I did a lot of research on W/D and on accepting their final quote made sure that I got in writing that all work HAS to be carried out by a franchised dealer (up to a maximum of £200+VAT per hour labour).

:thumb:

My point on the F/C insurance is you're willing to pay an additional premium to cover yourself over and above what is legally required by law for you own piece of mind. It's no different to paying an insurance company to protect you against failure.

Does you 335 still have a warranty from when you bought it? You've not had it 12 months yet have you? You've probably paid £600 for that cover one way or another?

I understand everyones point about reliability but are these problems ones that could be fixed at home. Say as you would on the Scoob, or are we talking dealer only jobs?

Yes but that means (in my mind) that it's NOT a warranty, it's insurance. Warranties are there to sell cars. Insurance is there to fleece people.

The BM came with a years Approved Used Warranty (it still had 6 months of the BMW one left so call it a 6 month warranty) but it was a "proper" one - no excess charges and a few bits fixed "for free." That's a warranty in my eyes, not charging a small fortune in excesses to put anyone off daring to claim.

When I enquired about a WD claim on the Astra, they would only pay £40ph labour and they were cr4p about parts - I just paid for the repair myself in the end.

Yes you do have a point about F/C insurance but the "odds" are much more in the customers favour. An extra £100 a year covers the entire car above and beyond the legal minimum 3rd party.

My warranty just ran out - I got it fully serviced just before it was done "just in case" but all was fine. Don't plan on shelling out on a pretend warranty with a daft excess. If the car breaks, we'll pay to fix it. If it doesn't, we'll be quids in.

Insurance is an industry based on fear - it's there to fleece those that can just about afford stuff and live month to month paying finance payments, installments for everything, etc. These people are "scared" into getting dodgy payment protection insurance, salary protection, etc, etc. If some people added up what they pay in insurance and interest a year, I think they'd be shocked.

Insured warranties are in that category - people buy expensive cars on the never never, their salaries cover it but if something goes wrong, they are deep in the mire so shell out even more insuring against that possibility.

Slight random rant but there you go!

99% of the time it's dealer or specialised garage only jobs..that's the problem Ollie

They are complicated, you cannot even get the tracking done at Kwik fit :rolleyes:.. virtually everything requires a diagnostic interface to see the fault, and then parts are few and far between and usually only available from LR direct (not many companies do copy parts for the D3)... So if anything brakes, then you know at some point it'll involve your dealer.

That's fine mattee rant away :D

You've had a bad experience with WD, I've had bad experiences with other warranty companies, which is why I searched through all the LR forums, asking peoples advice on the best 3rd party company that would fix the most common faults our wonderful D3's have... and time after time W/D came up trumps, with payouts on EPBs, Turbo's and air suspension compressors (the 3 main faults that can cost a small fortune).
One of the reasons I took the franchised cover was there was also less haggling from W/D, because they have agreed the higher premium (or less in my case) and thus accept the dealer knows best.

When it comes down to it, if I never use it, then it's still money well spent.

The last thing I want is to have my car off the road for a month while I save up thousands to fix it.

You're joking right! Must be linked to the snazzy traction control or something then!

I've been tempted to buy one recently, but I'm starting to go off them quite quickly now!

No it's the air suspension, you need to put them in diagnostic height for the tracking etc to be correctly adjusted.

Main dealer fee £200 :brickwall

Independent fee £110 :rolleyes:

I managed to find a tyre place in Cheltenham who had the right equipment and did it for £55 :cool:

I can bet you won't get a payout pronto as well though. Something goes pop on either car, we get it diagnosed and pay for it to be fixed ASAP. We all want convenience and to get a car back on the road as quickly as possible, you pay for it to be sorted immediately.

I've checked what various repairs that could happen (luckily the 335d seems very reliable) and the worst possible nightmare would be a new engine - £10k. That would hurt but we'd still pay it.

You still have the "Sale of Goods Act" which states an item must be fit for purpose and last a reasonable time. So legally you would be able to approach the BMW retailer (not BMW direct) who sold you the car if your 3 year old car needed a new engine.

Something for you to think about. Most people don't realise ;)

Mamoon - potentially very handy (but hopefully not needed)!

My pal is a landrover specialist he has more in for headgaskets than owt else most of the time its engine thrown away and try to source another .

My pal is a landrover specialist he has more in for headgaskets than owt else most of the time its engine thrown away and try to source another .