ian bell Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 The 3 year manufacturer's warranty on my Fiat Ducato runs out soon and Fiat no longer offer an extended warranty. I would like to buy one but it's a minefield out there! Any advice would be welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Personal opinion, but unless you have already had a number of warranty issues with the Ducato, I wouldn't bother. These items are not really warranties, they are insurance policies, and they contain many exclusion clauses. Both the seller, and the issuing insurance company, will expect to make money from the premium, and will have based that premium on the average successful claims rate and cost for the vehicle in question. IMO, the likelihood is that the insurance will cost you more than would van repairs over the insured period. You could, of course, be unlucky and get hit by a large bill, but items such as brakes and clutches are unlikely to be covered, really leaving only the major mechanical components (engine/gearbox) covered. If these are going to give trouble, I would expect that to already have become apparent - unless you have covered an abnormally low mileage since buying. As I say, my opinion, but I think extended warranties generally represent poor value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyg3nwl Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Brian Kirby - 2015-09-03 4:30 As I say, my opinion, but I think extended warranties generally represent poor value.[/QUOTe as an example the 3rd year warranty cover offered by Marquis, only offers 500 pounds cover. tonyg3nwl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euroserv Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 I had a customer contact me two years ago. He had bought a second hand Fiat with 27,000 miles on the clock; 2 years old. He ran it for 4 months and covered 2,500 miles when his turbo expired and took the engine with it. He had purchased an 'RAC Platinum warranty' at a cost of about £600 for 12 months. First; the warranty was not administered by the RAC, they just had their name on it. Second; the claim limit was £1200 in a single claim and £2400 maximum in 12 months. Even though he would not have had to service the vehicle in the time that he had it, the warranty firm stated that they would not cover the cost of repairs because the turbo must have worn out gradually and not failed suddenly and as such was subject to normal wear and tear. The selling dealer was not interested and he had to pay several thousand pounds to get the engine replaced. There are many other cases where warranty firms manage to avoid paying anything out so please heed My advice, and that of Brian above......... These warranties are virtually worthless and will cause you nothing but grief. Avoid. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 We had an extended warranty on our Autosleeper Duetto on a MK7 Transit, the policy was with Warranty Direct. The rear axle of the Transit started making 'rumbling' noises, diagnosed as the bearings in the diff housing starting to rotate in the housing itself. The entire axle was changed without any argument, as well as a suspect nearside front wheel bearing. The total cost was in the region of £2000. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 euroserv - 2015-09-03 6:35 PM.....................These warranties are virtually worthless and will cause you nothing but grief. Avoid. Nick Quite so, just like the vehicles they purport to warrant!! :D Caveat emptor indeed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euroserv Posted September 4, 2015 Share Posted September 4, 2015 To go further..... The warranty firms will speak only to the workshop that has inspected the vehicle in order to find out if the work will be covered. The customer has to pay the garage for any work that is done up to the point that the claim is approved. The garage have to spend literally HOURS on the phone trying to get through to someone that will discuss the work and nobody will pay for that time. It is then the garage that has to deliver the bad news to the customer. This sucks. IF the work is covered you have to get the customer to pay the bill and they claim it back from the warranty company or send the firm an invoice that they will take an age to pay. Chasing the payment is an expensive and exhausting process. I think they hope that you will give up! For this reason, many garages will not do any work on a vehicle covered by a warranty, specifically one 'backed' by Warranty Holdings because they are the worst at everything; delays, excuses, refusals and payment. I definitely won't do it again. Spospe; you were lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brock Posted September 4, 2015 Share Posted September 4, 2015 Whilst agreeing with the principle that warranties are generally not worth the paper written on, they are not all rotten all the time. I bought a second hand car and an engine fault occurred. The garage warned me I would be liable for their costs if the problem was not covered by them or the warranty they'd thrown in for 'free'. Miraculously, the garage decided it was covered by warrant and persuaded the warranty firm to pay out. The alternative was for the garage to cover the cost of the repair as I'd only had the car a few weeks and they should have spotted it before selling the car. This example is different to the OP question as it benefited the garage to charge the cost to the warranty firm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randonneur Posted September 4, 2015 Share Posted September 4, 2015 When we lived in France we bought a secondhand Laika and we took out a warranty. This was 19 euros per month as long as we had the van serviced at a Fiat garage. It was an automatic and after about 12 months we had a problem with the gearbox, it was repaired under the warranty and then later had the Truma heating fixed under warranty. so our dealings with Warranty/Insurance has been good for the price we paid, but this was France not UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euroserv Posted September 4, 2015 Share Posted September 4, 2015 I am not exactly sure how the legal side of warranties goes these days but what a lot of dealers do is sell you a warranty that is longer than the period during which they should be covering themselves. I understood that the minimum period was something like 3 months with any more than that being negotiated between seller and buyer. If however an extended warranty is purchased, this off-loads responsibility from day 1 to the warranty firm. I doubt this is even legal for a dealer to wash his hands of any responsibility in the event that the warranty firm will not cover a repair and many years ago when i purchased used cars that were out of the manufacturers warranty period i always made sure that any warranty policy ran from the time that the dealer warranty offering expired; ie 2 years from 3 or 6 months after the purchase. The understanding being that the dealer warranty covered pretty much everything and the purchased warranty was more limited. Others will know better than me exactly what the legal situation is but it sure seemed clearer and more honest back in the day! Another example of a recent claim was for a throttle body that failed on a Fiat 2.3-130. The warranty firm (Warranty holdings) would pay for the labour to change the unit, and some gaskets but would not pay for the modified electric cable that the later throttle body required. They said it was a 'modification' and although the new body could not be used without this wiring loom, they resolutely refused to pay for it. They would not pay for any of my time spent investigating the problem which was probably a couple of hours and the three hours that i spent getting it authorised was also never going to be paid for by anyone. Did i mention that their claims number was a premium rate one? Also, for some reason, Fiat state a time of 0.9 hours to change a throttle body and that was all that they would pay, plus they would only pay £25 per hour. It can take up to 4 hours to do that job and i am not running a workshop as a hobby! The idea that someone hundreds of miles away can argue over my diagnosis of a fault, argue about how much time it takes to repair it and how much I am entitled to charge for that time while also getting my diagnosis expertise for free is just not acceptable. The fact that i am also wasting more time on a call that i am paying a premium rate for getting to have this argument and then trying for months on end to get paid is appalling. There have been jobs where i would have been better off doing the work for free in the first place and not even picking up the phone! Never again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikebeaches Posted September 5, 2015 Share Posted September 5, 2015 Must say, I broadly agree with Nick (euroserv) and Brian. Our previous second-hand van came with a 12-month insurance backed warranty. After 5 months ownership I noticed brake fluid on the inside tyre wall on one of the rear wheels. Brake shoes replaced on both rear wheels, and leaking cylinder replaced etc. Long story-short - the insurance company would only cough up for about a quarter of the cost of the repair. In the end the dealer also made a contribution, so I only ended up about £80 out of pocket. BUT, it was a lot of hassle, much correspondence with the insurance company, a rough deal for the repairer and not great PR for the motorhome dealer. I wouldn't bother to purchase an insurance-based warranty, for all the reasons given by others. I'd rather carry the personal risk. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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