Are third party warranties worth it?

AK47UK

AK47UK

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My new A3 is a 2010 plate so just outside of warranty. Is it worth buying third party warranties and if so where do you lot recommend? I don't know how complex my 1.8 tfsi engine is but I know parts can be expensive and audi labour is high. I'm used to doing various bits of work on my tdci engine so am capable of some jobs to keep myself running.

mine is a manual so I don't have to worry about the auto gearbox going but thought I would ask for opinions and advice.

cheers
 
AK47UK said:
My new A3 is a 2010 plate so just outside of warranty. Is it worth buying third party warranties and if so where do you lot recommend? I don't know how complex my 1.8 tfsi engine is but I know parts can be expensive and audi labour is high. I'm used to doing various bits of work on my tdci engine so am capable of some jobs to keep myself running.

mine is a manual so I don't have to worry about the auto gearbox going but thought I would ask for opinions and advice.

cheers
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2010 is still quite a new motor. I would personally not bother with the warranty, and put the money aside for a rainy day. Unless you know there's a weak point in the engine that would make it worthwhile? Also, once the car's out of warranty, get it serviced at a local indy, it's going to save you loads over time and labour rates, and I doubt you're getting a worse job than having it done from Audi themselves? Unless having a nice hot coffee and and brand new Audi courtesy car is important to you?
 
I took out an extended warranty with Audi and personally I think its worth it.
 
What kind of price is that sidibear?

I am not aware of any problems with the car and I am the kind of person who is happy to get his hands dirty to save extortionate fees but I am concerned about the price of parts. This is my first decent car so I am trying to get a feel for the best way to maintain it.
 
I have Audi's named components warranty for £42 a month for the last two years. So far I have had more work done than it has cost me in payments.
I had had the dual mass flywheel replaced, oil cooler (inc new expansion tank and coolant flush) air con flap motor and the oil level sensor. The DMF alone cost more than I have spent in warranty payments.
 
Fair enough, that was my concern as I don't have funds to pay for anything if it does go wrong. Are there any know problems with the 1.8 TFSI? I read about DPF problems on the diesels but not much else when it came to A3s.
 
To be honest you would be better off having a look at the A3 section for specific issues.
 
I wouldn't bother with a third party warranty unless its from Audi, then again i wouldn't pay £42 a month for an audi one either.

Fair enough you have had all of the work done, but its all been at Audi labour rates and part prices which we all know is through the roof at and least 50% higher than independent garages, and if the cars out of warranty then really whats the point of using expensive genuine audi parts when the OE parts are just as good if not better....

short answer then, no i wouldn't bother with one, most third party warranties from likes of RAC/AA etc aren't worth the paper they're written on and wont cover sod all in the event of a catastrophic failure.
 
Thanks for the comments, I probably won't bother as I couldn't afford an additional monthly fee ATM as tax is due soon. Just wanted to see what others did :)
 
I would consider it if it was through Audi.etc
The others you see adverts for / warranties through indipendant garages I wouldnt bother with.

Going back a few years now - probably in 2003 / 2004, my grandad purchased a B5 A4 1.8 from carcraft along with the two year extended warranty.
About a year after he purchased the car he had a few issues with the immobiliser & starting (would take me 10 minutes to sort out now with VCDS.etc - but I was 14 at the time!) - it went back to the "workshop" a few times on the back of a flatbed and ended up costing around £550 to rectify - the warranty company did everything they could to get out of footing the bill.
My grandads solicitor went through the paperwork and smallprint - the wording of the smallprint pretty much stated in an indirect way that unless the main block of the engine became faulty they wouldnt pay for anything.
 
I had heard horror stories about some third party warranties...
 
Would Audi cover you as the car is still fairly new?

My A4 is 11 years old, like yourself I have carried out repairs and servicing myself - but I make sure I have abit of a reserve incase anything big / substantial needs doing (ahem, like my camshafts last year!)
 
I thought the warranty expired after 3 years but I may be wrong, as I say the car is running perfectly but moving to a premium brand of car from Ford I wanted to get a feel for what the rest of you do. I had an MG for a little while and the gasket went like it did on all of them, had it fixed and a month later someone went into the back of me and wrote it off...
 
They sometimes cover a partial cost of the final bill if the car is just out of warranty and its service records are up to date etc and all genuine parts have been used, however in a personal case where i had the dreaded ESP fault on my 2006 2.0 BKD Tdi Golf when the car was about year out of warrenty, still under 60k always serviced on time with genuine parts, VW offered to pay 30% of a £1500 bill. To which i told them to stick it where the sun doesnt shine and could have had the job done for £500 elsewhere.
 
