2013 Q7, is it worth extending the warranty?

[NicDale]

My Q7 is nearing the end of its manufacturer 3 year warranty due to mileage, currently on 55,000 miles after 2 and a half years. Is it worth extending the warranty to 90k for an extra £1250 or should I keep this as a contingency fund instead? The only known fault I'm aware of are the inlet flaps breaking on the 3.0 tdi which is classed as a wear and tear item anyway so wouldn't be covered under warranty.

Thoughts welcome.

[MrBarry123]

No warranty is worth it until you need to use it, and then it suddenly becomes worth it. Whilst I understand the Q7 is a relatively reliable car, there's always the chance something could go wrong and on big expensive cars, when something goes, it'll likely be expensive.

I would guess that if something was to go wrong with your car, it'd likely cost more than £1,250 to rectify, meaning banking the £1,250 wouldn't really be a viable alternative.

[NicDale]

Well yes, those are my thoughts, it's a reliable car, generally strong engine/gearbox and electrics. So what can go wrong? Air suspension say, would the warranty cover that or class it as wear and tear? This is my line of questioning, has anyone gone for the extended warranty and if they have, has it paid out on this sort of thing?

[Burwood]

It's an insurance policy. You will most likely never been it. But you could have the one car that is ruinous.

[kent_phil]

Can give you a data point - we took out the 5 year warranty on purchase of ours, think it had 40k miles on it when it went in for a service just before the warranty ran out.

Small oil leak between engine and gearbox resulted in a full engine-out repair, swiftly followed by finding an oil-leak on the top of the engine.

I believe the labour alone on the engine out was £4k+ and that was at a discounted hourly rate the general public wouldn't recognise, never saw the paperwork for the second leak.

The £1,300 for the extra 2 years warranty paid for itself many times over that month.

Cheers,

Phil

[NicDale]

Thanks Phil.

[silentbrown]

Does that extend the warranty from three to five years? If so, it's less than you'd pay for the extra warranty if you'd specced it at time of purchase (£1335)

If so, seems a pretty reasonable deal, particularly given the mileage you're doing. Equivalent warranty from warrantydirect or similar looks to be over £1600 for 2 years.

[Turbodiesel1976]

I extended the warranty on my latest Q7 for 2 years which cost about a grand - since then I've had a couple of smallish things fixed under the warranty, the heater fan packed in and one of the electric windows went wonky so I've had some benefit from the warranty so far. The engine/drivetrain/suspension on Q7s don't go wrong that often but I just like the security of knowing if something does blow up its covered