Extended warranty, yay or nay?

[Ulysses31]

Started my motoring life in 1996 with a Fiesta and onto Puma in 2001, Leon Cupra in 2007 and Golf GTI in 2017. All well maintained and driven sensibly. The only thing that ever actually broke was the Leon, which developed a slight misfire at 130,000 miles and 10 years and so got traded in for the Golf.
Have never bothered with a warranty and can't see myself changing my mind. Although I did get a quote from WarranyWise, just in case it was silly cheap. At £550 it most definitely was not.

[Catnapper]

I've just renewed mine with VW.
I received an email from VW inviting me to renew.
£230 ish All component car has 16k with 100 XS.
I however misread the email & thought quote was valid until end of August, it was however 30 days so I missed out by the time I came to renew ( by 2 days). Re-quote was in excess off £500.
So rang VWFS and asked if they would honour original quote.
After speaking to the infamous Manager they agreed.
Only thing gone wrong in the 3 years was bad pixel line on Infotainment system.

[SRGTD]

Modern day cars are much more complex than cars of say, 20 -30 years ago with more to go wrong, and some of those potential mechanical and electrical failures could be very expensive.

An extended warranty won’t be for everyone - it depends how risk averse an individual is. It won’t even be a consideration for some owners; those who lease and those who buy with PCP and hand the car back when it’s three years old. However, for those owners who do buy an extended warranty, it will give peace of mind to some degree against potentially large unforeseen repair costs that might happen and which probably haven’t been budgeted for - e.g. blown turbo, failed DSG transmission, failed infotainment unit.

Some owners will choose not to buy an extended warranty but instead will create a ‘repair fund’ that they periodically add funds to, so if faced with unexpected repairs to their car, they have a fund to draw upon to help pay for repairs. If there aren’t any large unforeseen repairs to pay for, then they’ve got a pot of money to use as the please. Other owners will do nothing.

An extended warranty won’t be for everyone - depends on a number of considerations which will be different for everyone depending on their individual circumstances. Will I buy an extended warranty when my car is three years old? Maybe, but at the moment I’ve not given it any thought as I’ve only just got my current car.

[monkeyhanger]

VW’s extended warranty seems to be quite popular over on VWROC.com with R owners. I can’t recall reading over on that forum of any instances where a legitimate claim has been declined.

These extended warranty products are effectively an insurance product providing cover for sudden and unforeseen electrical and mechanical failure, and as with all insurance products, there’ll be exclusions. As @Guzzle says, read the policy booklet so you know what the extent of the cover is and what’s excluded. Anyone with a modified car would need to look elsewhere for cover though as VW’s product excludes cars modified from VW’s specification (presumably the factory spec). Interesting to see on VW’s website that the warranty is underwritten by Volkswagen Versicherung AG and not a third party insurer.

If I was considering buying an extended warranty, given the choice of a third party warranty from the likes of Warrantywise or Warranty Direct or VW’s own product, I’d go for the VW product.

I'd be pretty unsure about which to go for because VW warranties don't seem to be worth the paper they're written on these days -especially the standard 3 year warranty that the car comes with!

When you question their decision to deny a claim, you never get to speak to the decision maker to try and understand their logic in doing so. If the dealership has conveyed the nature of the fault to the decision maker in a certain way, you are screwed, with no route of appeal.

It would be really interesting to know whether its a German thing to be so arrogant towards the customer or whether the likes of Honda or Alfa also now take that approach.

I do find it puzzling that VW decided to pull the plug on factory extended warranties when the other VAG marques still offer them, with the same parts that have an equal chance of failure.

I'm amazed that the EU haven't bolstered consumer protection with mandated longer warranties. You see in the likes of USA and Australia that VW give 8 and 10 years drivetrain warranties as standard. No one pays an arm and a leg out for a car with the expectation that they should only last 3 years without worry. If your DSG box has been fully maintained and packs up at 4 or 5 years old, VW should definitely be paying for it.

[WD-40]

I decided against it as my mileage is quite low (particularly now) and I was also put off by the excess which seemed a bit of a p*ss take

[Watts]

I'd be pretty unsure about which to go for because VW warranties don't seem to be worth the paper they're written on these days -especially the standard 3 year warranty that the car comes with!

When you question their decision to deny a claim, you never get to speak to the decision maker to try and understand their logic in doing so. If the dealership has conveyed the nature of the fault to the decision maker in a certain way, you are screwed, with no route of appeal.

This is why I think a third party warranty could be better. You can take your car to a trusted garage that will work in your favour where applicable and fight your corner with the warranty company if necessary.

[Sootchucker]

Don't know where you guys are getting your low figures from, but I just went onto the site (as posted earlier in the thread), selected my Car (2018 GTI), current mileage 16k, all component and less than 10k per year with a £250 excess, and the quote is £420 p.a.?

[Al1040]

Hmm, can't get a figure... Put reg in and it says still covered by warranty and will not allow me to progress

[karlos]

Hmm, can't get a figure... Put reg in and it says still covered by warranty and will not allow me to progress

It won't give you a quote until there is less than a month left on your factory warranty.

[Al1040]

Oh thanks, i'm a few days away from that, I think reg was on the 14th.