Used car guarantees

[ianess]

Are these worth having or does anyone out there have a horror story to pass on? All replies welcomed.

[Loosehead]

Usually these take the form of extended warranties supplied by the dealer but backed by what is effectively an insurance co. I have never heard of a case of anyone sucessfully claiming under one of these, they always find a way to welsh on it, usually they demand all manner of servicing etc and other maintenance, making the whole process prohibitive in terms of value for money and there will always be something you didn't/did do to invalidate the warranty. Even if you did everything to the letter, the problem you have will be excluded under some heading or other. Bottom line, they're a con.

[ianess]

mdoo98..............not necessarily a case of buying one.......most often used as a part of the sales pitch, eg "comes with 6 month warranty" or whatever.
Then as Loosehead says, when trouble comes along so do the excuses.
Seems to be worth about as much as the paper the proverbial verbal warranty is written on.

[wacky racer]

In forty years of motoring I've only had one (it came with the second hand Ford - I didn't buy it myself).

The only time I used it was when the water temperature sender (the sensor thing) failed. Now this is an essential part of the cooling system - so much so that if you remove it you will lose all the coolant. Good news was that the cooling systems was covered by the warranty. Bad news was that the electrical system wasn't!

No prizes for guessing which system the insurance company unilaterally decided the sensor was part of.

Take the insurance premiums and put them in the bank. In a few years you will have enough to pay for almost all repairs you are likely to encounter (unless you need an Audi turbocharger or cylinder head replaced but that is another story)

[furrycheeky]

The garage where I work sell these waranties and they are pretty straight. You have the car serviced when it is supposed to and its covered for all factory fitted items except consumables (pads, tyres etc).
We as a garage are self authorised to fix problems up to �1000 without query.
They are not the cheapest but we found that the cheap warranties ended up as people were saying, ie nothing covered.
The problems only lie with the quality of the product you get what you pay for, as with everything in this life.