Being the owner of a Rover 25 1.8 GTI, and having read about possible head gasket failure, I took out a warranty at the end of the dealers warranty period. Three weeks ago the water pump and head gasket failed and I have just picked my car up from the garage. The total repair bill was £718 of which I have paid £411 and the warranty company has paid the remaining £307. I thought that this warranty covered all eventualities (naively) but, in fact, the warranty company are only liable to pay for one failed item per claim. They choose which item they pay for i.e. Water pump or head gasket. I have paid for the new water pump, cam belt, thermostat, O rings, a proportion of the head gasket set, proportion of the head bolts, proportion of the antifreeze, the total cost of pressure testing the head and a proportion of the labour costs as the warranty company will only pay £34 per hour.
Now, I appreciate, that as I paid £300 for a years warranty cover then I have broken even but it was a nasty surprise having to pay out such an amount. It was also difficult to find a local garage to carry out the work. I advise anyone to check the small print much more closely than I did !
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yep lots of garages wont touch warranty work because of this sort of thing it often results in bad feelings from customers as they quite rightly feel they are being ripped off and often vent their annoyance at the garage doing the work. some warranty companies are also slow at paying out when the job is completed . my mates place has a list of companies that they will not deal with due to problems some of these are because the warranty company treats their customers badly,it's not just bad payers that make the list...cheers...keo.
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The other thing to watch for is where they only pay out on the item that failed not any resultant damage. So, if you cambelt snaps they pay you £50 for the new belt but not £2000 for a new engine.
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MASSIVE SWEEPING STATEMENT AHEAD!
Insurance in general and warranties in particular suck and are not worth the money and I avoid all of them except where legally necessary and then I get the minimum cover possible because they all take the attitude that you are fully covered right up to the point you make a claim and then all bets are off.
Read the (usually very) small print and in any dispute get a lawyer asap otherwise they will just fob you off.
RANT OVER.
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10 years ago I had a Sierra Cosworth that holed a piston.
Warranty company would only pay for one piston and the garage would only do the job if they replaced all four. The garage won the argument.
I hate warranty companies with a passion and as I tend to change my cars frequently, I have NEVER bought warranty cover after this experience.
Result....thousands saved and in my car fund.
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"warranties in particular suck "
-- I agree completely with this regarding most "after-market" warranties however I think that vehicle "manufacturers" warranty is usual pretty good, although still not perfect & obviously varies between manufacturers
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Glad that I'm not the only one then. The small print to watch out for is under Indemnity and reads " The sole purpose of this policy is to indemnify the policy holder in the event of mechanical breakdown of the insured vehicle as stated on the application form. The insurers liability shall be only the actual failed parts required to return the vehicle to it's pre-claim condition. This is not a service or maintenance policy " I felt sorry for the garage who carried out my repair, a small, family run concern, as they spent a lot of time trying to find the best price parts etc for me - they only agreed to the warranty work because I was already an established customer. I certainly wont be renewing the policy.
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I sympathise with the author of this thread - however I am a little confused (easily done some might say!):
The way I read the post was that the author had bought a Rover 25 and then extended the manufacturer's warranty when it expired - and by the sounds of it, opted to extend using a Third Party company rather than the manufacturer...if so why? If it was a simple case of cost then I'm afraid 'You get what you paid for' had you used the manufacturer, then i'd wager all costs would have been covered and the work done at a Rover Dealership rather than some Third Party Garage.
If given the opporunity (and I haven't thus far) I'd always opt for a manufacturer provided wrranty rather than a third party one simply for this reason. Of course there are times when you cannot extend the manufacturer's warranty and then have to hope for the best whether or not you do take out third party cover. But surely it would have been best to take out Rover's own product? Unless of course this WAS a Rover extended Warranty?
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Hi ihpj. Thanks for your comments and your sympathy - makes me feel better or maybe its because I've just got back from the pub! I wasn't offered a Rover extended warranty. The warranty was the RAC five star cover. I was contacted by them advising me that my Rover Warranty was due to expire in a few weeks time and stating that as head gasket failure was common on my car and such a failure could cost upwards of £800 to repair, then why not take all the worry out of the next year of motoring knowing that the head gasket was covered in the event of such a failure. My car is nearly five years old and I have owned it for 15 months. It was sold with one years Rover Warranty. For the first four years this car had only travelled a total of 10,500 miles and in the next year it travelled 27,000 - I think it wasn't used to the pace !! :)
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<< Iwas contacted by them advising me that my Rover Warranty was due to expire in a few weeks time and stating that as head gasket failure was common on my car and such a failure could cost upwards of £800 to repair, then why not take all the worry out of the next year of motoring knowing that the head gasket was covered in the event of such a failure.
I don't understand how Rover have the nerve to sell a car on which head gasket failures are common. Aren't they bothered about their reputation?
--
L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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Read this thread with interest, having just had a head gasket repair done on an MGF under extended warranty. My problem with the warranty was the labour charges covered - £40 per hour (garage charges £65) plus a lot of quibbling about whether to pay up in the first place. Nowhere in the document does it say there is a limit. I'm currently "in discussion" with the dealer that sold me the warranty - who, incidentally, charges £55 per hour which the same insurance company always covers.
On a separate note: MG Rover will not concede that their cars have head gasket problems. I believe that Range Rovers have the same engine, also prone to headgasket failures and Landrover have acknowledged this. (And their main dealer labour charges for that are about £95 per hour, I'm told.)
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I don't understand how Rover have the nerve to sell a car on which head gasket failures are common. Aren't they bothered about their reputation? --
No!
What reputation?
or "sorry Sir/Madam, that car was built when BMW were in charge".
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