Audi Warranty

[toasty]

Hi,

Having a full service done at the end of March and am looking to have the Audi warranty at the same time.

My car at present has an 'Platinum Olympic Warranty' on it which I was given when I bought the car from Fontain in June 2002 (it expires in June this year)

I'd feel happier with a 'proper' Audi warranty and so that's what I'm going to have.

Anyone done this recently and so could give me an idea of price? I'm thinking it'll be about £600 ish (my car is 4yrs and 5 months old, with 57k miles)

Cheers
-Dan

[wazza]

I will be checking with my dealer this week.
Mine is 3 years old on the 27th March and the warranty runs out then.

[Golich]

Not sure Toasty. I think my mate got quoted £450-500ish for his 30K miles 1998 S4 Avant.

I bought my warranty last year from warranty direct for £300. I think. They have offered it to me for £250 this year.

In theory it was supposed to be a really comprehensive one -covering shocks, event tyres! You can check out the Gold Policy on their site. I particularly liked the fact that they cover the failure of ancillary items. i.e. it is known for the alternator belt to snap on certain cars and wrap around the timing belt pulling and we all know what happens then.....

So on paper they sound good but I wrote the following post on Audi sport:

Apologies in advance it's a tad long...

PSS I've decided against renewing any warrany policy. It's a personal gamble thing..

I had a policy with Warranty direct along with my mate.

My mate’s oil cooler hose packed up. He took it to one of their approved garages. It turns out the Fiat Coupe oil cooler hose failure is a well-known problem. However, removal of the hose from the oil cooler is nearly impossible in all cases without removing the oil cooler and in short requires hours of labour. In nearly all cases it is cheaper to replace the oil cooler and hose together. Rather than try to salvage the cooler from a failed pipe.

Warrantee direct would not honour the claim on the cooler on the basis that the garage could have done any number of things to salvage it. My mate gave up with them after several attempts and evidence of the well known problem.

My own experience with Warrantee Direct was with suspected worn shocks on my S4. Warrantee direct's policy on paper looks better than an Audi one! i.e. they cover a surprising number of what I would consider consumable parts i.e. tyres, shocks with their Gold policy.

So I called them with suspected worn shocks. The guy asked me, are they leaking. I said, "No.
He says, "Then they are ok."
I said, "A leaking shock is not the whole story. I've known plenty of occasions where shocks simply wear past their best. As I believe some of the shock manufacturers recommend replacing shocks from as little as 30k miles."

He agreed and told me he was an ex-Audi mechanic. So I put the question back to him. "From your own admission shocks can wear so a leak is not necessarily the only failure mechanism." He eventually agreed!
"So how do we go forward from here. I take it the warrantee company is not prepared to pay for investigative work?"

He said, "that's correct."

I said, Let me get this straight, you're not prepared to accept an approved garage confirming they are worn on the basis that they are not leaking. That's correct sir.
I said, "At £75/hr for my local Audi dealership I'm not prepared to take the risk of handing over a major labour job to remove and physical stroke the shocks which may or may not demonstrate without doubt that they are not working as well as they should."


He said, "That's your choice."

Mmm...I was stumped. So I suggested, "What if I remove the shocks in my own garage."

"Yes, we can send an engineer round to your garage to check your claim. We have to send an engineer for all claims over £200."

"Ok that sounds like a plan." I said.
He replies, " I see your policy is up for renewal in two weeks" he asks, "What's your current mileage?" - "50K" I replied.
"Sorry, you're 1K over the agreed 12K/yr."

What if I renew the policy and then carry on as agreed? No sir I'm afraid that's not possible. I've made a note of your claim for faulty shocks and we will not cover them next year!"

I replied, "But as far as you're concerned they are not faulty because they are not leaking and I have to prove otherwise!"

No response.

I replied, "There is little point in replacing my policy with your company this year."

In short, warranty companies are a gamble. [img]images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[Prawn]

I had a similar problem with Warranty Direct on my Evo 5.
Car developed a very loud rumble etc on 5th gear.
This was a known problem on the cars to the local dealer.
Spoke to warranty direct who would not authorise a repair until the box had failed (ie wait and replace the box).
Fair enough you may think but the replacement cost would have been twice the repair cost !

[DavidT]

Tweaky,

It may be worth checking that mate.

I did last week as the warranty on my car expires later this month. The cost for a year's extension purchased whilst the car is still within standard 3 year warranty - £ 750.

Apparently the prices went up as from 01/03/03 [img]images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Not happy, as I costed the extension when I bought the car 18 months ago and at that time it was £ 470 p.a.


David

[DJG]

I just checked too and for my 99 S4 and was told £765 plus they would need to carry out a £70 inspection first. [img]images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

Suppose you could say you were thinking about the warranty and have the £70 inspection whilst the old warranty is still valid and get them to fix anything they found! [img]images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

David

[Carlos]

The most likely thing to go are the turbos, and if they do there is no way i am replacing them with the standard ones [img]images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

I'll second that! [img]images/graemlins/thumbs.gif[/img]

C.

[DavidR]

You can never account for the unpredictable. I had a short but successful argument with Audi over a cracked exhaust manifold (car had 32k at the time). They claimed it was part of the exhaust and therefore excempt from warranty, and presented a bill for £3800 for 4 days labour and new manifold (apparently the gearbox had to come out 1st).

Paid eventually post chat to Audi UK.

[Golich]

What about modifying the car?

If it's clearly modified. The failure of the megga expensive items, such as an engine/gearbox/turbos tec. is clearly going to be a questionable failure.

you could pay your £750 and still find youself shelling out!

Thank god I can fix my own car with bills of £3800 to replace an exhaust manifold!

[toasty]

Hi,

Having a full service done at the end of March and am looking to have the Audi warranty at the same time.

My car at present has an 'Platinum Olympic Warranty' on it which I was given when I bought the car from Fontain in June 2002 (it expires in June this year)

I'd feel happier with a 'proper' Audi warranty and so that's what I'm going to have.

Anyone done this recently and so could give me an idea of price? I'm thinking it'll be about £600 ish (my car is 4yrs and 5 months old, with 57k miles)

Cheers
-Dan

...got it done today, cost was £760 for anyone else who is interested.

[img]images/graemlins/biggrin2.gif[/img]

[DJG]

Ouch!

Did you get stung for an inspection fee on top of this or was it included?

David

[DavidT]

I've just taken the one year extension (after standard 3 year warranty) with Audi, cost me £ 765 which sounds a lot until you consider that its only around 10 hours labour.

It is very good cover.

[toasty]

Agreed [img]images/graemlins/thumbs.gif[/img]

And remember that mine had been out of Audi warranty for over a year (mine is Oct 98 model), so it makes my £760 seem even better value I think.

...and no I didn't have to pay an inspection fee, but I did have it done at the same time as a major service, so I guess they got a good looksie at the car anyway.