Do you buy extended warranties?

[David and Sally]

I got a 'free' year with MBG Direct when I bought our 2014 Adria this time last year.

Their Gold cover is about £26 a month for a rolling Lifetime Warranty or £269 for 12 months.

I am clueless about these for motorhomes. I do buy one for my BMW K1600 motorcycle at about £400 a year because a major fault with that would be ££££££££ x 10 to repair. But what about a motorhome?

Breakdown is covered by the road insurance policy so I'm being asked for £269 for what? Mechanical failure. How likely is that?

Your thoughts and advice will be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[MC 55 FUN]

These warranties seem to be more for the dealers peace of mind than the customer's in our experience, too many common failures / faults aren't covered.

The common failure of the airbag ECU for example isn't covered.

 

[Reallyretired]

Some of these on electrical items are a joke. I was offered a years extended warrantee on an item costing £54 for ............a mere £37

 

[andy63]

Ive always considered extended warranty etc a bit of a rip off.. and much the same with warranty on motorhomes...
For the warranty to be valid in my case im told the van has to be the subject of a hab check each year by a chausson approved facility... what a rip off is that... money in a dealers pocket to tell me what im capable of accessing myself..

If i come to sell the van and the buyer wants a hab check then fair enough ill have to do it but thats about the only reason i can think of for having one done... certainly not for my peace of mind..
Oops sorry ..on another rant must be getting grumpy
Andy..

 

[Minxy]

Personally unless you're already 'concerned' about something that might cause issues in the short term then I wouldn't bother as there are so many exclusions.

I'm bemused, however, that you're paying £400 a year for your bike warranty because it could cost ££££££££ x 10 to repair which is the same if something major goes on a car, motorhome etc.

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[RioRob]

My MH came with an MBG warranty and I'm glad it did when my CBE distribution box failed.
I renewed it after the year for a further 2 years & have since had a water ingress problem fixed under it.
Certainly value for money in my case. Particularly as the level I have has hardly any exclusions.

Normally I don't buy extended warranties for electrical goods 'cos I know that they're generally not worth it.
However, there's lots of things to go wrong with MHs so seems a reasonable investment.

 

[nicholsong]

My experience of repairs/replacements on my Niesmann&Bischoff Arto bought at 6 years old and I have had for another 10 years has been a total of about £200 (excluding a window I broke myself). That is other than consumables like tyres, batteries and timing belt which would not be covered I think.

So work it out for yourself.

Geoff

 

[Steve and Denise]

We took a Fiat 5 year but these are only available from first registration about £750 the Hymer part has 2 year faults warranty and 6 year water ingress ( with conditions)

 

[pappajohn]

You usually find extended warranties exclude investigation work and any dismantling to replace the affected parts.
IE: ECU Interrogation and fault finding (OBD codes only give a general fault area, not necessarily a specific item) won't be covered.
A blown cylinder head gasket will be but skimming the cylinder head may not.
service overdue, warranty void.

Far too many exclusions and get outs.
If its free (it's never free, it's hidden in the purchase price) then all well and good, but not worth the cost in my book.

 

[jockaneezer]

I'm looking at a second hand Volvo up in Glasgow. I Googled reviews for the garage, they were either 5 star or one star. All the one star reviews were because "warranty wasn't worth the paper it was written on"

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[The Wino]

If it was better to have a warranty on average the firm offering it would go bust as they would be paying more out than they were getting in.

 

[charliesgrandad]

If it was better to have a warranty on average the firm offering it would go bust as they would be paying more out than they were getting in.

Is that not also true of all insurance policies

 

[The Wino]

Is that not also true of all insurance policies

Yes for all of them if you are able to afford to pay the cost if you are the unlucky one its better to take the risk yourself on average so extended warranties for small items are a waste of time. We always if we decide to get cover go for the biggest excess (on car house etc) and often don't bother to insure smaller items by now we must be quids in.

 

[shawn&emma]

Wouldn't touch an extended warranty insurance of any sort these days but many moons ago when we first lived together we did have an appliance insurance that covererd pretty much everything eléctrical in the house up to a certain age, can't remember what age it was, it was around £4 a month from memory so way cheaper than just a single extra cover on one item, we did call out and have repairs, claim a couple of times with no problems.
Just had a quick look and some companies still offer the policies, brown and white goods cover.

Shawn

 

[jezport]

These warranties seem to be more for the dealers peace of mind than the customer's in our experience, too many common failures / faults aren't covered.

The common failure of the airbag ECU for example isn't covered.

Why would it not be covered?

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[Ivory55]

The trouble is that they often will not let you take it to a main dealer only local cheaper garages and these often don’t have the soft ware to plug into the van. They will not pay for initial diagnostic only the repair.

 

[MC 55 FUN]

Why would it not be covered?

Ask MB&G !

An absolutely vital part of kit, M.O.T. failure & obviously not a good idea to drive with it faulty, yet not covered by MB&G '' gold cover '' nor is any part of the airbag & systems.

Yet an airbag ECU is cheaper than some parts which are covered.

Got ours replaced with goodwill contribution from Peugeot.

 

[eddie]

We, and many others in the trade refuse to do any work under insurance warranties

It ends up that we often wait ages for payment, then when payment is chased, there is a problem with this, or that, generally, can’t get authorisation to replace all the parts we feel ‘should’ be replaced, and 9/10 we alienate the customers, as we are having to tell them what is ‘covered’ and what isn’t, even when we are unhappy about the situation ourselves

So we decided years ago to politely refuse to do any work under insurance schemes

 

[Jake Royd]

Wouldn't touch an extended warranty insurance of any sort these days but many moons ago when we first lived together we did have an appliance insurance that covererd pretty much everything eléctrical in the house up to a certain age, can't remember what age it was, it was around £4 a month from memory so way cheaper than just a single extra cover on one item, we did call out and have repairs, claim a couple of times with no problems.
Just had a quick look and some companies still offer the policies, brown and white goods cover.

Shawn

MH warranties maybe a little different but allow me to explain why second or subsequent year warranties on consumer goods are very profitable for the seller.
Any manufactured item will suffer failures on a 'bathtub' curve, where time is the horizontal axis and number of failures is the vertical.
Early life failures caused by manufacturing errors etc. take place very quickly once the item is in service , the first curve of the 'bath' , the other end of the 'bath' represents 'wear out' failures where things start to fail through wear and durability issues.
Along the 'bottom' of the bath is where you get sold your extended warranty.
ie , there are no or very few failures per unit time , therefore in bulk , not very many claims , therefore lots of profit.
This is why businesses push extended warranties at point of sale.

MH's are essentially the same.

Like many here I bought a used Mh with a 6m warranty , it would cost I think £300 per year to renew , but with a £1000 limit per claim , BUT i would need a hab survey and professional servicing to qualify. Let's call this maybe £450.
So i reasoned that the all up cost would be say £750 per year forone claim of £1000 ,so for me it is not worth it.
In an 'annus horribilis' I suppose there might be say 3 claims , then it would be worth it but the probability of that is hopefully very low.

 

[Jake Royd]

Here's what I mean

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