Extended Warranties

[Katherine30]

Hi

I'd be really grateful for any advice anyone could offer.

I own a VW Golf GT TDI 140 BHP 05 plate, which I purchased from new. The 3 year warranty is due to expire May 18th 2008 and I have been offered the option of purchasing a 12 month unlimited mileage warranty cover for £439, including roadside assistance, from Volkswagon Approved Warranty Administration Services. The cover level is 'All Component' cover - ie, virtually all factory-fitted mechanical and electrical components of the car, against failure. I have almost done 60,000 miles and the 18th May is approaching fast, so I don't have long to decide whether to take it out. I have never had to use the existing warranty, and so far, the car seems to be running fun, except for a couple of things. See beow. The car has climate control, electric heated wing mirrors, electric front and rear windows, heated seats & water jets and a 6 cd player, so there are quite a few things that could go wrong I suppose, and the extended warranty would not cover wear and tear. I do about 20,000 miles a year.

My car is booked in for a service and it's first MOT 19th May, and I have asked them to go over the car.

My climate control did play up a few weeks ago (stopped working) and the drivers side electric window can also play up (keeps dropping when I try to close it), both of which are intermittent problems, and if I switch the car off then back on, the climate control seems to sort itself out, which I have told my VW garage about, and they have said that if there are any problems, they will fix them under my existing warranty as I have already told them about the problems and they are logged. My rear wiper also stoped working once a few weeks ago! I have read that the climate control is a known problem, but are there any others?

Do you think the extended warranty is worth it/the cover is comprehensive enough?

HELP!

Katherine

[kmac9909]

At £439 for 12 months is a real toss up. With these cars though I would probably take the extended warranty option only becasue - if something goes wrong, they charge a hefty fee just to use the VAG Com to "diagnose" a fault. So you could end up paying the best part of £100 just for a diagnosis.

£439 is a bit steep though - I think a fairer value would be £300. Given your high mileage it would definatley make sense to get an extended warranty.

[architect]

This was a big issue for me too. I have the same car and it's warrantee has just run out. 'We' decided to not to renew as it seemed too much, but got my wife to acknowledge that this could be an expensive mistake!! I had a few things sorted under warrantee including stereo, emissions sensor, bonnet catch and finally new shock absorber and rear windscreen motor on the day of its first MOT.
Make sure the dealer knows of all your problems as they replaced my rear windscreen motor without question.
At the end of the day if I had the money I think I would have continued with an extended warrantee, but I convinced myself that I could absorb a one off repair payment if required providing it doesn't happen too often! You could of course set aside an equivalent sum of money, which would go towards any repairs, but not to VW. Finally I think you will have a week or two grace period to decide on extending especially if you do it through vw uk rather than your dealer.