Warranty advice

bolger

bolger

bolger

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21 Jul 2006
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Location
Motherwell, Scotland
Currently got a Audi a4 2.0 Se Multitronic, wondering if anyone could assist me in my decisions.

Firstly, last week, the oil pump gave way, leaving me with a £900 bill.

Next, the multitronic gearbox started juttering between changing gear, getting progressively worse as the weeks went on. After a bit of research, i found that this gearbox is well known for problems and can require a 6 to 7 plate clutch conversion, and even sometimes a new gearbox.

The car has full audi service history, registered late 2002 and has 46k miles.

If i was to go for a full warranty, such as one offered by warranty direct, would this have covered the oil pump?

More importantly, would it cover any further problems with the multitronic gearbox, the reason i ask is, this is a guaranteed failure from reading other peoples experiences with it, which will in turn cost the warranty company far more than what i paid for the warranty.

The other option i'am left with is to sell the car before any further problems occur, this is not the favorable option, but if the gearbox was to fail, it would be a total financial disaster for me.
 
If your car is already out of its manufacturer's warranty it is apparently a lot more expensive to take out a full 3rd party warranty afterwards. Someone might be able to confirm this for me though.
I had the option of renewing the warranty on my E60 in November there after the 3-yr original warranty expired - it would have cost £900 to fully cover the car and with a £100 excess per claim. The car was going that well that I didn't think it was necessary although I did give it a fair bit of thought & research at the time. Obviously in your case this price would have been worthwhile.

Go to warranty direct's website and tick every box possible, but yes you probably would have been covered. Check the price now after the original warranty has expired though, I do think you'll take a hit for that.
 
I bought the car 2nd hand, the previous owner had not extended the original audi warranty.

Warranty direct were looking for £450ish for a warranty.

Absolute dilemma this, i simply cannot afford to repair a wrecked multitronic gearbox, and i don't want to sell the car, but unless i can be sure i'm covered, it looks like ill have to sell the car. :(
 
Both parts sound like the sort of thing an after market warranty would usually cover, but its hard to generalise as theres several companies. The different companies also have various levels of cover depending on how old your car is and how much you want to pay.

The best thing would be to get some online quotes, and read the small print, as most of the policies list exactly what parts they do and don't cover. You also want to check how much they are willing to pay out on labour as its usually only about £30 an hour, but you can normally pay a small amount in the premium to increase this substantially.

You also have to bear in mind that they are basically insurance companies so they will try and get out of paying, so you have to make sure you've done everything right like keep the servicing up to date and get pre approval on claims. If you do all this, I think they can be worth having, especially if like you say, you have a car that you think could generate big bills.

When I was shopping around a month or so ago, Warranty Wise were a lot cheaper than Warranty Direct, and they seemed to get slightly better reviews, but I’ve not actually made a claim with them myself yet.

Edit 07/10/08
DO NOT USE WARRANTY WISE - I retract the above paragraph. See my post from 7th Oct
 
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After a bit of research, it seems that the multitronic gearbox is a common problem, leaving people with bills of 4k for recon boxes etc.

A lot of these people are not getting warranty claims, since it was advised that a full gearbox oil change was to be done at 40k service, but was not part of the service. This left the said people arguing with audi about not knowing about gearbox oil change and thus having invalid warranties.

I phoned the audi garage that done the last service, and the guy said the transmission oil had been changed at 37k (this seemed like a guess because he said at one point he wasn't sure).

If i was to buy a warranty via warranty wise, and the box was to go wrong, would warranty wise require that the oil was changed at 40k service, and how would they go about proving it was or was not?
 
i think it'd be your case to prove that it was changed?

and people like warranty wise might just use the same conditions as the manufacturers warranty.

however, would it not be a bit suspicious buying a warranty then making a claim on it straight away, is it not like insuring a car then making a claim the day after :)
 
I wont be making a claim right away, as current, there is nothing wrong with the car.

The Gears were becoming notchy, i was recommended to have a gearbox oil change, this now solved the problem, leaving the gearbox rather good.

From reading around on the internet, it seems that these boxes have major problems, and i am most likely to find myself with another problem with the box in the near future.
 
Basically its down to you to prove that all servicing on the car has been done as recommended by the manufacturer. I would check the specific terms of any policy to see what proof is needed, but generally it’s a stamped service book and/or a receipt from a garage.
 
Yes, Holy Thread Revival etc etc.

I just wanted to post because I remember this thread and I remember saying that I had looked at some reviews and Warranty Wise seemed to come out well. I sincerely hope no one bought a policy based on what I said and equally, I don't want anyone finding the thread through the search and using them.

I have now had two claims with them. They have both been denied. The second claim was denied based on some small print despite the parts being specifically named as covered. Not only that but the engine has already been stripped down by the garage as WW told them to do so as it was a valid claim, leaving a car that's uneconomical to repair but unmovable due to the stripped engine.
 
