Just bought an S Reg Audi A3, and Warranty Direct have quoted £255 for a years cover. Has anyone used this firm, are they any good, and are their quotes reasonable?
Thanks,
crjos
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Check and compare here
tinyurl.com/f6c4o
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80 pence a day on a 10 year old car..............................bargain,...............
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Hi. It still might be 80 pence a day wasted. When I had to have my car repaired while covered with one of these Warranties (not Warranty Direct) I found that the first problem was finding a garage to actually carry out the warranty work. Then there were many "conditions" which had to be met. The warranty company put a limit on the amount they would pay in labour charges. They set the labour cost at approximately £25 per hour and I had to meet the rest. They would only pay for the main item which had failed and not for the other parts which had to be replaced due to the failure. i.e head gasket failed due to water pump failure. They paid for the water pump. They would not pay for the head testing or any skimming. They would not pay for new cam belt , head bolts, gaskets, oil seals, any of the replacement fluids etc. In all my warranty cost me £299 for the year. The repair for the head gasket came to £714 of which they paid £300. So, be careful as all of the warranty companies I checked out had the same Indemnity Clause in them. This seems to mean that you are not allowed to have the car repaired to a better condition than it was before the repair became necessary except for the part which failed. What was particularly annoying was the fact that I was contacted by the warranty company, when my original warranty expired, pointing out that my Rover was known to be susceptible to head gasket failure and that the policy would cover this eventuality. Guess I wasn't out of pocket but it certainly didn't give me the cover I was expecting.
Maz
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I think WD have a £70 excess too, so you'd need a £300 repair bill saved to break even. Also isn't there a 3 month wait before you get full and proper cover, so effectively you only get 9 months cover for £300.
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My apologies - the link I posted earlier includes a lot of USA sites! I went and looked at the AA's scheme. Limit of £500 per claim - really useful if you need an HDI injection pump! Also does not cover the exhaust system so great for catalyst and particle filter!
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I bought a Warranty Direct policy for my 2002 S40 DCi and it was £270 for an introuctory 13 month period.
I had a good read of the policy documentation before I comitted and it seemed pretty good. I paid slightly more (about £50, IIRC) so that I could take my car to a franchised Volvo dealer if need be and the costs would be covered (excepting betterment, which means I have to pay 10% of any parts cost, but 100% of the labour is covered).
My advice would be to get the quote, leave your phone number in with the details and wait for them to call YOU! That's what I did and the price came down by £50 from my quote and I also got the extra month AND a no-cost direct debit of £90 over 3 months, which isn't an option on their website.
Hope this helps.
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Brought a Citreon Synergie HDI. Paid around £200 for a warranty from WD - as per HJs advice. Head gasket failed - engine out job (not easy on a Synergie). Total bill around £1000. WD paid up. Warrenty is still running. Hopefully the aircon will fail before the warranty expires!! (note: a lot of third party warranties do not cover condensors which, coincidentally, is a weak point on may cars - especially French ones).
I'm happy.
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Warranty Direct seem to be absolutely great - for low mileage cars. Just taken out a policy on my Fathers 40k mile 2002 530d, it appears to include absolutely everything, and has glowing reports from other BMW owners.
However, on getting a quote for an 80,000 mile 2002 530i, I found that nothing of real note was actually included - suspension, air conditioning, etc etc - all excluded. Now, suspension components fair enough but it seems fairly odd to exclude air conditioning on a mileage basis, after all a 40k car thats spent its life in town at an average of 25mph has had its air conditioning system running for more or less the same amount of time as an 80k car thats been used on longer journeys and averaged 50mph...
Shame really, as I was going to take out a policy had it not exluded everything likely to go wrong.
So, go for it if you can get Gold cover, otherwise IMHO don't waste your money.
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Here in NZ I have purchased warranties from WD twice for two different cars. The price was reasonable and cover comprehensive. Never needed to make a claim with the first warranty BUT with the second a wheel bearing failed after I had only owned the car for about a month. My local garage dealt direct with WD and all I needed to pay was the excess. Very simple.
The only point to wary of is the service intervals dictated by the warranty - 6 months or 15,000km here. If these criteria are not met the warranty is void.
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