OT - mechanical warranties on cars

[David]

Just pondering - how does the warranty company confirm up front the car isn't a dog?

Or do they just play the numbers with a limit on what you can claim?

Cheers

Dave R

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It is merely an insurance policy. Based on statistics.

[whisky-dave]

Why do they need to ?

I thought you knew all about wattenties don;t you just need to take teh reciept back.

[GMM]

From my experience (albeit a good few years ago), they make it so dificult to claim on s/h car warranties that they don't need to worry about the state of the car.

[Bob Minchin]

You will have to fight to get anything worthwhile under the warranty. They will also insist on unreasonably frequent servicing to maintain the warranty. I looked at one 2yr old car warranty recently and the limit was £1000 which does not get you far these days.

Aim to buy the best you can find at 2-3k below your budget and put that aside just in case you need to spend it on repairs at an independent garage.

[Brian Gaff]

Actually just as with most things, if something is keeping on returning due to no misuse, often a dealer will intervene in order to preserve their reputation and negotiate a new one from the company. I've had this with lesser things like washing machines, video recorders tvs and the like. There is in my view no doubt that there are some dogs out there with everything wrong with them. I used to be in QA, and nobody really could account for this effect, sometimes called the just back from the christmas party or friday afternoon version. they most certainly exist even in the best run companies. Brian