Skoda Care Pack - worth the price?

[noileum]

So we're picking up our new (to us) Octavia in a week or so and have been given the option to purcahse their 3 Year Care Pack including

 

1. SupaGard £495
2. Smart Cover £499
3. Gap Insurance £395
4. Tyre & Alloy £395
5. Protection Pack £195

 

Has anyone taken these out, and if so how have you found them?  I'm leaning towards only bothering with the Smart Cover as having the peace of mind that I'll be able to sort out little chips and door dents etc and possiby putting different alloys on anyway (and not sure that the cover applies to aftermarked wheels)  

 

I'd be interested to hear peoples views on these 'offers'.  My thinking is that you can probably get the supagard effect done cheaper from an independant company, and Gap insurance seems like a 

[ahenners]

How much is the care pack?

 

Gap insurance can almost definitely be had for less with ALA and the PISTON12 discount code.

 

Depending on what model you are getting, the tyre and alloy insurance may not be worthwhile. I'm sure another member recently posted saying the alloy cover didn't cover diamond cut wheels - which are fitted to the VRS and possibly other models.

[SC03OTT]

1. Nope

2. Nope

3. Yes but not at that price. 

4. Nope

5. Nope 

 

Stick some money in a separate account every month to cover these things. It'll be cheaper in the long run. Plus if you don't use it it's money saved.  

[WayTooTall]

To give you an idea of prices for GAP insurance, I got 5 years GAP on a £16000 car for £295 by shopping around.

[noileum]

thanks for the replies

[SC03OTT]

Even that seems pricy. 

[noileum]

We're just about at the top of our budget (after we factor in towbar & roof rails which we will need to get fitted before the school summer hols) so I will probably give them a miss.  

 

I guess these are ok if you use them to their full potential but the chances of that seem slim

[john999boy]

Check out the Briskoda link for Gap insurance.

[Shmoo]

2 hours ago, SC03OTT said:

1. Nope

2. Nope

3. Yes but not at that price. 

4. Nope

5. Nope 

 

Stick some money in a separate account every month to cover these things. It'll be cheaper in the long run. Plus if you don't use it it's money saved.  

 

This ^^

 

Our Gap insurance covers up to a value of £30k and was c. £110 for three years with Gapinsurance.co.uk - who I believe I read about on here.

[fergiet]

My wife collected her new Mini last week. The dealer offered all these services at a price.

 

Getting paint protected and coated for about 25% of the superguard price by a "proper" auto detailer.

Her 4yr GAP ins is from ALA and is about £160.

 

The other items are very expensive.

[DAN@ADRIAN FLUX]

Hi,

Just to let you know that we offer a product called Total Loss Protection.

Whilst it's not exactly the same as your traditional GAP product we feel for some customer profiles it can offer a cost effective simple alternative.

https://www.adrianflux.co.uk/extras/total-loss/

Regards,

Dan.

[threadbear]

I paid £145 for a protection pack in February. Includes mudflaps, full set of carpet mats and a boot liner. Everything else declined. 

 

Do my own car cleaning etc, and smart cover did not include stone chips on the bonnet. All those prices are more than I was quoted. 

Edited 4 April, 2017 by threadbear

[glosrich]

20 hours ago, noileum said:

We're just about at the top of our budget (after we factor in towbar & roof rails which we will need to get fitted before the school summer hols) so I will probably give them a miss.  

 

I guess these are ok if you use them to their full potential but the chances of that seem slim

 

Check out www.roofbox.co.uk for roof bars, cycle carriers etc, a lot cheaper than Skoda.

 

Dealers make their money out of all these insurances. Unless somehow you manage to claim a lot, they really aren't worth it. Just deal with problems as they arise.

 

 

 

Edited 4 April, 2017 by glosrich

[Jono]

If you insure as little as you can possibly get away with* for your entire life, you will win overall.

 

 

*House, Car, Medical repatriation, is where I draw my line.

Edit. I have no dependents and fairly good sickleave, death, critical illness conditions from my employer.

 

 

Edited 4 April, 2017 by Jono
addition

[noileum]

21 hours ago, Jono said:

If you insure as little as you can possibly get away with* for your entire life, you will win overall.

 

 

*House, Car, Medical repatriation, is where I draw my line.

Edit. I have no dependents and fairly good sickleave, death, critical illness conditions from my employer.

 

 

 

yeah, that's true.  

 

I'm also in a position where I have good cover from work, and the house/contents are insured.  This is the most expensive car I've bought, and never had to experience a write off claim in 20 + years of driving (including a few accidents in my younger days) so perhaps I'm being naive in thinking that my insurance will cover the loss/replacement of the car should it get written off . . .

 

Will look into GAP insurance in more detail before picking it up

[Geek42]

On ‎04‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 13:11, Jono said:

If you insure as little as you can possibly get away with* for your entire life, you will win overall.

 

On average, as a whole population, then this has to be true or else the insurance companies would all be bust!

 

I also use this kind of philosophy with insurance (and I have dependants), but the specific way is to ask myself 'can I stump up to cover it myself?' (assuming it's not a legal requirement). I do not have the readies to rebuild my house in the event that it burns down, so irrespective of my mortgage lenders requirements I would take insurance anyway, but I most definitely have the readies to replace the £20 clock-radio I bought in Dixons. Whether you can cover the insurance 'gap' yourself when you drive a car off the forecourt and have an immediate smash is not so clear cut, but over a whole lifetime of vehicles you're likely to be better off overall without.

 

I certainly wouldn't stump up an extra £2k for the list of extras you outlined at the start, I'd put that in a pot as the start of my self-insurance fund.

[Cymru Blackline]

Jeez, thieving gits !

 

1. SupaGard £495 - Pay around £150 (Autoglym Lifeshine is better product in my experience though). Try professional valeting business, who should still be way cheaper and very likely better quality than dealer.
2. Smart Cover £499 - never used, but my dent removals / paint touch ups over 3 years never came near that amount.
3. Gap Insurance £395 - as previous response, around <£150 for 3 years if you go direct.
4. Tyre & Alloy £395 - Wheels are expensive to replace. Does it cover repairing the diamond cut/polished edges of the vRS alloys, as some don't.
5. Protection Pack £195 - depends what this includes, but you can get decent price mudflaps, rubber mats, etc from Superskoda.

Enjoy the car !