is extended warranty worth it?

[Croc]

car is now 33 months old and I'm at the point where I am looking at extending the Subaru warranty.

anyone got a view on whether it's a good thing or not?

Basically, I am not a mechanic and if anything goes wrong, I like the thought of Subaru fixing it for free. Also get Subaru Assist thrown in too.

Looking at 2 years - which (with the new prices) will apparantly cost £1126. Not cheap - but then again, if I wanted cheap, I wouldn;t have bought an STI...

there used to be a rule that said had to buy it before was 33 months old, but this has just changed, so OK up until end of normal 36 month warranty.

p

[2559B]

IMHO -- not really !!!

Look at it this way ...... you stick the £1126 into a bank account & if something goes wrong with the car then use this money to get it fixed.

If it behaves itself & you have no problems with the car ......... then the money ( + interest ) is back in your pocket !!!

Ally.

[RS Grant]

I agree with Ally, £1200 buys you an awful lot of replacement parts should a problem arise...

Cheers,

Grant

[G.T.]

id go with the warranty , ive only had my car 6 weeks and it chewed 3rd gear resulting in a rebuilt gearbox and nearly a 2k bill

[4Hero]

I would have to go with the warranty too, being non-mechanically minded

[dipsy]

I would not bother with a extended warranty.

[scoobyseller555]

at the end ov the day its all about peace ov mind,for just over £10 a week u can have peace ov mind,seen it many times in the trade,a couple ov months after your warranty is out bang,you get stuffed for a huge bill,always,when u r least expecting it.PLAY IT SAFE GO WITH THE WARRANTY!

[wilky]

Wow u really are selling it arent you?

[scoobyseller555]

nah,im in the same boat as croc,my cars 3 years young in march,and if i keep it i will b taking the warranty(seen what the re-cons like m8)

[wilky]

Rgr

[dave_morgan]

I personally wouldn't take it. I took it on my P1, and then when I tried to claim for a blown head gasket, they wouldn't honour it because I had a dump valve and a samco hose. No way that could have caused the problem, but it seems they will use any excuse to invalidate the warranty. Not impressed at all !!!

The parts were on the car months before I renewed the warranty and it had had 2 services with the parts on. I then renewed the warranty through the garage who did the servicing, who didn't say a thing until I tried to claim for the gasket (another 2 services later).

All in all it cost me 600odd quid for the warranty, probably around a grand in servicing (as I took it to the dealer for the services to avoid any 'complications' if I did need to claim) and I ended up needing to pay for the head gasket repair myself anyway.

Seriously lowered my opinion of Subaru and has made me think again about my next car!

If you want more details, I have them on a website or PM me.

[gus the bus]

£1126 for a warranty FFS!!!!! You'd be better putting the money as a deposit on a new scoob Now that would be £1126 well spent would it not?????

[Gumball]

my warranty is shot to fack and its not even got to the extended warranty stages lol

aye, keep your warranty and then pay for another one at the end of that. just make sure you dont even put a single samco hose or dumpvalve during the 4 years of excellent value courtesy of subaru

[P1_Paul]

My extended warranty has saved me about £3k, that is on a P1. Best £400 I ever spent!!

[fai17]

It depends m8.

If you are going to modify it then don't bother.

If you're not then its your shout.

[sma01]

more than likely would be worth the money mate, wont be taking it out myself though as subaru dont look to kindly on modified cars, and if anything does go wrong it will get replaced by something better

scott

[dave_morgan]

I got the extended warranty specifically for the P1 because of it's reputation for the engine gong bang, so I agree it could be a worthwhile investment. However, if you intend to modify ANYTHING on the car, get something in writing to say it won't invalidate the warranty. Common sense doesn't prevail here !!

[Croc]

thanks for the input on the warranty question.

there is zero chance of me modifying anything (or tracking it) so I would be in the 'play it safe' camp.

the one owner before me did not modify it either, so I know which way its going

oh, and I'm also a lazy tw@t who knows nowt about cars, and even if I knew what I was doing, I'd rather pay someone to fix it, than fix it myself. (At least I'm honest !)

I've had quite a bit of work done on it under warranty in less than 12 months ownership

Suppose I'll need to get it serviced by the Subaru garage though- on the plus side I do get Subaru assistance with it (which, I unfortunately had to call on within a month of buying it!)

need to look out my chequebook

thanks again for views

p

[oobster]

I'm going to have to think about this too shortly, as my car is 33 months old in Jan.

Can you take out a one-year deal, and if so any ideas how much?

[dave_morgan]

I was offered one year or two year, so I imagine you'll be offered the same. Can't remember the exact costs, but I think it was about 2/3 of the 2 year cost.

[Croc]

you can buy a one year, but I don't think you can extend it after the end of year 4 - not with the manufacturers warranty anyway - probably find an insurance style warranty though. So you need to decide before 36 months.

think the cost of the two year warranty was MORE expensive than 2x the single year - probably on the basis that year 4-5 is going to be more risky than year 3-4. You'll also be tied into the servicing by main dealers too.

Also it used to be 33 months was the decision point, but they recently extended it to be right up to month 36. - but sure as eggs are eggs, you'll forget, so if you know you want it, don;t leave it till last minute.

I'd worked out the potential savings of the warranty on a trade in for a brand new STI - but it just wasn;t going to be worth it. The cost of the warranty is effectively the same as about 3 months depreciation from new (50% depreciation 27k over 3 years - and that's taking it in a straight line, ignoring the mammoth drop it'd take on day 1) Apparantly the wheel nut pattern has also changed, so my master plan of using my spare set of wheels for winter would be up the swanny as well. I don't rate the standard issue tyres for winter.

I suppose, like me it'll come down to how much you want the security blanket.

ps - you also get normal Subaru roadside assistance for he period of the extension - so I suppose that saves about 200 quid over 2 years