Used car warranty – any recommendations

My business partner’s S5 is just about to leave the manufacturer’s warranty. He wants to take out a warranty for the forthcoming year, but for various reasons he doesn’t want to go with an official Audi used warranty.

Now, not all warranties are created equal and he’s been stung before on used warranties that are full of get out clauses. Does anyone have any recommendations? The car in question is a 2018 S5.

(Taking a chance and doing without a warranty is also not an option, as he’s had some expensive repairs needed on his previous A6, which outweighed the warranty cost by a long way.)

Cheers,

JP

Having been in a similar situation and researching a couple of years ago for a high performance VW I would suggest that no aftermarket warranty will be more inclusive than the one provided through VAG. If he doesn’t want to use them he may have to accept whatever he chooses will be less comprehensive for more money. I bit the bullet and took out the VAG warranty but didn’t use it and as I sold the car 5 months later, got about 50% back. Not sure aftermarket warranties allow this?
I have also not bothered And taken a chance with an Audi A4 Tdi and when something went wrong at 3 and a half years old,(failed high pressure fuel pump) because it had a full service history from the supplying dealer I ‘only’ paid £150 of a nearly £900 bill through goodwill. In this case not taking it out was the right option, but it’s a gamble isn’t it.

Cheers.

He got stung with a £1k bill for sensors going wrong on his old A6, when the warranty would only have been £600.

VAG warranty is not on the cards, for reasons I won’t bore you with. I think he’s looking to get the nearest cover to a VAG one – it doesn’t need to be 100% as good, just as close as possible,

JP

‘The Audi S5 Reliability Rating is 2.0 out of 5.0, which ranks it 30th out of 31 for luxury midsize cars. The average annual repair cost is $1,164 which means it has poor ownership costs.’

I’d be very cautious about going into business with someone who made purchasing decisions like that.
Tell him about the Reliability Index and next time he might not have to pay for a motor twice.

Typical STW responses – no answer to your questions, just a bunch of reasons why you asked the wrong question. I presume @BillMC is driving a Toyota iQ, because everyone buys a car based only on reliability index and no other reasons, whether practical or emotional. 🙄

FWIW I’m with Motoreasy for warranty on a 6 year old BMW estate. Not great, probably not the worst. They have two levels of cover – servicing at a BMW dealer, or servicing at independents (cheaper).

As an aside and as an American I’ve never understood the UK fixation on “full main deal service history”, but knowing I’ll want to eventually sell the car I bucked up the extra fee on the warranty for BMW servicing.

He’ll have to read the exclusions carefully. When I was looking for one, lots of providers excluded so many items it wasn’t worth having. Warranty Direct also had a 3 month period from signing up before you could claim and they restricted where you could go for repairs.

‘Emotional’ reasons for buying a car? You’d be much better off to spend your money on counselling not an ever depreciating pile of shiny metal.

I’m with Car Care Plan. Had it pay out on two big claims (air con and the p2015 error all VW engines of that age get), over £1k each and had no quibbles. Costs £350 a year.

Avoid Warranty Direct.

This was a good thread why not to use them on Pistonheads:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=1773988

After a lot of legal wrangling (involving the insurance ombudsman) the OP got settlement but had to remove all details of the case. There was a lot of skulduggery/blatant lying by WD to avoid paying.

He got stung with a £1k bill for sensors going wrong on his old A6, when the warranty would only have been £600.

So if nothing goes wrong he’s £600 down, if something does go wrong he’s £400 up? That doesn’t seem like the greatest of odds to me. A fifty grand motor going wrong after two years, I’d hazard that’s well into Consumer Rights Act claims territory.

I think if it were me, I’d just put £200 aside every month. If you don’t have any faults you get to keep 100% of the money, and it’ll also cover your TV going pop, vet’s bills for the dog, repairs to the roof…

Thanks for those who gave a sensible reply.

The original warranty is due to run out early next year.

In response to Cougar – it’s within the realms of possibility that something very expensive could go wrong – say a gearbox – and you’d need to put a large amount of money away each month to cover that. Your idea might work on an older car, where the values are lower, but not on something this new.

JP