you get free MOT insurance and the only fail I had was arb droplink bushes which were sorted FOC under the MOT insurance.

In summary, I decided to self insure. I also figured that as I had the car from new and it had full main dealer history, if there was a huge problem I may get some goodwill. It had 116,000 miles on the clock when I sold it.

[RGambo]

keep your money. I has an C5 RS6, I went against all the people who told me I absolutly HAD to buy a warrante other wise the car would ruin me. well, I kept it a year and yes I had to do some work on it, but it was less than the cost of the warrantee, and two of the items wouldn't have been covered.
You know your car.

[shtu]

blueg33 said:

In summary, I decided to self insure.

Good plan. The A6 \ A8 are generally pretty tough, the 3.0 tdi is almost bulletproof. Put some of your savings towards extra oilchanges and a gearbox fluid change.

edit, I've had a 2006 A6 3.0 for about 3 years now, and repairs in that time have been a couple of suspension bushes (£50), the inlet manifolds (£300), and a wheel bearing (£60). Very cheap to run if you can wield a spanner. Even paying a garage to do those repairs wouldn't break about £800.

Edited by shtu on Tuesday 21st October 08:59

[silentbrown]

It may be worth paying your dealer to do an inspection/health-check just before the warranty runs out.

Never tried this with an Audi dealer, but had this done on my X-Type a few years back and dealer found and fixed several drivetrain/suspension issues that I hadn't noticed. Cost about an hour's labour for the inspection, all faults fixed under warranty.