Il try to keep this brief. Bought a second hand car today from Car Giant. Its an 12 plate Astra GTC 1.6T with 18000 miles on the clock and i paid £8500 for it. It has 3 dealer service stamps and seems .... OK This was news to me when i arrived there today but Car Giant does not give you any warranty when you buy a car ... none! Apparently the guy said that i still get my statutory 30 days customer rights etc etc. Seems like a load of old guff to me but there again , i have never bought a car without even a basic 3 month one. Since I have never experienced anything like this before they offered me a comprehensive AA 3 year warranty ( upto the value of the car for repairs ) for £750 ... seems a lot. I could be wrong ofc but i would like something for peace of mind. Is this a good move? Or has anyone had any experience with Car Giant and extended warranty's etc etc? Any advice would be real grateful for.
Regardless of what they say, you're still covered by the Consumer Rights Act and Sale of Goods Act, in that you can get a refund within the first 30 days, however the car is still expected to last a reasonable amount of time and compensation is due if it doesn't. http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rig...car-i-bought-has-a-problem-what-are-my-rights
You usually need to read every single bit of fine-print in the warranties, as most of the time I believe they're not worth the paper they're printed on. Mainly check what it covers and what it doesn't cover, then make a decision on whether it's worth it for what it covers. At that age I wouldn't be expecting anything to really go wrong if it's a decent one, so probably better of putting the £750 somewhere else. Don't Vauxhall give 10 year warranties? Might even be life of the vehicle or 10 years, sure I remember them advertising that a while back.
Get a trustworthy garage, assuming you have one in your area, to give the car a once over for obvious signs of failure or impending failure. I would never bother with a warranty on a second hand car, especially one that's as relatively new as yours. Arnold Clark try the hard sell with their warranty and service packs all the time. £500 for 2 years of pestering by text and phone? No thanks.
I've no direct experience with warranties but from everything I've read echos Cerberus' comments. I'd expect you'd be better putting the £750 aside for repairs, and if anything does occur you're in full control, and won't ever be told that "x fault" is not covered. There are plenty of horror stories out there with warranty companies only covering costs of parts and not labour, or not covering whole screeds of faults that might occur. But £750 is £750 in any garage in the country!
No first hand experience, but a friend of mine took out an extended warranty from Kwik Fit (for a couple hundred IIRC), a few months later the car went bang, and they covered the lot, which was in the region of £1500 - so they're not all a waste of money. That said, I'm not sure £750 is good value for money for a warranty on a 12 plate, I'd be surprised if the car racked up anywhere near that much (if anything) in repairs that would be otherwise covered in three years.
I've just started looking into warranties as my car has a paddle shift semi auto gearbox, not something I care to fix myself or pay for. My opinion is if you're going to stress and worry, the £750 might give you peace of mind. If money isn't too tight, save it and more for potential repairs, if it doesn't brake, you've a nice savings pot.
If you think about it buying a warranty is like placing a bet on how much your likely to spend on faults (not service) of the car in the next 3 years. so your betting against Car giant... who knows more about the car you or them... in the case it's them I would assume there likely to want to win the "bet" so to the best of there information your likely to spend less then £750 in the next 3 years. So personally if you have the money to spare, I'd put it away for paying for repairs should they need doing at some point in the future.
If your car has a full service history so far buy yourself a warranty direct from Vauxhall - the manufacturer's ones are usually very reasonably priced, and more often than not they'll pay out. As yoda said in the 2nd post though, within 6 months of purchase it's up to Car Giant to prove that any faults weren't present and the car was fit for sale.
Had a look and the 100k miles / 10 year / lifetime warranty is only for the first owner, the 3 year warranty is transferable, but not the lifetime one.
As mentioned by Thom - find a reputable garage who knows Vauxhalls and get them to give it a health check. It'll cost a bit (not much) and if there's anything not right then you have an independent report from a qualified source which will make getting any refund or rebate that much easier.