Redrum said:
Yes, Holy Thread Revival etc etc.

I just wanted to post because I remember this thread and I remember saying that I had looked at some reviews and Warranty Wise seemed to come out well. I sincerely hope no one bought a policy based on what I said and equally, I don't want anyone finding the thread through the search and using them.

I have now had two claims with them. They have both been denied. The second claim was denied based on some small print despite the parts being specifically named as covered. Not only that but the engine has already been stripped down by the garage as WW told them to do so as it was a valid claim, leaving a car that's uneconomical to repair but unmovable due to the stripped engine.
Click to expand...

Hi Redrun

I am now in the same position as you was and I am trying to choose between Warranty Direct and Warranty Wise, at the moment I seem to be learning more towards Warranty wise as they have very few exclussions and will cover me from day for wear and tear and will pay 100% of the parts and labour were as WD will only cover 70% labour and wear and tear after 3 months although Warranty wise are about £150 dearer. Has WW altered there terms and condidtions since you were a customer as see they have brought on board Quentin Wilson?
Although I really don't want to make the same mistake as you.
Thanks
scouseman
 
The 530d has a Warranty Direct policy. I claimed once and had another claim approved. The coverage is very good and they cover wear and tear. The claim approved was worn antirollbar droplinks but by the time I'd taken out the 50 quid excess it wasn't worth the hassle of filling in the form so I didnt bother, but had I done so, they'd have paid up.
 
A message from Warrantywise

Hi There.

I have decided to comment on this review page since there seem to be several good reviews but also one or two poor reviews and I'm going to attempt to set the record straight!

Warrantywise sell thousands of policies a month and print Quentin Willson's email address in every one, to date, he has only received 21 complaints. I can assure you that Quentin cares deeply about this product and never misses an email. Two facts that you can rely on with Warrantywise.

I apologise to anyone who have a gripe with Warrantywise for not living up to your expectations, but on a more serious note... when it comes to complaints (we do still sometimes make mistakes) but Quentin and I sort things out ‘immediately’ as our list of satisfied customers on the website testifies. I do not believe your car warranty will be better served elsewhere as each problem we experience is sorted and fixed (yours included if you email me directly as I am urging anyone with a warrantywise related problem to do so). So I thank you for your persistence and we will leave the door open for you to return.

I would like to leave you with a thought... I would like to see another warranty company who gives their customers this level of personal customer service and as the provider of what Quentin believes is the UK's Best Used Car Warranty, I know that you won't be able to find another one that offers a warranty as comprehensive or cares as much about their reputation as I do about Warranty Wise.

I wish you many happy years motoring. Any problems, please feel free to email me.

Kind regards

Lawrence Whittaker
Executive Partner, Warrantywise.
[email protected]
 
Hi Fox

In order to take our Warranty Wise Cover your car needs to have done less than 100,000 miles and be under 10 years old, but once on cover you can do as many miles as you like, i.e. you wont run out of cover. Equally if your vehicle goes over 10 years old, we will still cover you!

Hope this clears things up. You can watch Quentin's review on warrantywise on youtube, just follow this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYLGEzHm5Fg

Kind regards

Lawrence
 
Lawrence, is it correct that you won't cover Boxsters even though they're on your website?

Over on Boxa.net there's a few guys who've phoned up for one of your warranties however they've been told that you no longer cover Boxsters.
 
Hi Eidolon

This is not true at all! We cover lots of Porsche Boxsters, 911's etc etc. The only reason we would ever reject cover on any car is if it has had modifications, however the other day we covered a Porsche Gemballa as I made a special dispensation for the customer.

In fact, Porsche Silverstone and many other Porsche main agents actually use our warranty in preference to their Porsche warranty on their used vehicles... this has to be the biggest praise of all!

Hope this helps, Lawrence.
 
I'll tell him when i see him! Haha, but seriously, Quentin works tirelessly on issues that affect the consumer. Whenever i speak to him he is always giving a talk or pressing someone to make the consumer's life better. Through the Britain's Worse series that he did he exposed some real shady people. When I have my meetings with him he pushes and pushes to make the warranty better for you (the consumer) and therefore less and less profitable for us as a company, but the whole reason we called the company Warrantywise was because we wanted to make people wise about warranties!

There are so many dodgy warranty companies out there, we knew from the very beginning we would have to be different and i'm sure if we were anything other than transparent, Quentin wouldn't risk his reputation by attaching his brand to us.

BTW, we are launching adverts on TV next year, do you think we should have weasel's in the ads? I would love to see what compare the market had to say about that!!
 
Warrantywise said:
The only reason we would ever reject cover on any car is if it has had modifications
Click to expand...

Can you clarify what you class as modifications?

I know Porsche are notorious for wriggling out of warranty claims because the customer has fitted different wiper blades or an alternative battery.

What about basic mods such as exhaust for example?
 
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