GardX Assure alloy wheel and cosmetic repair insurance

[flickyspinny]

Hi all,

I never buy from dealers and I know the pitfalls of paint protection offerings, etc.

However, I've been offered the GardX Assure alloy wheel and cosmetic repair insurance and I have yet to find the flaw with it.

Anyone have any experience with this / making claims against it? Obviously the dealer is making money out of this otherwise they wouldn't be pushing it so hard. Normally I'd run a mile, but I would welcome anyone's thoughts.

Details:
£799 provides three years of cover and includes:
Up to five wheel claims per year (including diamond cut), and if the damage is covered but they can't repair, up to £350 for a replacement wheel.

This doesn't cover white-worm diamond cut corrosion.

Covers up to ten paint / dent claims per year
Scratched or scuffed bumpers unto 40cm in length, 3mm in depth
Stone chips up to 1.5cm in diameter and 3mm in depth
Dents to vertical panels, up to 40cm in diameter and 3mm in depth.

It doesn't cover the roof or bonnet.

Given that this car will spend a fair bit of time in various carparks, and also driving down some pretty tight country lanes (potential for hedge scratches) and bouncing through potholes, I think we will probably get some utility from this.

Input very welcome! Thank you....

[E36Ross]

How much have you spent on wheel and paint/dent repairs in the last 3 years?

If less than £800, Its a waste of time, If its multiples of £800 then its decent 'insurance'. (On the assumption you'll be claiming for stuff thats 'covered')

[TimmyMallett]

I had a diamond cut refinished and resprayed recently for £150.

I'd suggest it all depends on how you park. If you park on the road and are going to scratch them a lot, its possibly worth it on a lease car, byt even then, for £600 at the end of the lease (and i suspect you could get 4 done cheaper) it would be cheaper than that scheme.

It would be worth it if you needed them doing a lot but a wheel can only be refaced once or twice. It all depends on how often youre likely to hit kerbs and potholes. And how much you care about how your wheels look.

[_Rodders_]

Doesn't cover the one thing you'll need it for if you've got diamond cut wheels.

[raspy]

Waste of money. It’s much cheaper and easier if you park in an end space in car parks, drive very slowly near kerbs, use rubbing compound for hedge scratches and drive around potholes (or drive slowly if you have to go over them)

Prevention is better than cure

[wyson]

I got this and cancelled it because I couldn t see the point in it.

Got it to cover a 2 year lease.

The BVRLA damage guidelines and an afternoon T cutting the car covered the majority of damage before I returned the car at the end of lease.

My end of lease return charges amounted to £130, (for 2 kerbed alloys) which the lease company waived. Lots of minor parking type dings were within BVRLA tolerances so ignored.

The insurance cost £330 ish for 2 years cover, so wouldn’t have made make sense financially.

I was also conflicted if it constituted a claim for insurance purposes, given my main insurance company wanted to know about every single incident and claim. Would they use an undeclared scratch and dent claim to invalidate a major claim if it arose?

Edited by wyson on Wednesday 22 April 11:59

[SteBrown91]

You won't be able to recut a diamond cut wheel 5 times, so they will just sand and spray the silver bits to look like diamond cut from a distance.

Also, £350 quid won't cover the cost of many modern wheels, especially if they are large.

I wouldn't bother.

[MarkGArgyle]

Weirdly I just replied to a 2018 post on this exact topic in-the detailing thread that Google brought up as I have exactly the same question on a used ftype with diamond cut rims.

I normally ignore these things but it seems quite good - aside from not covering white-worm diamond cut corrosion - I guess a kerbing would sort that out

If this sort of thing offered by 3rd parties cheaper?

I guess the smart repair is only as good as the repairer but over 3yrs it actually seems a reasonable deal given all of my X3 wheels need doing due to a mix of a narrow lanes with curbs and aggressive transits making us decide between wheels or wing mirrors…

[valiant]

Had the alloy wheel insurance some years back and overall, it wasn’t worth it.

There is a claim limit if your wheel is beyond repair but it is limited. Think my one was £250 but to replace a wheel was something like £650 so you’ll have to make up the shortfall. The other thing is was if you wanted to get a repair done then it could take up to 10 days for one of their approved contractors to fix it. Not good if you don’t have a full sized spare or another car so read the small print carefully.

I did claim for a cracked wheel and they did pay out very quickly once the simple form was returned with evidence of the damaged wheel (a couple of photos did suffice) so the service was very good but I haven’t bothered since and have no real intention of doing it again.

[AddyT.]

VW chucked in their Club Smartguard package when I got my car in January. Just checked and corrosion not included but fair enough. There’s obviously max and minimums for sizes of dents and things like that. Managed to annoyingly kerb a tiny section of a wheel two weeks ago. That and any other repair within the parameters is just £12.