for my next car i am thinking about taking out a warranty with a specialist company but which one do i use?

the car i would like has 2 main faults which cost ££££ to fix hence me thinking about a warranty,i know there is a lot of grey areas regarding whats under the actual warranty etc

any recommendations guys? any experience with any of them?

 

All dodgy ******* they are in the business of not paying out.

 

I bought a car a few years back (posted about it here) it developed a fault with a headlamp within a few days.

Warranty claimed the fault must have been present at the time of purchase and refused to even look at it. To me, the warranty starts when I leave the showroom, but they wouldn't budge.

End up taking the dealer to court and winning the cost of repairs. Then the car got written off in a pile up ..

 

I seem to be in a minority on here that had great success with a car warranty. I went with RAC via a big car forecourt in Scunny. Got 'Platinum Cover' on my 57-plate Bimmer 330d coupe (expensive to fix).

I had two claims through them in the 12 months I had the warranty (September 2014-2015):

First one was when the DPF showed as clogged. This was traced to a knackered glow plug, consequential damage of a buggered module of some sort (I forget), which in turn failed due to an oil weep from a swirl flap. Then also one of the thermostats wasn't allowing the car to get to temp, thus said DPF wasn't hot enough to regenerate. Anyway, they tried to argue that this module wasn't covered until I read out the exact text from the T&C's on what was covered. A couple phone calls later new twee the RAC and garage I use, they gave in. Long story short on that one, the DPF was beyond fixing so rather than draw out another argument (the claim was upto about £620 so far), I had the thing gutted and car mapped out my own pocket - something I planned to do. So that was one claim and it took about two weeks in total, mainly due to waiting on calls/communication etc.

The second claim was one morning on the way to work, the dash lit up and threw 4 codes at me. After 2 mins googling, it looks like the ABS hydro module had gone. Some are fixable, some not. It's a £2000 part from BMW. Quick call to the garage and the car was dropped off a day later (it drove fine but things like the DTC, ABS, tyre pressure sensors etc. weren't working so I took it steady - not sideways LOL). They made the call to the RAC and surprisingly they agreed straight away. Car was back in 5 days (2 waiting for parts and then the weekend got in the way). Apparently no arguments as obviously diagnostics proves the part is duff and again was covered.

So in all, a £399 warranty reaped rewards of about £2,800.

The only thing to be aware of (apart from knowing exactly what's covered and how to argue) is diagnostics and stripping of the part to fault find aren't usually covered. For the second claim, that cost me £138 all in I think, which is better than £2,200

If you want any more nitty gritty, PM me Ignore the "they're not worth the paper they're written on" comments. I have paper work and receipts to prove otherwise as long as you know what you're doing/saying.

 

I looked into taking a warranty out, but I've heard so many bad things about warranty companies not wanting to pay out, I just didn't bother in the end. I have a hawk sti so it's guaranteed at some point the head gasket will go. I'd happily pay £400 or whatever per year if I could be 100% guaranteed that a warranty would cover repairs, but from what over read / heard, these companies will try every trick in the book to not pay out.

 

I took one out on the wife's Freelander with Warranty Direct - developed a software fault, costing £2000. Warranty people paid up. Process was clarity itself.

 

we use Autoguard at work. Never had any issues at all with them.

http://www.autoguardwarranties.com/