Never heard them .............DMF - not covered.......Clutch - certainly not covered ....Wheel bearings, suspension rubber components - not covered

I'm at a bit of a loss; if you have never heard of them how do you know these are not covered?

You don't - you are lying!

I have read the Policy - very quickly

Very quickly - clearly.

If your ECU fails. Tough

Where does it say the ECU is not covered - it doesn't

Actual

is refering to a part which has actually failed as opposed to possibly having failed. It is common for repairer to replace parts on a "trial & error" basis if they are unable to correcty identify the cause of the problem - see http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=91871#m1020328

Sudden

refers to it not simply wearing (out) & that the problem was not pre-existing

Not that I expect to convince anyone who has not benefited from a warranty claim but c'est la vie

Bet there aren't many people who have benefitted from a warranty claim

Hundreds of thousands

Most mechanical failures can be attributed to wear and tear

I would agree with you, over the whole life of a vehicle. That doesn't mean (as I guess you're implying?) that plenty of non-wear & tear failure do not occur. And in the vehicle's early life (say 7 years and / or 80,000 miles) most failures will not be wear & tear.

Look, if anyone is contemplating buying a warranty on a car over 10 years old, yes I would say save your money as the likelihood is that most failures could be attributed to w&t but in it's early life the failure (apart from clutches & brakes) will almost certainly NOT be due to w&t. The criterea should be what parts are actually covered, what is the claim limit & what is the price.

No, there is clearly no point in paying £500 for a warranty with a £100 claim limit which covers only the engine, but if your Audi turbo packs up costing few £thousand, & this is paid for, I guess you will be smiling.

Edited by bonzo dog on 07/07/2011 at 21:04

You must be a salesman dream if you think WD is good value.

If you want warranty, either buy new or buy within the original warranty, simples!

The whole point about older used cars is that they're much cheaper than new BECAUSE they are more likely to breakdown - all the parts that are more likely to fail are more likely to be excluded from any warranty.

Hi Boggie, sorry to hear of your breakdown & subsequent issues with Autoguard. A few points, if I may:

1. I'm pretty sure (but it doesn't state clearly) that consequential damage to a covered item WILL be paid for.
2. Damage to a non-covered part would not be
3. Neither would they pay for your financial losses in respect of say taxi fares whilst the car was of the road etc
4. If the (head?) gasket has failed damaging the engine, what reason have they given for rejecting he repairs to the engine - they must give one, by law
5. As regards to the repair time, most warranty companies will pay ICME time; how much over this was your repairer asking?

Please tell us know how you get on & good luck

PS ..... it wasn't a K Series engine, was it?

I completely agree; my son bought a 55 reg Focus, and was offered a 'life-time' (ie the duration of his ownership) MBI Warranty by the garage for £300.00, valid as long as he kept up the service book with a VAT registered garage. We honestly would have been better off putting the money in the bank (even at today's interest rates) - nothing seems to be covered - if it has a seal, washer or gasket they have a get-out clause, and they use the 'grey-area/cover-all' term 'wear and tear' which renders the warranty completely worthless, because the interpretation of this term will be down to them.

When we thought the power-steering pump had failed we were told the seal would have gone first and so it wasn't covered. On closer inspection, it was found the pressure pipe to the pump had snapped (NOT worn) and the garage said that should definitely be covered, so they rang MBI Autoguard for us..... alas, no; pipes are not covered either. Their policy book would be a lot shorter if they just told you what is actually covered. The answer? Not a lot. And that equates to £300.00 thrown to the wind. I'd prefer to have given it to a Big Issue seller (seriously).

Their interpretation borders on the criminally fraudulent and it really is time the government looked into this industry; the garage told me that not only do they rarely have any success with any warranty claim, but also the warranty company will haggle down their hourly charge. This leads to many garages refusing to deal with warranty claims at all, so that is an added inconvenience for the warranty holder. My advice is to certainly not waste your time and money with MBI Autoguard; the only winners are them and the garage that sells you the policy.

A very frustrating situation that leaves you feeling used, stupid and mugged, and the most annoying fact of all? It's legal..... as if the motorist doesn't already pay enough. Avoid MBI Autoguard.

Edited by DesGruntled on 04/06/2013 at 11:29

From feedback the best was by far the AA's

If memory serves, there's another fairly recent, longish thread around these parts which suggests that their contracts are heavily peppered with weasel words that enable them to avoid a payout.

If they are by far the best, I guess that doesn't reflect well on the others.

Let's look at what these sharks actually do. They charge you n quid to warrant your car for a period. In order to make a profit they need to ensure that during that period they pay less than n quid. So far, so simple.

Now look at the premium and work out how many major faults (e.g. turbo, ECU, head gasket, gearbox) can be rectified for that. The answer is of course, none. Thus, if anything major does go wrong, their primary concern is not to fix your car but to work out how to avoid fixing it, or at least do the bare minimum required as cheaply as possible to get it going if they're finally forced to shell out.

What do you really want? You want your car fixed quickly and properly if it goes wrong. As that's the diametrically opposing position to that of a warranty company......