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Buying cars from main dealers
swanny - 1/2/11 at 08:38 AM

hello all,

this will probably be obvious but never having done it before i just thought i'd ask the locost oracle.

I'm looking at buying a new car, but the specific model/spec/mileage i want is fairly rare (theres only one on autotrader at the moment in the whole of the uk)

i've always avoided looking at anything more than 40 odd miles away as i'd thought this would be a pain if anything went wrong when it came to taking it back.

someone suggested that nowadays this isnt an issue, the selling dealer will simply buy a warranty and you'd be free to get it mended wherever you liked.

is this the case? do all large dealers do this? never bought anything from a dealer, always from mates or local second hand places.

Thanks

paul

mcerd1 - 1/2/11 at 08:53 AM

lots of main dealers offer an 'aftermarket' warranty on second hand cars that have run out of manufacturers warranty (same as a lot of independent dealers)
As to how you claim on it you'd need to check the small print on the warranty your being offered

I'll dig out the one I got with my car later on.... (I never had to worry about which garage to use as they are only 50 yards from my house)

[Edited on 1/2/2011 by mcerd1]

r1_pete - 1/2/11 at 09:01 AM

Most cars come with a 3 year warranty min, and if your new car is still covered, you can take it to any dealer in the network for warranty work.

Not sure about over 3 years or end of warranty though??

But,

If its a national network e.g Stratstone, who has the car you're interested in, they will usually ship it to a more local showroom for you, then if all goes well you are local for whatever warranty you have.

ChrisW - 1/2/11 at 10:53 AM

I bought my Audi from a dealer 60-odd miles away, but have had warranty work carried out by the local dealer. Never had a problem!

Chris

pdm - 1/2/11 at 12:15 PM

You sometimes have to be a bit careful though...

For instance old VW warrantys (and this is several years ago) were 3 year - 2 of them provided by VW so you could take it anywhere but the last year was from the dealer and so you could only take it there.....

Paul W - 1/2/11 at 12:22 PM

you dont have to take their warranty, you can buy
your own from somebody like warraty direct(never used them myself)

Paul

thefreak - 1/2/11 at 12:43 PM

If it's a warranty from a 3rd party company like Warranty Holdings/VGS/Warranty Direct etc, they're not worth the paper they're written on.
Firstly as standard they dont cover electrical problems. Second, they have to be done by an approved garage, third you need to have them regularly serviced and have the book stamped by a VAT registered garage, on top of that there's a whole load of get out clauses too.
Had a Mk4 Golf with one of these supplied by VGS. The turbo went on it. They had it checked over and aparently it failed due to something going through the blades. Now I would have thought that's a warranty claim? nope, they rejected it. £1000 later and all was working again, so got rid of the car before something else broke! Then they charged me £50 to transfer the warranty over to the new owner!

speedyxjs - 1/2/11 at 12:57 PM

quote:
Originally posted by thefreak
they have to be done by an approved garage


Not strictly true (at least not four years ago). When i bought my car, i got it 60 miles away. nearly 6 months later, the wheel bearing failed and i got it replaced through warranty direct by my local garage.

thefreak - 1/2/11 at 01:23 PM

quote:
Originally posted by speedyxjs
quote:
Originally posted by thefreak
they have to be done by an approved garage


Not strictly true (at least not four years ago). When i bought my car, i got it 60 miles away. nearly 6 months later, the wheel bearing failed and i got it replaced through warranty direct by my local garage.


Yes, but they either have to be on their approved list (not necissarily the place you bought it from) or if the garage isn't on their list you have to either fork out for the repair upfront and claim it back or get the garage to claim it back from the warranty company. Also, they need written confirmation of what is wrong from the garage before authorising any work, and they will only pay (I think) £25 towards labour costs, which is pointless if a) the only way to diagnose the fault is to strip something down - they dont pay for diagnostic work either - because then the car is sat there in pieces waiting for authorisation and b) I dont know a garage that doesn't charge less than £35 plus vat for labour now.

By the time you've finished jumping through all their hoops, you're left wondering why the hell you bothered and should have took it to the company you always use to do the work as they would have done it quicker and cheaper even after the warranty company had paid out for your claim.

Have a butchers here:
http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/other-insurance/warranty-direct/1085186/

rayward - 1/2/11 at 01:42 PM

buy the car privately, and spend the money you save on the purchase price on any repairsIF theyre needed !!!

hth

Ray

prawnabie - 1/2/11 at 04:18 PM

quote:
Originally posted by thefreak
If it's a warranty from a 3rd party company like Warranty Holdings/VGS/Warranty Direct etc, they're not worth the paper they're written on.
Firstly as standard they dont cover electrical problems. Second, they have to be done by an approved garage, third you need to have them regularly serviced and have the book stamped by a VAT registered garage, on top of that there's a whole load of get out clauses too.
Had a Mk4 Golf with one of these supplied by VGS. The turbo went on it. They had it checked over and aparently it failed due to something going through the blades. Now I would have thought that's a warranty claim? nope, they rejected it. £1000 later and all was working again, so got rid of the car before something else broke! Then they charged me £50 to transfer the warranty over to the new owner!


Even I wouldnt cover a turbo if "something" had gone though the blades! If the turbo had failed fair enough. Sounds like you had a pretty basic policy for electrical stuff not to be covered.

I deal with warranty direct/Car Care Plan everyday and have never found them or their policies to be unreasonable.

You can take your car to any garage as long as it is VAT registered. Most warranty companies operate an online claims system, if the garage your car is at doesnt have this facility then you have to pay and claim the money back. The garage SHOULD get authority and total costs before commencing work so you know how much you will get back.


[Edited on 1/2/11 by prawnabie]

thefreak - 1/2/11 at 04:25 PM

quote:
Originally posted by prawnabie

Even I wouldnt cover a turbo if "something" had gone though the blades! If the turbo had failed fair enough. Sounds like you had a pretty basic policy for electrical stuff not to be covered.

I deal with warranty direct/Car Care Plan everyday and have never found them or their policies to be unreasonable.


That's the thing, the turbo was inspected by the garage as well as the intercooler and piping. Nothing had passed through it large enough. His (experienced) diagnosis was it was caked in soot and needed a damn good clean, like is common with the VAG 1.9 ~2000 engines. Once the warranty company received it they claimed it had a catastrophic failure due to an object the size of "a golf ball" had gone through the turbo! Smells of haddock to me as the claim was already at £700.

Also, the car was covered for electrical issues, but every time we called (dodgy brake light switch a couple of times) we were told catagorically no, no policy of theirs covers switches. The only way to get it sorted was to call the garage we bought the car off to get them to call Warranty Direct to confirm the policy they'd sold did cover all electrical components. Then they would begrudgingly foot the bill.
The other bugbear with them was they would insist the garage would forward their original invoice for the parts? An invoice made out to the customer, with the price I was paying was not good enough, they wanted to refund the cost the garage was paying.