The Extended Warranty question

[stoofa]

Morning All,
My Octy vRS is a month shy of three years old (27,000 miles on clock). Soon the manufacturers warranty will finish.
I've been looking at Skoda's own extended warranty - it covers the majority of things the original one does, a few exceptions which I've read through, they are acceptable and cover mainly wear & tear items.
Options are:
£0 excess - £400
£100 excess - £340
£250 excess - £260

I also lose Skoda Assistance (RAC Roadside, Relay, Home Start, Relay Plus, European Cover).
They are offering renewals at:
1yr - £99
2yr - £155

I know there are varying opinions on extended warranty, end of the day all down to how risk adverse I am etc.
Just wondered on the knowledge of many to gain some thoughts etc.

 

[Kenai]

I took it up for mine, all component, £0 excess, over 15,000 miles per year.

If you haven't had a water pump/thermostat failure yet (mine went at just over 40,000 miles and under 3 years old, so original manufacturer warranty covered it), it's probably imminent and will pretty much pay for the warranty (despite being so common i'm not sure they acknowledge it as a 'known issue' and do anything as good will outside of warranty).

Beyond that there are only a few things that worry me for replacement but could be expensive - DSG is one, the boxes themselves in the vRS aren't inherently unreliable but the park detection switch in the selector can fail, LED headlights is another, any fault with those is essentially 'buy a new headlight unit'.

 

[gailjon]

I think an extended warranty is worth it on modern cars. They do break and being able to just get the dealer to put things right is a real comfort.

I have had extended warranties on a Volve XC90 which we owned from new, and it needed work, all covered. I also had an A6 avant owned from new and it needed work at 3.5 years old, all covered.

Perhaps the most compelling was an A6 saloon, owned from new, that had £1900 worth of piston issues mere weeks after the manufacturers warranty ran out. Once again all covered by the extended warranty.

I know that these don't happen to everyone but they can and they do happen to some people. For the sake of £33, £28 or £21 a month, it seems a good deal to have no worries at all. In these times you may be saving that on the missed trips to Starbucks!

 

[[TW]Fox]

The prices on that are very good. I have the BMW equivalent on my 5 Series and is significantly more expensive. As a result, I felt the £100 excess option gave the right balance as it worked out cheaper if I didn't claim, the same price if I did and only more expensive than no excess if I had 2 or more claims. However, the differential on the Skoda one is smaller and and it's cheap anyway so I'd be tempted by the zero hassle approach of the zero excess.

Skoda Assistance wise - not familiar with the product but very familiar with the BMW product. I imagine they are similar, but things to check for are as follows.

I pay an extra £70 a year for the BMW Emergency Service package. This isn't AA cover and includes hire cars, full onward travel cover, European cover, hotels, etc etc. For this I felt the extra was worth it. Do note that with the BMW product even if you opt for no breakdown cover you still get, included in the warranty, roadside recovery away from home to the nearest main dealer. Perhaps the Skoda one also offers this, check if it does.

If it really is just AA cover then it should be easy to shop around and get it cheaper somewhere else, the notable exception there being it offers full European cover. If you need this, then that makes it a very good deal as proper European cover is extremely expensive normally. If you never intend to leave the UK with the car then I'd imagine you can do better.

 

[stoofa]

Thanks for the responses.
Mine is a Manual Petrol, so obviously no DSG and the water pump issues "appears" to be most prevalent in the Diesel - but I do see people with both reporting.
As mentioned, the LED lights are expensive and exposed (when maybe they should be better protected) things like an AC compressor are silly money.

With regards the breakdown - fully agree with Fox, it is a good price if the European cover is being used - I'm rarely driving abroad and I think on the odd day-trip there are day policies available.
I don't think Skoda Assistance offers a great deal over an equivalent AA package, but does appear cheaper (on the AA site, if I take vehicle cover and add-in Home, National Recovery & Onward Travel I quickly reach £169/year).
A quick look at Green Flag and I can get an "everything except European cover" for £53/year.

 

[Kenai]

the water pump issues "appears" to be most prevalent in the Diesel - but I do see people with both reporting.

Yeah, I wasn't expecting to worry about it in a 245 until I saw my coolant was just below the min marker a few weeks before it was due to go for first MOT, turned out to be the typical pump/stat housing failure.

 

[[TW]Fox]

don't think Skoda Assistance offers a great deal over an equivalent AA package, but does appear cheaper (on the AA site, if I take vehicle cover and add-in Home, National Recovery & Onward Travel I quickly reach £169/year).

Don't forget there are usually significant amounts of cashback on those policies from the usual cashback sites.

Quidco offering £68 cashback for AA policies over £151.

 

[Clearcut]

Options are:
£0 excess - £400
£100 excess - £340
£250 excess - £260

I'm no mathematician but wouldn't you save £40 getting the £0 excess over the £100?

 

[Dangerous Dave]

I'm no mathematician but wouldn't you save £40 getting the £0 excess over the £100?

Only if you make a claim, I expect very few cars need work between 3 & 4 years old.

I've put extended warranties on all our cars, they have always had more work than the cost of warranty in the end. I thought I was going to end up down on a F11 but it ended up getting almost all the suspension replaced along with diff/gearbox and engine mounts (I still think this was a little it has an extended warranty lets just go super critical on the state of the bushes etc, it had a clean MOT 6 months before hand, it however felt super tight when I got it back so the bits they replaced had degraded over new). I might have got the work down for less than the warranty costs by going to other garages or doing the work myself but I can't be bothered with the hassle, time & effort on finding a good garage/arranging the work.