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Thanks for that, wouldn't have thought about trying my luck with them but sounds like it's still best to go it alone.
 
AK47UK said:
Thanks for that, wouldn't have thought about trying my luck with them but sounds like it's still best to go it alone.
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Dont want to sound harsh or anything but if you had bought a similar car from audi, obviously you would have paid a premium, but all of those things you mentioned would have been picked up on their MPC and more than likely have been sorted. You would bave also got a full 12 month audi warranty from them.

I do agree buying the car from a main dealer will cost more, but with them being such high value cars its usually worth it.

I just bought my S3 from them & it had a full service and new tyre before i bought it because it was due a service and one of the tyres was under 3mm. Likewise if the car had needed a timing belt, brakes, pads etc.

However these are all things i check before buying any used car and will tell the dealer ill only take it if they are sorted or else i just walk away, even if its the car of my dreams.. then again hindsight is a wonderful thing....!
 
The thing is, in a national search the closest car Audi have to sell to mine is £4000 more than I paid and I wanted a white one (which I got).

Someone I know works for Audi, he is a servicing manager (or something along those lines) and any car I was looking at he would check the history on their db. The car I bought has a full Audi service history and he said it was perfect, he had even been the one dealing this particular cars servicing. I did ask him to let me know if anything came into his Audi dealership but nothing had come in by the time I found my car :)
 
AK47UK said:
The thing is, in a national search the closest car Audi have to sell to mine is £4000 more than I paid and I wanted a white one (which I got).

Someone I know works for Audi, he is a servicing manager (or something along those lines) and any car I was looking at he would check the history on their db. The car I bought has a full Audi service history and he said it was perfect, he had even been the one dealing this particular cars servicing. I did ask him to let me know if anything came into his Audi dealership but nothing had come in by the time I found my car :)
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Fair enough, £4k is alot though unless it had really low miles or a mega spec & an s-tronic box or something!! I paid about £1500 over what a similar car was going for from a non franchise dealer however the one i got had £6000's worth of options added to it when it was new, so the extra money really didnt make any difference!!
 
This is a 2010 plate on 30k miles which is about the same as most from Audi (25-35k) and it has a fair few upgrades inc. Black Pack, Xenons etc. It was supposed ot have heated seats but doesn't, that was a bit annoying... Not sure if they can be retrofitted, would love full leathers with heating but ebay prices are £500-700 so will give it a miss :p
 
I wouldnt worry about anything going wrong with it if its on 30k miles mate, as long as its servicing is up to date im sure it will be fine. enjoy the new motor. I think heated can be retrofitted but as you say it isnt cheap unfortunatly!!!
 
Worth contacting Audi uk for a price. Think you'll be surprised at how much their warranty costs and less than warranty direct that's for sure. Cost me approx £450 on my 58 plate TT for full cover upto 12k a year. Just a thought.
 
Thanks mate, will take al ook when I have some spare funds, need my alloys refurbed as the previous owner wasn't very careful!
 
Them warranties arent worth the money they are printed on! (Speaking from experience!) Stick with getting your car serviced by Audi and if anything goes wrong, there's a good chance they will contribute! (- that's what Audi UK told me!).
Also stick with getting your MOT's done by Audi as they come with a free warrenty if anything that was checked goes wrong.
 
Mine paid for itself with 1 claim through Audi. No hassle, no fuss.
 
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ScottishS3 said:
Them warranties arent worth the money they are printed on! (Speaking from experience!) Stick with getting your car serviced by Audi and if anything goes wrong, there's a good chance they will contribute! (- that's what Audi UK told me!).
Also stick with getting your MOT's done by Audi as they come with a free warrenty if anything that was checked goes wrong.
Click to expand...

I was told this yesterday, certainly something to think about!
 
I pay £200 for the RAC one, got my money back just getting the headlight washers replaced. The form filling was a bit of a hassel but I reckon its better than nothing and it will be easy enough to rack up that amount of repairs year on year, just about to contact them about my reversing sensors so will see how that goes.
 
PS If I had a newer car (and deeper pockets) I may be tempted to stick with Audi for work that needs done but their labour charges are ridiculous, fair enough a brain surgeon charging £150 an hour for labour but a mechanic, that's right up there with a bent politician:) Local non franchise VAG specialist, parts from TPS, cheap warranty to take some of the pain out of any unexpected heavy bill for me
 
No forms to fill in when my warranty work was done with audi. Even had a brand spanking new car to drive around in while the work was being done.
 
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