RAC warranty - any views or experience?
Discussion
Looked at a used car today, asked about warranty, told it came with six months RAC warranty. Was told that this meant I could take the car to any VAT registered garage with any problems and the warranty would pay out. Including main dealer (Mercedes).
Asked about extending it, told £500 to take it to 2 years (ie 18 months on top of 6 months that came with car).
Only just got home and not read the leaflet yet, but £500 to extend the warranty to 2 years and can take it to main dealer, seems too good to be true. A Mercedes warranty is about £900 for one year!
Anyone got any thoughts or had any experience of RAC warranties?
Asked about extending it, told £500 to take it to 2 years (ie 18 months on top of 6 months that came with car).
Only just got home and not read the leaflet yet, but £500 to extend the warranty to 2 years and can take it to main dealer, seems too good to be true. A Mercedes warranty is about £900 for one year!
Anyone got any thoughts or had any experience of RAC warranties?
Two points about warranties,
1. They usually insist you maintain the car strictly to the manufacturer's schedule. Depending how you use your car this can be expensive.
2. They usually have so many exclusions there's not all that much which is covered. Make sure you read the small print carefully from end to end before you part with your cash.
1. They usually insist you maintain the car strictly to the manufacturer's schedule. Depending how you use your car this can be expensive.
2. They usually have so many exclusions there's not all that much which is covered. Make sure you read the small print carefully from end to end before you part with your cash.
Just having a look through the leaflet for this.
Seems convertible roofs aren't covered, a pretty fundamental part of an SLK! Also audio systems only covered up to £100 and sat nav systems not covered at all, so guess I'd be on my own if the COMAND unit failed!
Incidentally, the provider is The Warranty Group Services, Isle of Man and the administrator is TWG Services Ltd, Mitcheldean, Gloucestershire.
Having said all that, presumably buying a car from a dealer, I'd have some rights against them if the roof failed a month after buying the car, warranty or no warranty?
Seems convertible roofs aren't covered, a pretty fundamental part of an SLK! Also audio systems only covered up to £100 and sat nav systems not covered at all, so guess I'd be on my own if the COMAND unit failed!
Incidentally, the provider is The Warranty Group Services, Isle of Man and the administrator is TWG Services Ltd, Mitcheldean, Gloucestershire.
Having said all that, presumably buying a car from a dealer, I'd have some rights against them if the roof failed a month after buying the car, warranty or no warranty?
RAC warranties....Sold a guy a 05 36K Espace 2.2 Dci...He purchased a 12 month top of the range warranty. Six months after purchase he dropped in and said there had been a problem with the manifold and that it cost £1200 to have fixed at Renault.....RAC refused to pay, saying its a manufacturing fault that Renault know about.....However it is not excluded in hteir booklet, nor do they write to the warranty holder advising them of this at policy inception.
We ditched them as soon as we realised that they are no good.
We ditched them as soon as we realised that they are no good.
a trader I know offers 6 month warranty on his used cars, helps sell them.it costs £30 per car! so on that I would assume the warranty is't going to pay out much on any claim.
Myself I had a peugeot warranty on a 106d {back in 1998},car did 14,000miles the cylinder head went,had a bill of £1600 a lot back then,as the warranty did't cover learner drivers.{the car was my driving school car,despite them offering and fitting He-man dual controls,and the sales guy saying how amazing on fuel these were,and that loads of driving instructors were buying them
took the dealer to small claims court in the end,did win the case but would rather if they just fixed the car in the first place under warranty.
Myself I had a peugeot warranty on a 106d {back in 1998},car did 14,000miles the cylinder head went,had a bill of £1600 a lot back then,as the warranty did't cover learner drivers.{the car was my driving school car,despite them offering and fitting He-man dual controls,and the sales guy saying how amazing on fuel these were,and that loads of driving instructors were buying them
took the dealer to small claims court in the end,did win the case but would rather if they just fixed the car in the first place under warranty.
Tried to use RAC Platinum warranty today, a Saturday. They are not available "please try later". So don't break down at the weekend,. As prior authorisation is required for all work, why not supply a 7 day service?
I just paid myself and got on the road again, I suspect you will do the same.
Don't bother buying, shoddy service.
I just paid myself and got on the road again, I suspect you will do the same.
Don't bother buying, shoddy service.
My R class came with a 3 month RAC warranty, sure enough the dealer pushed me in their direction as soon as a fault appeared after less than 2 weeks. The warranty duly paid out the £500 limit on the policy, dealer contributed a bit and finance company paid the rest. Personally I can't believe the finance company paid rather than pressuring the dealer to pay but that's not really my concern. So in my experience the RAC warranty did exactly what it should, dealer on the other hand was an ar**hole
I went with an RAC Platinum warranty when purchasing a high mileage used car and extended it to 12 months. I did not have to wait for my first opportunity to test it when an intake flap motor failed and the car went into limp home mode.
First problem is that any work has to be pre approved by them but they do not answer their phone at weekends, so a 2 day delay before any parts could be ordered or work could take place.
2nd problem was they wanted pictures of the affected part, this necessitated starting the work to strip down the part for photographing.
3rd problem was the dealer had to make countless phonecalls and "what seemed like hours on the phone" discussing the nature of the failure.
4th problem is they will only pay for the cost of pattern parts if available, not original manufacture parts. There is a non standard repair kit available which is not recommended or supplied by the manufacturer. The franchised dealer would not supply or fit it but by this time the part had been removed- for photography, remember?
The ultimate problem, though, was that the RAC refused to pay a single penny towards the cost of the repair. The car would not go without it so I coughed up and went in my way.
There was a happy end to the story when the guy I bought the car from agreed, honourably, to pay the full amount. But I would agree with most of the posters here that the RAC warranty is not worth it. Save your money and spend it on something else.
Flowman
First problem is that any work has to be pre approved by them but they do not answer their phone at weekends, so a 2 day delay before any parts could be ordered or work could take place.
2nd problem was they wanted pictures of the affected part, this necessitated starting the work to strip down the part for photographing.
3rd problem was the dealer had to make countless phonecalls and "what seemed like hours on the phone" discussing the nature of the failure.
4th problem is they will only pay for the cost of pattern parts if available, not original manufacture parts. There is a non standard repair kit available which is not recommended or supplied by the manufacturer. The franchised dealer would not supply or fit it but by this time the part had been removed- for photography, remember?
The ultimate problem, though, was that the RAC refused to pay a single penny towards the cost of the repair. The car would not go without it so I coughed up and went in my way.
There was a happy end to the story when the guy I bought the car from agreed, honourably, to pay the full amount. But I would agree with most of the posters here that the RAC warranty is not worth it. Save your money and spend it on something else.
Flowman
ked off with waiting and messing around and fixes it out of their own pocketGassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff