2nd hand car - buying my own warranty - advice pls

[nsi]

I'm due to get a new car pretty soon, about £9k or there abouts for something with about 100k miles on. Dealer has offered a warranty but I'd like to see what other options there are, as I know it's possible to buy a warranty separately.

So do you guys have any advice on what I should be paying or where I should be going? I know I can google but reccomendations and advice are usually better. :-)

PS - Car is likely to have about 100k or there abouts on it when I buy it, and I will be doing 25-30k miles per annum myself, so I need a warranty company who will not baulk at higher milage cars.

[saaby93]

Dealer wants you to buy a warranty so he can tell you to talk to them if anything goes wrong even if its not covered
Best bet is to put the money in the bank. Otherwise Warranty Direct?

Better post follows>>>>>
the dealer may be able to offer you a reasonable discount on one

Edited by saaby93 on Friday 14th October 18:34

[Ozzie Osmond]

How much has the dealer quoted you and what does it cover?

[nsi]

Dealer quoted £350 for a 12m warranty which covers up to £1,000 per claim. It covers the engine and gearbox (sorry, I don't have the small print to hand), but it doesn't cover the turbos, abs or aircon as standard, however these can be added. (Not sure if there is a cost.) I will certainly want the turbo's covered but not fussed abou the abs/ac.

[Ozzie Osmond]

IMO it's safer to buy a car you cAN aford to run than to buy a car you Can't afford to run plus a warranty.

A premium of £350 to insure £1,000 (assuming only one failure) sounds very expensive to me, especially with so many high cost items excluded.

[Vulgar LS2]

Most exclude cars over 100k miles too.

[nsi]

Vulgar LS2 said:

Most exclude cars over 100k miles too.

Indeed this has been the problem I've faced when researching getting my own warranty last night. Both Warranty Direct and Warranty Wise won't cover vehicles with mileage over 100k on any decent policy.

I did find one from this website:
http://www.click4warranty.co.uk/covered-parts-full...

Premium was £600 for 36 months with a £7k claim limit, and I could add the turbo for £10. Which seems pretty decent on the face of it.
But 3 things concern me.
1. I'm inherently suspicious of companies who use "4" instead of "for" in their name or URL!
2. The warranty is underwritten by "Red Sands Insurance Company (Europe) Ltd" who are based in Gibralta.
3. For cars over 100k miles you have to pay 50% of the warranty claim cost. They say this is to cover "betterment" in that if the gearbox went at 110k then the warranty put in a new one, then you're better off so should pay 50% of the cost yourself.
Maybe they are real issues, maybe not. What's your opinion?

I'd rather find one that didn't include "3." above, but I'm struggling to find anyone else to cover over 100k. So a contribution of 50% from the warranty company is better than nothing IMO.

[nsi]

Ozzie Osmond said:

IMO it's safer to buy a car you cAN aford to run than to buy a car you Can't afford to run plus a warranty.

A premium of £350 to insure £1,000 (assuming only one failure) sounds very expensive to me, especially with so many high cost items excluded.

Agreed and agreed. I'm choosing to buy a £9k car [with 100k miles] instead of a £13k car [with 65k miles] so that I'll have spare money for maintainence - as doing appx 30k miles annually the car will no doubt require money spent on it. (If I spent my full £13k budget then I'd have literally no spare for unforseen expenses, plus it will quickly have big miles on it which I'd driven myself. So money in the bank seemed like a better idea.)

And so onto the 'value', I agree that £350 to insure £1k for a year is expensive - so I'd either need the dealer to reduce the price on that, or I'd have to use someone else to provide the warranty. What do you think of the Click4Warranty deal mentioned in my post above? I had a quick google for the company but couldn't find any reviews.

[saaby93]

Sometimes it's worth getting a warranty for the first year in case of teething troubles, but a warranty company will try to take off a fair bit for wear and tear and can exclude any cover if it's caused by something as simple as a seal, or if it existed before you took out the warranty.
They may also expect you to use main dealer parts and prices but try to negotiate fairer prices.
If the car looks and feels generally ok you may be better putting the money in the bank and if parts need replacing try ther sources.
The dealer is trying to cover themselves by offering the warranty, see if they'll throw in an upgrade, or offer a discount

[nsi]

Right:
http://www.click4warranty.co.uk/ can do £7k limit (but I pay 50%) for 3 years for £640 including the turbo.
https://www.usedvehiclewarranty.co.uk can do £1k claim limit (so I'd pay 100% of anything over £1k per claim) for 3 years for £560 including the turbo.

I guess that means that mathematically for any claim value of £2k or less then I'd be better off with the 2nd option above, but for individual claims over £2k then I'd be better off with the first. Maybe I should ring up BMW and get a quote for replacing a turbo or gearbox...

[Vulgar LS2]

nsi said:

Right:
http://www.click4warranty.co.uk/ can do £7k limit (but I pay 50%) for 3 years for £640 including the turbo.
https://www.usedvehiclewarranty.co.uk can do £1k claim limit (so I'd pay 100% of anything over £1k per claim) for 3 years for £560 including the turbo.

I guess that means that mathematically for any claim value of £2k or less then I'd be better off with the 2nd option above, but for individual claims over £2k then I'd be better off with the first. Maybe I should ring up BMW and get a quote for replacing a turbo or gearbox...

If your turbo goes its not as expensive as you think. I had one refurbed for £180 inc vat and guarantee, and it was a couple of hundred labour for taking it off and putting back on again.

[nsi]

Vulgar LS2 said:

If your turbo goes its not as expensive as you think. I had one refurbed for £180 inc vat and guarantee, and it was a couple of hundred labour for taking it off and putting back on again.

You were lucky I think. When I had my 330d the turbo blew. (I think the breather must have clogged and crank case pressure blew out the oil seals from the turbo.) I sent it off for refurb but Turbo Technics said it had basically welded itself into a lump. A new one was about £900 from Garrett for the part, plus ancilliariaes from BMW and of course labour. The warranty didn't cover turbo's so I had to foot the bill of just under £2k. Hence I'm keen to avoid a repeat of that if possible, and I know the 535d twin turbo setup is a bit complicated, so I imagine bills can be even higher.

I've left a message with my local BMW dealer who will seek out prices for a turbo job, and also for a gearbox job - so's I can better judge what kind of level these bills might run to, and hence what warranty to choose. I think I'll call trading standards as well to see if any of the warranty companies I'm considering have any kind of reputation, good or bad.

(PS - as an aside I looked at tyres, and they are 245/40/18's all round which come in at £159 on camskill for Goodyears, which is pretty reasonable. Insurance is only 2 groups higher than a 530d too.)

[Deva Link]

nsi said:

Maybe I should ring up BMW and get a quote for replacing a turbo or gearbox...

The warranty company probably won't cover dealer rates unless you pay a lot more for the cover. WD insist the car is dealer serviced if you have the dealer rates level of cover - others may do the same.

What do you use the car for? If that 25-30K is everyday commuting or business use and the car is vital to you then the warranty might be more trouble than it's worth, as getting authorisation for repairs can be a pain.

[saaby93]

Deva Link said:

The warranty company probably won't cover dealer rates unless you pay a lot more for the cover. WD insist the car is dealer serviced if you have the dealer rates level of cover - others may do the same.

Good point - what's the service history like? If it's not too complete it could be an issue in any claim.

[nsi]

Deva Link said:

nsi said:

Maybe I should ring up BMW and get a quote for replacing a turbo or gearbox...

The warranty company probably won't cover dealer rates unless you pay a lot more for the cover. WD insist the car is dealer serviced if you have the dealer rates level of cover - others may do the same.

What do you use the car for? If that 25-30K is everyday commuting or business use and the car is vital to you then the warranty might be more trouble than it's worth, as getting authorisation for repairs can be a pain.

Fair comment, but at least it will give me a ball park. The car has 100% main dealer history which I intend to keep up. I'll double check with the warranty co's whether they pay dealer rates or not. BMW gives discounts on labour (-40%) and parts (-10%) for cars over 6 years old too, which helps.

I reckon 10k will be personal/commuting to my normal office and the other 20k will be business mileage. I'd say about 80% of my annual mileage will be sitting at 70mph(ish) on the motorway, which I expect/hope will give the car a comparativly 'easy life' and I'd like to think this is something that a car like this can take in it's stride - it was built for this stuff!

It's a good point you raise about 'how would I get about if the repair authorisation takes ages', and one which I had not considered. I'm fortunate to have access to other cars if the need were to arise, but thanks for thinking of it.

[nsi]

saaby93 said:

Deva Link said:

The warranty company probably won't cover dealer rates unless you pay a lot more for the cover. WD insist the car is dealer serviced if you have the dealer rates level of cover - others may do the same.

Good point - what's the service history like? If it's not too complete it could be an issue in any claim.

100% main dealer.
[It's a key reason why I picked this car.]

[Deva Link]

nsi said:

...the other 20k will be business mileage.

..so if you get a decent mileage rate you should be quids in and could afford the odd bill. Not sure I'd stick with a dealer for servicing, although that depends on whether you have a decent indie available. OK, it's got full history now, but it might have only ever needed little more than oil changes.

We're funny about mileage in the UK - a colleague in Holland was telling us about his "new" Volvo S80 the other day, he's really pleased that it's got only 160KM on it and that he got it for €11K. He was a bit dismayed when we told him the same car in the UK would be about £4K!

[Petemate]

Personally, I was fortunate in that my dealer gave a 12 month warranty in the deal, and believe me, it was a good warranty and not just a Mechanical Breakdown Insurance, which is what the majority of 'warranties' are. Several matters were attended to professionally and pleasantly, and at least one item (wheel bearing) could well have been claimed as wear & tear. The advice of one car owner on another forum is worth considering - he took the quoted figure for cover on his car, and put it in a pot. A year later, with no faults on the car, the money is there ready in case needed, and he can put another £299 aside and this will hopefully build for any unexpevted big bills. Of course, a DMF & flywheel would kill his 'pot', but then by the same token a lot of warranty companies would try to claim this as wear & tear, right?
Expensive these days running a car, not the good old days of points/condensors/SU carbs/wot don't go bang you can fix at the roadside/etc etc....lol...also cars that you could remove/strip/reassemble and refit either engine or gearbox all within a day are now a bit thin on the ground.