I bought a car from a reputable garage in july last year who supplied the vehicle with a 12 month Gold Warranty from the AA which i paid for on top of the vehicle for peace of mind.
The car was a Nissan Xtrail 2.2Dci and overall i am very happy with the car although 3 months or so after buying it i started to smell oil burning so took it back to the garage who diagnosed the smell as a leaking intercooler, i then explained the vehicle was covered by the AA and they said they would call them and get authorisation, 10 mins later and a call from the garage, (Bad news) The AA will not pay out so i rang them myself and asked why.
There reply was simple if its not listed its not covered and if it is listed it is covered, so long and short of it i was left with a bill of £700 plus fitting to get the vehicle fixed.
it was then some time after that that i had to take the car back to the garage with binding brakes again the garage advised me that one of the front brake calipers had seized they rang the AA once again and recieved authority the cary out the repairs with non genuine parts (cheap caliper) and all was fine until today when i found the brakes were binding again this time a different wheel.
The garage rang the AA for authority but was told that they will not pay out for the caliper when asked why the AA say that the caliper has most deffinatly failed due to Wear and tear, so i rang them myself and asked why they replaced the first caliper but not this one they said that this one has failed due to wear and tear.
Now how can they say that when they cant even see the item and surely if the caliper was leaking then yes its wear and tear but its not leaking.
another reason why they may not want to pay out is maybe because i have about 10 days left until the warranty ends and i have not taken them up on there renewal offer which is double what it was last year, all in all i am left once again with a bill to pay which means i have had to pay out over £1000 in all since taking out the AA waranty 12 months ago plus the premium for the waranty in the first place.
BE WARNED AA WARANTY IS NOT WORTH THE PAPER ITS PRINTED ON DO YOURSELF A FAVOUR AND SAVE YOUR MONEY.

I'm a big fan of the AA.

For example, my clutch slave cylinder went a few months ago. They picked up my car and arranged a 4 day hire whilst my mechanic fixed it (no parts available and a weekend and a bank holiday!) which meant I was without car for less than 12 hours (and that was when I was at work!!). All funded by the AA. I was extremely impressed. Also, the car rental firm said they would rent me the car at the same rate the AA paid if I needed it for longer which seemed reasonable to me. Good service from them I must say and a definite must for me!

(Link removed to avoid any suggestion of advertising.)

Edited by Avant on 23/03/2016 at 15:17

To be fair, any warranty has terms and conditions. If those terms and conditions state that the damaged parts must be made available for the warranty company to inspect, then that is pretty much final. To take out a warranty, agree to the terms and conditions, but then not adhere to them yourself but still expept the warranty company to pay up ... well, that's not really reasonable.

We haven't heard from the OP since 2011, so he may not benefit from your advice. Hopefully others may - thanks anyway.