I had a phone call from a company called Car Protect yesterday evening. They were trying to sell me an extended warranty on my 56 reg Octavia.

They clearly had all my details from somewhere, and I got the impression that those details may have come from Skoda (that may have been deliberate on their part). I was somewhat surprised by this as I though the Skoda warranty was three years and my car is coming up for four years old.

They where trying to sell me their prestige cover for £22/month over two years. It seems to cover most major items but never having looked into extended warranties on a car before and I was wondering what the general opinion was, what the possible gotchas are and how competitive the price was.

Cheers on advance.

Do a search there are several threads on warranties - I bought a Skoda extended from Allams (site sponsor) at a very competitive price.

Unlikely Skoda passed your details to a 3rd party as they do their own but its possible whoever services your car did - garage rather than Skoda direct

Do a search there are several threads on warranties - I bought a Skoda extended from Allams (site sponsor) at a very competitive price.

May I ask what they charged and what the level of cover was ? My warranty expires in Nov so will be looking.....

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/166324-im-in-two-minds/

Just don't use a company called Auto Protect Ltd.

I took a policy with them on my last vehicle. I was informed by the dealership that if anything (as this was top of the range Gold policy) went wrong, ring them and they would arrange for the issue to be fixed / replaced.

I had to have the near side window motor replaced as the window would not go up, 3 months after purchase - so i rang them and they said they would take care of everything - which they did. I took it to an independant garage who replaced it, they paid the bill directly, etc.. I even got a receipt from Auto Protect stating what work had been done and they had paid it.

I rang them 10 months after buying it (still 2 months left on the 12 month policy), as the turbo and intercooler had blown and needed replacing.

I was then informed that their top of the range policy was only a "dealer backed policy" and as the dealership had gone bust I didn't have a leg to stand on.

After reading through all of their literature, policy details and terms and conditions, no where did it state that it was a Dealership backed policy. When I drew this to their attention they responded with "Ohh well, maybe you should have asked more questions when you bought the car".

I wrote some very nice, but firm letters to the company, advising them of my rights and all the rest of it and they responded with a rather rude letter stating that they had investigated my claim and found that they do not have to honour it.

I presented all of this information to the Financial Ombudsman who agreed that their policy was misleading, but I'd have to take civil action against them (which could run into more than the cost of the repairs).

I then wrote them a letter informing them that I had sought legal advice and would be prepared to take legal action against them - their response was a letter stating that their legal department had carefully and meticulasly crafted their policy documents, so they knew they were not in breach of any terms - So basically they said they had mislead me with enough legal "get out" to be fine.

I then got a call from their sales team asking if I would be interested in extending my warranty for a further 12 months at a discount rate.. After a quick chat with the bloke, I informed him that I was considering legal action against them - to my surprise he responded with "we get a lot of people telling us that they are not happy with the last year's policy trying to re-sell.."

So - BEWARE.. Some people may have personal experience of Auto Protect and may be very happy with them...

My personal experience tells me never to touch them with a barge pole ever again..