Have a 1.4 Fabia 2, manufacturers warranty due to expire end of September and I would like to buy an extended warranty that includes roadside assistance. Getting confused by information from two local skoda dealers - both seem a bit vague and I don't want to buy something that is useless. Bought car from Willis in Ruislip and they seemed knowledgeable (said it is exactly like the original Skoda one and includes roadside assistance) - only thing is we live quite a distance from them. Would local dealers accept their warranty ie can you use it anywhere? Sorry if I sound a bit thick! I've been very happy with this Fabia and want to hold on to it for a bit longer. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

Have a 1.4 Fabia 2, manufacturers warranty due to expire end of September and I would like to buy an extended warranty that includes roadside assistance. Getting confused by information from two local skoda dealers - both seem a bit vague and I don't want to buy something that is useless. Bought car from Willis in Ruislip and they seemed knowledgeable (said it is exactly like the original Skoda one and includes roadside assistance) - only thing is we live quite a distance from them. Would local dealers accept their warranty ie can you use it anywhere? Sorry if I sound a bit thick! I've been very happy with this Fabia and want to hold on to it for a bit longer. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

I wanted to buy one from Skoda too for my Octavia and got fed up with the local dealer and customer support fobbing me off. James at Allams gave me a very good price but I live too far away to make it practical so I went with warranty direct who have a huge number of benefits over the skoda warranty.

Give them a call or look at their website for prices - be very aware they want your business and I knocked about 50% off the original price they quoted me.

I paid £280 for a years cover on their top plan which is unlimited mileage - the other benefit is you can use a VAT registered indy for servicing and do not have to be stuck with a skoda dealer.

Tom

I think the Skoda extended warrenty is about £370 as I was offered this last week but I have heard good things about warrenty direct so it might be worthwhile looking into them.

Have a 1.4 Fabia 2, manufacturers warranty due to expire end of September and I would like to buy an extended warranty that includes roadside assistance. Getting confused by information from two local skoda dealers - both seem a bit vague and I don't want to buy something that is useless. Bought car from Willis in Ruislip and they seemed knowledgeable (said it is exactly like the original Skoda one and includes roadside assistance) - only thing is we live quite a distance from them. Would local dealers accept their warranty ie can you use it anywhere? Sorry if I sound a bit thick! I've been very happy with this Fabia and want to hold on to it for a bit longer. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

Hi moysie, having worked in the motor trade I can tell you used car warranties are a very mixed bag. There are some good ones but they are few and far between and very expensive and many dealers don't want to be associated with them due to the poor reputation many of the warranty companies have. This is why it is often difficult to buy one from a dealer. Most appear to offer something as good as the manufacturers warranty, but if you read the very very small print, they don't offer anything but a basic cover even if they purport to do more. And getting them to pay out on a claim is often a very difficult job unless your car goes wrong on a Wednesday afternoon between 2-3pm. Well, it's not quite that bad...but I think you know what I mean. Over the years I've frequently had customers who have, for example, had an alternator pack up on a relatively new car just out of warranty. We had the car for rectification but the owner had come back to us to say his/her warranty hasn't covered the fault due to it being 'just wear and tear'! And this is the problem. A manufacturer warranty covers you against premature failure due to faulty manufacture, not wear and tear. And most of the after sales warranties are the same. So our client has paid several hundreds of pounds for a warranty and then paid out again for a new alternator which wasn't covered under the plan. And yes...I know you can buy a plan that will cover some wear and tear items. But have you seen the cost? It makes the cost of funding the repair yourself a much cheaper option (it usually is anyway). And remember, your car is very unlikely to break down.

To get a good warranty you will pay a very large sum for a years cover, often more than the cost of a high mileage service charge. This can be hundreds of pounds. The average car, especially a Skoda doesn't go wrong and if it does it won't cost much to fix it, usually less than the cost of an extra warranty. Why not just buy a good roadside assistance plan and have the peace of mind that if you do breakdown you will be rescued and probably fixed at the roadside for next to nothing.

The above is excellent advice, I would do exactly as posted and just get a decent breakdown cover.

Thank you very much for all your replies. From the responses I had from the two local dealers I had a feeling the warranties they would sell me might not be much cop. Your advice about good roadside assistance sounds good! Thanks again.

3rd party warrenty companies... HATE paying out and will only do the very bare minimum in alot of cases to fix the car. Proper main dealer warrenty will pay for alot of just incase items. 3rd party will fight hard not to pay out in many cases and can really mess people about. So if you go with a 3rd party one, each warrenty job needs to be air tight and you need to really check the work they have done and the parts used.

Frozen, you are exactly right!

PS. Welcome to the site...

Edited 21 August, 201015 yr by Estate Man