Interesting read.
I think it is difficult to assess whether the warranty is worthwhile or not without research. Some vaio screens cost staggering amounts. A significant fraction of PS3s shipped with a blue ray diode that dies about 18 months in, and which sony have now stopped making. That's a very large number of ps3s which are essentially beyond repair by anyone other than sony, who in fairness have corrected the issue with newer consoles. I suspect they replace a large fraction of the console, as the new diode assembly doesn't seem at all compatible with the broken systems. Xbox 360s drop like flies, a 3 year warranty on one is very likely to pay for itself.
The ideal approach is to research the components in the device you're considering buying, and get estimates for replacing the big ones. An Inspiron 1525 motherboard is pretty cheap since there's thousands of the things, but finding one for a Medion would be maddening. With the exception of Apple, I think a good idea is to visit a local computer repair shop and ask their advice. You want a common one which they never see, or failing that estimates for a new screen/inverter/motherboard/optical bay for whatever you're looking at.
If a new board is £300 and the laptop famously dies from gpu overheating, the extended warranty may just be worthwhile.
I wonder how many people on these boards can repair motherboards. I certainly can't, while I'm sure I can replace components if I source identical ones I definitely can't take a soldering iron to a motherboard. I guess this is the position most of us are in.
Too true dmpoole. I genuinely don't get it, but people really don't seem to care.
but even so, given the choice id do it again. i cant fault the laptop at all. it's under-powered gpu-wise but everything else is still right up there and im sure it will be in another years time 
A single component could cost £500 to repair worse case scenario such as the mainboard.
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