Calling on the STW hivemind to sort me out here…

Signed the paperwork on a new car today. Now the dealer is offering me GAP insurance, some sort of fancy interior and exterior protections, alloy wheel cover and minor scratch/ding repair.

I’ve seen that my car insurance, like many apparently, is effectively “new for old” in the first year, so GAP might not be necessary in year one. Anyone used this facility? Anyone had their car written off in the first year through someone else’s fault – I’m guessing their insurance wouldn’t do the new/old thing, so did your insurer step up? Any recommendations for 3rd Party GAP providers – ALA seem to crop up in search a lot – anyone had cause to use them able to comment on their service?

Spidey sense says fancy protection stuff is snake oil and best avoided. Can you get ding & wheel cover elsewhere – google suggests they’re really over egging the GAP premium – I guess they’re doing the same on the other insurances.

Anything else I should know/think about?

Google independent GAP insurance, compare it to their offering and do a deal. Oh, you’ve already signed for the car…

GAP insurance is “normally” around £300 from a dealer. Shopping around on the internet can probably halve that. If the car is on finance, new or nearly new it is worthwhile. Mate wrote off a 12 month old mini cooper s a few weeks back. The insurance payout was short by £2500 which the gap insurance covered which in turn allowed him to settle his finance.

I got mine from ALA via pistonheads website for my 2016 VW Passat Alltrack. Cost of the car ( lease ) approx £40k and 2 years cover was only £112 with the code within The thread here :

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=1488230

They pay out too… a colleague had her car lease stolen and they paid up within the week .

I’ve been happy. They’re phone advice line is very useful, if like me you are / were clueless!!

Yes I have bought GAP insurance (3yr policy cost about 0.6% car purchase price from distant memory). Also declined GAP on another car as quote seemed high. When i got mine 10yrs ago I didn’t know 3rd party quotes where available so thats worth checking.

The exterior / interior finishes can be worth it depending on cost / work done. As above bought once / declined once. Worth shopping around as those are available elsewhere.

Following recommendations on here I recently bought one with gap insurance.co.uk. for a new car I just got. Easy to deal with and decent price (£200) for an A6 Avant.

A mate of mine has alloy wheel cover and he can make up to 18 claims in three years.
At the rate his wife is kerbing it, he will use all those claims.

Something the check with buying GAP from a third party is you often need to buy the policy within a certain time period of buying the car. My insurance also gives ‘new for old’ in the first year, but all GAP I found needed to be bought within three months of purchase. ALA as about are competitive and there’s a Pistonheads discount code that’s easy to find.

Don’t both with external protection such as Lifeshine unless it’s free. Better to have a pro retailer apply a proper ceramic coating if you want something like that. Dealer valets won’t prep the paintwork first, so whatever they put on will go over a load of swirls from the wash. My Jag was pretty bad when I got it.

Wheel insurance, again, check the terms carefully. The one the dealer offered actually excluded the diamond cut wheels I have, and a lot of policies do this too. Or they’re really expensive. Actually cheaper for me to bank the money in case of kerbing one, rather than buy a policy because repairs to my wheels would be so expensive. As it’s turned out, the only person to kerb one of my wheels has been the dealer’s driver! So they replaced the wheel.

Oh, some thing to check though is key cover. Apparently in my car, if you replace the keys, you need to replace security modules in the car at a cost north of £1k. You can’t reprogram the car for new keys. Some insurances policies don’t cover keys, so it’s worth checking out separate cover.

Yeh keys can be incredibly expensive, I had a bolt on on my normal insurance policy, can’t remember the additional cost but it was low enough to make me think it was worth while.

Got our gap from a specialist place in Otley with a very unimaginative website name. Was far and away the cheapest/best cover i found.

[Edit] re key cover i seem to remember some aa (other providers are available) packages cover them.

I checked out the deals then showed them to the dealer and they matched it.
Audi about two years ago

Yes no GAP in year one for me (Lease). Check with your insurer.

Dealers need to give you 3 days I think between signing for the car/deposit and buying GAP. They shouldn’t sell it you at the time. Although this still happens.

I looked into the paint protection options last year for the other half car. The 300 quid the garage wanted was basically a £20 tub of liquid and the rest was the garage apprentice hosing it on and off again.

On the bright side, they threw in for free (they were desperate for the sale) when we negotiated the price, but then the shirty salesman told us when we queried the price that it couldn’t have been free and basically called us liars. Which was fine because we just told him to take the extra 300 quid off the car cost as we didn’t want it – his face was a treat once he realised he’d been sprung by his own trap.

Haven’t read all the replies but I’d avoid the exterior/interior scotch/X/guard stuff unless free. I managed to get it free and TBH wasn’t impressed. The dealer will probably introduce more swirls than do any good.. I explicitly tell the dealer (BMW) to NOT wash my car when it’s in… on account of me being a pure fanny (DIY car detailer)! They went against that once and guess what? Shite loads of swirl marks.. interesting seeing onlookers in the dealer watching me having a right pop for them actually washing my car. If you’re interested in protecting your new motor just take your cash to a local company for a new car detail/protect.

ALA or click4gap are significantly cheaper than a dealer.

The rest isn’t worthwhile at all – you’re being pressured to have them because the salesperson makes loads on them.

Check out your car insurance. I’m with Direct Line who will replace your car if it’s a total loss in the first year.

I used ALA.