Anyone have any experience/recomendations for buying an aftermarket warranty for a car ?
We've recently bought a Galaxy, & whilst I know the net is full of horror stories for most cars if you go looking; I cant help thinking it would be wise to have some form of cover should it ever need any expensive repairs. Quotes I've done on the net seem to range from £260 to nearly £700 p/a.

Find out EXACTLY what the warranty includes before you sign anything.

You would be very surprised as to what they don't cover.

Warranties Direct seem to get Ok reviews. I think that Which looked at this recently.

I found Warranty Direct utter merde on our Astra. They cap labour rates to silly levels and generally wriggle out of anything.

Be aware that extended warranties are insurance NOT proper warranties – each claim has a big excess so only to be used for big stuff.

I've chosen not to extend ours on the 335d because IMO, it's not worth it. £450 for the warranty with £250 excess – so if anything does go wrong, it needs to be over £700 to be worth getting the warranty for!! **** that.

Yes if the engine goes pop, then oh darn (looking at £10k for a new one) but I plan to keep it regularly serviced and oiled up. Not one has failed so far.

Definitely check exactly what you're getting, check what's likely to go wrong and whether you could just put the cash aside. I only know of one person who has benefitted directly from a warranty, and that was a 6 month warranty on a used car and amazingly it covered the auto box that fell apart, twice, at a total cost of nearly 3K. It didn't cover pulleys falling off, air con failing (clutch, not regas), suspension parts, anything that moved virtually.

surf-mat. The engines on the 335d are great 🙂 it's the gearboxes that usually have problems 🙁

Although I did see a 535d for sale with 240K miles!

As mentioned above. I'd look up these as they can be quite good pricewise:

http://www.aawarranty.co.uk/cars_mbi.htm

Tony – AFAIK as long as you get the gearbox oil changed at about 60k miles, it should be fine (I hope!!).

Currently on 28k so got a fair bit to go yet!

To the OP – I reckon anything over £300 is a rip off for a Galazy.

Don't bother – most aftermarket warranties are pants.

Buying a decent car privately at a good price and putting a contingency aside for any nasties is still way cheaper than buying an overpriced forecourt example.

I once had a Jap Import with an aftermarket warranty – Crankshaft snapped and did they pay up readily? Did they ****!

Despite the servicing being on the button (as per the warranty requirements) they tried every twist and turn to wriggle out of it for months and months.

Eventually got the money but I feel most people would not have persevered to the extent that I had to.

tbh you are only insuring 'money', and the company selling you the insurance has already taken their 'cut' out of it.

So at £250, they are judging that they'll never pay out…, while the £700 may pay out, or may just be making more profit.

I had a Warranty Direct policy on my BMW 320D and they were great. I had dealer-rate labour included so when my engine blew up 6 months out of manufacturer's warranty, it saved me a great deal of money. BMW themselves contributed a huge amount as a goodwill gesture but I got a "new" engine (a recon), new turbo, and a new clutch (unrelated but needed doing) for £900.

I'd recommend them but wait until they pester you after getting a quote because they will drop their prices.

TheTompy – How on earth did you blow up a 320d?

😯

I bet it was either turbo or swirl flap failure?!

Common on E46 320ds….

I'd recommend them but wait until they pester you after getting a quote because they will drop their prices.

I thought that….they offered me a £10 off voucher. Seriously 😆

Why not just put some money in the bank periodically to cover this stuff instead of paying it to the insurance company. Be your own insurer, so to speak. Over time and several cars it should work out.

What about an extended warranty from the manufacturer. My Toyota is 3 in October and they quote about £400 a year for the full manufacturer warranty to continue.

Anyone any experience of doing this with Toyota???

I bet it was either turbo or swirl flap failure?!

Common on E46 320ds….
My money's on swirl flaps. I pulled a 95% broken flap out of my 320D last year. 8)

I had one on my dear departed T5 van. Wasn;t even useful for wiping my ar$e on as the paper was quite waxy 😯 😆

Had an AA Gold level warranty that came with my car but they are available to buy. According to the car salesman I could have total piece of mind as it would cover all eventualities and costs, ha bloody ha. Turned out when I had a problem that it only covered parts and labour to a certain value and didn't cover any costs relating to diagnosing faults. It also supposedly only covers you if you take the car to one of their 'approved' repairers, trouble was my local approved garage was a back street shite hole and as the car had full dealer service to that point I had to throw my toys out of the pram to get them to agree to pay the dealer what little they did eventually cough up. Moral of the story READ THE SMALL PRINT

What about an extended warranty from the manufacturer. My Toyota is 3 in October and they quote about £400 a year for the full manufacturer warranty to continue

Which Toyota is it? Looking at the reviews etc which are the common fail items on them? I'd be tempted to use molgrips business model as I reckon the Toyota warranty is only valid IF you continue to use their intermediate and full service intervals (expensive anyway).

If it was an expensive/high end BMW I'd take the warranty.

£400 is alot mind. I was quoted that on my Subaru (Subaru garages are extortionate on parts and labour).

I bet it was either turbo or swirl flap failure?!

Common on E46 320ds….

My money's on swirl flaps. I pulled a 95% broken flap out of my 320D last year. [/quote]

I can't remember exactly but that doesn't sound familiar. It certainly wasn't turbo failure because at first they thought I wouldn't need a new turbo.

I had the extended VW warranty on my Passat. Gave me full manufacturers (bar a few minor bits) and full EU breakdown etc. Good job I did as climate control needed new condenser plus 3 lots of work to fix and gear box went in the same year!

Had swirl flap failure on my 1.9CDTi 150 Astra – glad it wss under warranty – major engine damage!!

Hora – Rav4 XTR (had to get one with that badge!) got some expensive bits being common rail diesel but no mega failings I am aware of but fuel pumps are about £2k alone. I'd use dealer servicing anyway and the price includes the owners club membership and RAC.