Would you keep your car out of warranty?

[warren_S5]

Given your personal experiences of Audi service, the reliability of your car during its lifetime, and your personal ownership preferences, would you keep your Audi A3/S3 outside of warranty?

Be interested to see poll results, so would be grateful if you could fill it in!

 

[crypric23]

no

 

[smudge_don]

From what i've experience with my last 2 A3's, not a chance in hell

I'm using a 3rd party warranty company just in case

Worrying enough when you need a new DSG box and flywheel at just 26,000miles

 

[PaulAr]

Depends, mine has been pretty good and dealer experience fairly painless so far (although a mate has had a nightmare with the same dealer).

So based on personal experience, the answer is yes, in fact the current plan is to run mine for another 12months and it will be 3 yr old in Oct.

However if the car had been a pup and the dealer a **** then probably not.

That would go for any car/brand. PORSCHE, BMW, etc....if the opwnership experience had been a difficult one then I wouldnt keep the car out of warranty.

Cheers
Paul

 

[waring192]

I would say yes. I would maybe say no if nothing went wrong during the 3 years.

 

[smudge_don]

I'm just glad that my local Audi have been so good to me. I must have been in there now at least 30 times over the last 18months, and they are always happy to help and happy to see me

Just a shitter that usually i have to end up forking over a load of cash to sort problems

 

[dave_ph]

i'm keeping mine when it goes out of warrenty in july - just trying to find as many problems with it now while its in warrenty! so far its had to have a software update to sort the electric windows out because they kept loosing their memory for 1-touch, and its waiting on a new headunit because thats alledgadly causing 1 of the speakers to be intermitant. oh yea, it also had a new air con pump

with the audi dealer here charging 45quid just to tell you "exactly" what the problem is, its not a realistic option to use them outside of warrenty unless your minted. especially when you have to tell them what the problem is in the first place....

 

[smudge_don]

It's ridiculous how much German reliability has gone downhill in the last 5 years

 

[JohnS3]

Erm, I would have said yes, but recent events have made me change my mind. My new car is specced with a 5 year warranty!

 

[warren_S5]

Erm, I would have said yes, but recent events have made me change my mind. My new car is specced with a 5 year warranty!

Did you not fancy waiting for the RS3 John? (assuming the dealers aren't making it up?)

 

[JohnS3]

I imagine the cost difference will put it out of my budget

 

[NHN]

Well based on my S3 for 7 years then yes as it had virtually nothing done to it interms of faults, now with my A3 TDI yes I would with the knowledge gained on them now, but if I didnt know what I know now then probably not.

 

[Matt]

I've still to decide yet! Depends if I can get a decent warranty thats actually worth the paper its written on. Audi want a hell of a lot of money for their own. Any one want to recommend a good one?

 

[PH1L]

simply put yes, ive bought the s3 out of warrenty and i kept the a3 outside of warrenty fantastic reliable cars with manual boxes not sure about the dsg i wouldnt have one

 

[KRL]

I intend on keeping my S3 for at least another 2.5 - 3 years. It is 2.5 years old at the moment so I have not got too long left on the warranty. Before the S3 I drove A3 2.0 TFSI trouble free for 3 years and 75k miles so I am hoping I can do the same with the S3.

I think if you are vigilant and try to keep on top of any potential issues as quickly as possible there is no reason why the car should not last. Even if you are modified

 

[BigBird]

My S3s out of warranty now after a final check over. Been okay, but a warranty covered £900 for a new air con compressor made me think hard about the out of warranty costs. It's been pretty faultless, but I'll be trusting my local independent garage from here on in.

As for warranties Matt, there's all sorts been written - mostly by aggreived people who've had payouts refused! The Quentin Wilson one seemed okay the other day when I was looking at it and seemed clearly written, but when I looked at the final cost screen it had suddenly jumped £50 from the confirmed quote, so I stopped there. Some warranties I looked at had really low maximum claim limits that wouldn't even start to cover costs to fix a knackered S3.
I'd also love to know if such a thing as a decent warranty exists, but I think I know the answer...

 

[Spin140]

I'd agree with the majority of posts and say Yes I would keep the car if required out of warranty, I guess I'm one of the lucky ones and haven't had any issues, the other factor to consider is how many of the faults experienced are as a direct result of us modding our cars ? You also have to ask yourself if your car is modified how much of it is actually covered anyway during the first 3 years ?

If I were to keep a car for this length of time I would opt to put a lttle away each month in a savings account rather than buying an aftermarket warranty, so many exclusions and Insurance comapnies do love to wriggle.

One benefit of A3 ownership is that after the initial 3 years, depreciation rapidly slows so, in effect you could enjoy some economical motoring in your prestige brand.

 

[PaulAr]

I'd agree with the majority of posts and say Yes I would keep the car if required out of warranty, I guess I'm one of the lucky ones and haven't had any issues, the other factor to consider is how many of the faults experienced are as a direct result of us modding our cars ? You also have to ask yourself if your car is modified how much of it is actually covered anyway during the first 3 years ?

If I were to keep a car for this length of time I would opt to put a lttle away each month in a savings account rather than buying an aftermarket warranty, so many exclusions and Insurance comapnies do love to wriggle.

One benefit of A3 ownership is that after the initial 3 years, depreciation rapidly slows so, in effect you could enjoy some economical motoring in your prestige brand.

Some good points here:thumbsup:

 

[*ace*]

Fortunately, Audi's in South Africa have 5year/100 000km Freeway plan...

 

[Brett Butler]

I intend to keep mine, but ofc 3 yrs is a long time, and it all depends on all the trouble I have, I EXPECT none though

 

[A3simon]

i generally dont keep my cars more than 2-3 years anyway

 

[N8]

Yes my car is 3 years old March 2011, and I will deffo have it beyond that.

 

[Brett Butler]

hmm interesting that some DSG owners want shot of it? ,,,,, any reasons why, I love my DSG so far

 

[remslie20]

I will be keeping my 57 140 tdi s-line but my first year of ownership has been far from plane sailing! 7 trips to Audi for ESP faults which (fingers crossed) have now been fixed, a bust electric window motor, faulty central locking and various new very annoying creeks and rattles inside. I will not however be using Audi for any work required on the car after the warranty goes as i feel for the money you pay the service and knowledge is very average (my personal experience). Ther are a few local garages who i trust that are less than half the price that Audi charge. How can they justify charging more than the likes of Skoda for the same parts??!

 

[A3simon]

Yes my car is 3 years old March 2011, and I will deffo have it beyond that.

You cant sell it anyway as we are all waiting to see it finished

 

[Sarah's A3]

Mines well out of warranty and has DSG, I'm lucky, we have a fab Indi VW/Audi garage but have had bad issues on other Audis in the past but all were modded! So as said above, moddin can/may lead to more problems than normal. But yes, would have them out of warranty!