I bought one for one of my cars outside of its warranty as I did a lot of research on what can go wrong and the costs involved and decided that due to my use, lots of towing etc, so a lot of stress on drivetrain and suspension components ( a damper is £700 for example due to self levelling kit ) I didn’t want to stump up, it was touch and go at that price whether I bother but on my other car where I did not take the warranty I had just stumped up for new turbo at £1100 so that helped sway me and I went for it , cost me £1500 for 3yrs, 3 months after buying policy they touchscreen failed on the infotainment system, that was £1200.
£1500 for a warranty sounds to me as if the salesman basically knew something was going to go wrong. Especially when they're charging £1200 to replace a touchscreen. I'd hate to see how much they charge to change a headlamp.
About 5 years ago, I bought (from am main dealer) a 2 litre Diesel Mondeo, which at the time of purchase was just under 3 years old with 29k on the clock. At the time, I picked up and extended 3 year warranty for £350-400 from them. It's true that the warranties don't cover every issue and have a bad reputation in general but if the price is right, I would recommend it personally and here is why: In the time my warranty was active, I had over £2,000 worth of work done under 3 different issues, other otherwise I would have had to pay for and that if not, would have made the car un-derivable. I had a break system failure, that would have cost over £700 to resolve. On such a young car, I was shocked to get total front pump failure but there you have it! I had bushes split, giving movement in the trailing arms (an MOT fail item) but because the bushes themselves are not 'modular', the whole wishbone on both sides needs replacing, which by the time you include all the labor involved, was another 700 quid. I had an issue where my starter motor failed and had to have split inter-cooler pipes replaced, I don't recall the exact cost of both, but it was about 500 quid if I recall correctly. I have also been hit by a few things that were not covered, like the notorious bonnet catch failure, which while cheap for the parts (about £35), they have to take half the engine apart to resolve, giving you a whopping £250 bill as a result, as the issue is considered 'wear & tear'. Finally I had a 'light bulb failure' message, that initially looked like simple bulb replacement, however was actually that the various running and stop light would not work at all intermittently. After paying ford £85 quid to diagnose the fault, they said it was a wiring failure (possibly the dreaded water ingress) and would be well north of £1,000 to resolve. It would have been covered by warranty, but thankfully, one of the technicians decided to try a last minute idea to re-seat all the connections and realised one had come 'loose', so they even refunded the diagnostic fee, as I was having it serviced and MOT'd anyway. So yes, these prices are inflated due to it being main dealer costs, but even without that, many of the items covered under warranty would have been pricey to resolve. I think 750 is a bit steep (given what I paid, unless prices have increased) but for peach of mind, it might be worth checking with a 3rd party (warranty direct for example) for a quite and see if you can get good cover for a reasonable price. I like the sentiment that new ish cars should be trouble free (and maybe ford just aren't that reliable, or I have been a bit unlucky) but you never quite know what might go wrong.
Depends if you're handy with a set of spanners. For example matey above £700 quid for a pair of wishbones to be replaced, they cost 50 to 80 quid a side (model and year dependant) and a afternoons work to change, a day tops if they're being particularly stubborn. I've just checked the price to get my Civic covered on a warranty, £420 a year if I maintain a full service history, not worth it for me
A salesman did not sell it to me, we have had the car for years and it had run out of manufacturer warranty. That is the cost for a premium warranty. Unfortunately as with a lot of modern cars you are not replacing a touchscreen, but an entire head unit and as it is not some off the shelf thing from Halfords it's not cheap, cars and eclectronics these days are built for replace not repair. Labour rates is the key my warranty supports upto £200 an hour, unlimited repair and no excess, not bad for 3 yr period I thought, to me it means when I am away should the missus have a problem, she can just take it in to a main dealer and get all the right bits and pieces and have a loan car. Its insurance and like most insurance you buy it to cover possible eventualities but hope to never use it. For my own stuff I am less bothered, I take myself of to somewhere like rampitup and get to play with tools all day which is fine as I have other cars should something be a pain.
You just to know the right people. My guy gives me a full service excluding parts for £60 cash. That includes VIDA software and satnav updates, emissions checks, tracking, the works.
