Recommend me a used car warranty

[sparkythecat]

I'm buying a 3 year old Audi A6 from outside the dealer network and would like the peace of mind offered by a decent used car warranty.
Like many insurance products, you really don't know how good they are until you are in the unfortunate position of having to make a claim.
Rather than spend hours scanning the small print of a raft of policies I'd welcome any recommendations from satisfied customers.

[CinqAbarth]

I had Warranty Direct pay out to replace the Selespeed actuator on our 156.

They needed a couple of strongly worded emails, but we got there in the end and got a £2k-ish pay out.

[Burty124]

They are generally poor; save your money and don't bother.

[CinqAbarth]

Burty124 said:

They are generally poor; save your money and don't bother.

Hmmm, that's questionable advice, IMHO.

I'm glad I had one when I needed it.

[Dick_Phallus]

CinqAbarth said:

Burty124 said:

They are generally poor; save your money and don't bother.

Hmmm, that's questionable advice, IMHO.

I'm glad I had one when I needed it.

Depends on what the car is I suppose as the ubiquitous 'wear and tear' clause will likely exclude almost anything they want it to once the car hits 7 or so years old. A lot of the big bills which people are hoping to insure themselves against on these sorts of cars are suspension/electrical and not the catastrophic failure of the engine/gearbox type so are unlikely to be covered by any sort of warranty.

Edited by Dick_Phallus on Saturday 21st August 23:58

[Burty124]

CinqAbarth said:

Burty124 said:

They are generally poor; save your money and don't bother.

Hmmm, that's questionable advice, IMHO.

I'm glad I had one when I needed it.

You may question the advice. My business is used car sales, I have always found Warranty Companies unsatisfactory. I would save the money, chances are you'll be better off.

Edited by Burty124 on Saturday 21st August 23:52

[Sir Bagalot]

Whatever warrenty you go for read the policy first.

I tried buying Warrenty Direct last year. Called them and asked some questions, would X be covered etc. Answer was always Yes.... So I asked them to send me the policy wording... transpired a lot of it wasn't covered! So I didn't bother

[CinqAbarth]

Dick_Phallus said:

CinqAbarth said:

Burty124 said:

They are generally poor; save your money and don't bother.

Hmmm, that's questionable advice, IMHO.

I'm glad I had one when I needed it.

Depends on what the car is I suppose as the ubiquitous 'wear and tear' clause will likely exclude almost anything they want it to once the car hits 7 or so years old. A lot of the big bills which people are hoping to insure themselves against on these sorts of cars are suspension/electrical and not the catastrophic failure of the engine/gearbox type so are unlikely to be covered by any sort of warranty.

Edited by Dick_Phallus on Saturday 21st August 23:58

Well, the car in the OP is a 3 year old car - in which case, the top level of Warranty Direct cover would be appropriate, as it doesn't exclude 'wear and tear'.

It's up to the individual, but I've been pretty happy with the policy, as it saved me from a bill which would have been close on half the value of the car.

[Sir Bagalot]

CinqAbarth said:

Well, the car in the OP is a 3 year old car - in which case, the top level of Warranty Direct cover would be appropriate, as it doesn't exclude 'wear and tear'.

It's up to the individual, but I've been pretty happy with the policy, as it saved me from a bill which would have been close on half the value of the car.

Looks like you didn't read the policy in full and there are many wear and tear items excluded. WD in their policy don't tell you what is excluded, instead they tell you what is included.

[sparkythecat]

Interesting that some say don't bother.
I've had a look at the 'Which' website and they come to pretty much the same conclusion.

It would appear that ON AVERAGE the cost of any warranty premium is likely to be more than the cost of any necessary repairs.

I suppose that's pretty obvious really, otherwise the warranty companies would go bust

So the question you need to ask yourself is "Do I feel lucky?"

[CinqAbarth]

sparkythecat said:

Interesting that some say don't bother.
I've had a look at the 'Which' website and they come to pretty much the same conclusion.

It would appear that ON AVERAGE the cost of any warranty premium is likely to be more than the cost of any necessary repairs.

I suppose that's pretty obvious really, otherwise the warranty companies would go bust

So the question you need to ask yourself is "Do I feel lucky?"

I think it comes down to the car - if you're buying something which has a known and expensive to fix weakness, as per my Selespeed, then you'd be mad not to insure yourself against it going wrong.

Would I have bothered if it were the same car with a manual box.... possibly not - but there again, as it was a company car (opted out), I factored the warranty into the overall car or cash calculation.