Hi all,

Not sure if I'm posting in the correct section but I received a letter from Skoda yesterday to say that my Fabia's used car warrenty was due to expire and that I could ectend the warrenty by another year for £349.

Now it got me and SWMBO think, if we should take it for another year which would work out £34.90 a month or should we not bother, the plus sides are breakdown cover and think it would cover the gear box, engine etc, but the only downside is the cost if nothing went wrong with the car over the year if nothing went wrong with it.

Has anybody ever had this and what have they done in regards to it?

Hope you can help.

How about you put £34.90 a month in to a savings account as a "car repair backup" fund?

If Skoda are offering breakdown and whatever warranties for £34.90 a month, that means that on average each car that they cover costs less than £34.90 a month to keep running. In fact, significantly less, as they will be making a profit on these schemes.

Bearing that in mind, are you prepared to take the relatively small risk that your car won't break down in the following year, and even if it does it won't cost you £350 to fix it? I know I would take that risk.

You've also got the added bonus of if you car happens not to break down for a couple of years, you've got £700 lying around that you could spend on upgrading your car or even changing it for a newer one.

The reason I think this is a better idea than taking the warranty is that it is likely that the warranty gets out of sorting out all sorts of things. I know a few people have had problems replacing turbos under these extended warranty schemes. What's the point in paying £350 a year for something that isn't even guaranteed to pay out? :(

Does this take into account any of your mods Davy ??

Will your warranty still be valid ?

Very true Johnny, I never thought of that, more than likely it will not, I think Yegnold has a good idea re a savings account through, I've been thinking it through and I can get breakdown cover with my insurance when it comes up for renewal or just purchase a aa membership which would work out cheaper.

I agree with the saving it yourself idea, but my car's covered under a used car warranty when I bought it from a Skoda dealer, and it's had ~£1300 of work done to it, all ok'd by the warranty people...

Just something to note!

Thats what worries me to some extent the car has had warrenty work already on it in nearly a year of owning it, you never know what could go wrong next but my dad was saying it's not worth it when he looked at the letter last night.

I'm not sure what other people would say, but I'd say that if you look after your car and treat it as something that is breakable, rather than an invincible machine (ie avoid driving through pot holes / over particularly rough ground if possible) and warm the engine gently during the winter months, the likelihood of needing warranty work is quite low.

My VRS has been looked after and (touch wood) in the last 2.5 years it's been in my family, the only things that have gone wrong have been through driver error (Bent wishbone) or have been tiny electrical faults (broken reverse light wire), and the usual console bushes. Oh, leaky doors too. The total cost to repair all of that is well under £300.

Unfortunately all insurance is in the bracket of " a necessary evil". It tends to test sods law to the limit. It has to be personnal choice. Must admit I tend to risk it and hang on to my money!!

I should add that none of the warranty work I had done was major... the amount is due to the massive labour charges main dealers have!

It was basically an electric mirror motor, a/c compressor, and a window regulator

I was recently told by an AA patrol that if you are an AA member you can take out an insurance warranty for around £65 for the year, you can claim up to a maximum of £500 upto 4 times. There is an excess of £25 on each claim. Apparently it will cover things like window regulators.

This is worth looking into.

Thats what worries me to some extent the car has had warrenty work already on it in nearly a year of owning it, you never know what could go wrong next but my dad was saying it's not worth it when he looked at the letter last night.

I got a lifetime warranty, (special deal) on my VRS

Nothing is covered except the air in the tyres, and that is as long as the pressure stays between 30 and 33lbs psi and the car never having been driven above twenty miles per hour,

The lifetime cover is only if you have the car fully serviced every 6k miles and renew it each year between 09:00 and 11:20 on the fifth wednesday in Febuary with proof receipts

The Febuary bit was embelishment, the rest is true

Breakdown cover is usually included with most bank accounts

If you know "your" car and do not batter it, then you will know the answer

My own car, and my driving style, I would save the money in a pot

National

well most of the driving is around town and I do tend to look after the car a lot more than the others that I have owned before, prob because it is the most expensive car I've owned in 7 years of driving, the only time it gets ragged is now and again but not very often, check the oil etc every week. I think I'm just going to save the cash and put it towards potential repairs or a new car.