Thoughts on Extended Warranty and Service Plan

[Chief1337]

Hi All,

Looking for opinion/thoughts on the extended warranty and services plan for the GTi.

4 Year Extended Warranty - £205
5 Year Extended Warranty - £490
3 Year Fixed Price Service Plan - £359

Is the extended warranty worth it? Have people opted for it generally?

As for the service plan, how much does this save instead of just paying for the services when they are due?

[CraigW]

Not went for warranty yet but probably will for four years

The service plan at £359 for 3 years is a no brainer. A service will probably cost you maybe £150 or more a year. Easy decision

[Chief1337]

Fair play - makes sense. :-)

[Hawaii-Five-O]

As Craig says the service plan is a no brainer. You'll save a chunk over three years of "dealer" servicing.

As for the warranty extension. All depends how long you're going to keep the car and whether you're risk averse or not. I'm planning on keeping the car over 3 years so I took out the 4yr warranty extension. The reason is simple: there's so much new tech on the mk7, and I've gone for the DSG, that if anything were to go wrong it could get very, very expensive to repair. In essence its like a £205 insurance policy. Some will say its money down the drain but I disagree. It's gives "me" peace of mind of that's all that matters.

[AAddict]

The 3 year service plan is £249 if you're buying on VW Finance.

[Snoopy]

Imo the service plan is worth it you will be paying more than that for two services.
The warrenty depends how long you keep it.
Also vw finance will phone or email you when your 3 Year warrenty is due to run out and offer to extend it but it will be about 350 a year so if you know you will keep it a long time and value a vw warrenty then maybe its worth considering.

[Bill_the_Bear]

I've picked the warranty for 5 years, undecided on service plan.

As has been said there are a lot of new bits on this car, and also I've got DSG ordered.  In particular things like the variable cam timing and height which is new is something I believe Honda have had issues with.  If it goes wrong you can find yourself paying for a new engine or some pretty hefty bits of it.  They are also pushing the engine futher on things like thermal management etc...

Interestingly extended warranty is a "factory fitted option" according to my dealer and must be purchased before the BW confirmed.  Why?  What do they do differently to a car with warranty compared with one without?  Better parts?  More QC checks?  Seems odd.

On the service plan I acknowledge it is clear money saving where warranty is most likely money lost.  However, we're talking about saving maybe £80 over 3 years and I've pushed my spec a little over the max I want to spend when I pick the car up.  I enquirer about paying monthly on interest free credit, which is what Ford do with my service plan with them but was told no can do.

To be honest throughout the whole process I have found VW surprisingly inflexible and unapologetic.  Things like this, not putting manuals online, the lead time confusion, lack of clarity on options etc etc... Very Very different experience to how I was treated by Ford on my last new car order where there were no issues and my sales rep was falling over himself to be helpful.  Even down to the way the communication comes across.  Asking about the service plan being paid monthly "no we don't offer monthly payment plans" blunt, unapologetic and even a hint of making me feel embarrassed for asking such a thing.  Little bit too "we're not sure you are high class enough for our restaurant sir".

Perhaps I'm being harsh, but I don't think so.  I'm sure my experience isn't the same with everyone though.

[Snoopy]

Sad to say but 22 years of VW buying and ownership I would say that was normal. I was shocked how good we were treated by other manufacturers when i was sorting other cars out for relatives and issues they had.. VWuk since the mk2 created such a reputation of quality has had such a high opinion of itself and has in my experience over the years treated customers poorly. It feels like to me that as far as they are concerned if you dont want it someone else will. Your having issues oh well tuff. Your insignificant and unimportant we loose your custom so what some other mug will be along shortly to replace you as we are VW..
VW responce to a poorly designed part thats not fit for purpose is simply replace it while under warrenty after it breaks after that well good luck... So if you own a 1.4 tsi or 2.0tsi for example and it goes bang and destoys itself because of a cheap poorly designed part a known design issue they will replace the engine under warrenty but after... The same goes for the DSG mecatronics unit or ...
I think you get the idea. Were as other companys do proactive responses rather than reactive which VW does.

[ajmoir36]

Imo the service plan is worth it you will be paying more than that for two services.
The warrenty depends how long you keep it.
Also vw finance will phone or email you when your 3 Year warrenty is due to run out and offer to extend it but it will be about 350 a year so if you know you will keep it a long time and value a vw warrenty then maybe its worth considering.

I think the extended warrenty after the effect on the mk6 was much more than that, so if I was doing it again I would buy the extended warrenty upfront. I think the very basic extended warrenty was £320 but would have an excess of like £200 or something.

[Snoopy]

Imo the service plan is worth it you will be paying more than that for two services.
The warrenty depends how long you keep it.
Also vw finance will phone or email you when your 3 Year warrenty is due to run out and offer to extend it but it will be about 350 a year so if you know you will keep it a long time and value a vw warrenty then maybe its worth considering.

I think the extended warrenty after the effect on the mk6 was much more than that, so if I was doing it again I would buy the extended warrenty upfront. I think the very basic extended warrenty was £320 but would have an excess of like £200 or something.

Mine was 352 for the full comprehensive warrenty and no excess.