Is a used car warranty worth the money, though? At first glance, perhaps not. Autocar contacted three providers and was quoted an average of £500 to cover a six-year-old Volkswagen Golf 1.5 TSI DSG with 57,000 miles for 12 months – a figure equal to its average claims payout, according to one company.
Of course, many payouts are much higher. The RAC says that its top five most expensive payouts last year each exceeded £19,000. The recipients of these will have been pleased, but critics of warranties say there are many claimants who receive nothing from their provider and so are anything but.
“Many of the bad warranties we encounter overpromise and underdeliver,” says Ian Ferguson, founder of Reject My Car, a consumer redress service. “Coverage levels are rarely honoured and they have many hidden trapdoors. Their terms and conditions are verging on the unlawful. You wonder how anyone makes a successful claim. Some of the insurance-backed warranties we see are horrific – large excesses, restrictions on who can do the work, unfair contract terms that place the onus on the consumer…
It all just leads to dissatisfaction. We are representing loads of people who are in dispute with their warranty provider.”Duncan McClure Fisher, founder of warranty provider Motoreasy, agrees the sector has its bad apples: “The problem area is the small independent dealer warranty offering a £500 limit and limited cover.