Extended Warranty

[california kid]

Hi All our California is just coming up to be Three years old, I have just received email from Vw offering extended warranty, They offer two types, all cover or selected component cover.
For approx £850.00 with £100 excess for full cover, for one year.
My Question is has any one taken out this type of warranty or is there a alternative, as with any warranty package you pay your money and take your chance?
Open for your views and comments.

 

[T6 CFO]

As you probably know at time of purchase or soon after extended warranty for 2 years/80,000miles is just short of £400. At £850 for a year I would be rolling the dice unless I suspected something nasty. Basically x4 the cost + the excess.


Mike

 

[california kid]

Cheers Mike for your reply, we bought our Cali as ex demo and was a few months old, we did not get offered the extended warranty, but never give it a thought to ask. Having first M O T on Friday, will see what is available on the T 6 front, may be a good time to change up, as Residuals are high on California's. Touch wood no problems with our Cali been an excellent Vehicle. But do agree with you to roll the dice?

Alan

 

[Jabberwocky]

Might sound expensive at £850 + excess i.e. £475 per extra year, but you don't say how many miles the Cali has covered. Alternator? £400, roof corrosion (I've heard £500 for the elevating section)? Personally? If you are planning on keeping the Cali and you can afford the extension I would take it.

It's a bit of a gamble but it will provide two years of peace of mind.......

Certainly worth thinking about I would say.

 

[Meoncoast]

we did not get offered the extended warranty, but never give it a thought to ask.

I do not think there was the extra warranty offered back in 2014

Although year 4 and 5 we had some work on our t5 most was service items ie cam belt and dsg oil chance. which would not have been covered on a warranty.
Item covered £250 so the warranty for those 2 years would have not paid off for us. We thought about running cost for those years and but money in a repair pot

 

[Meoncoast]

Might sound expensive at £850 + excess i.e. £475 per extra year

£850 is for 1 year

 

[california kid]

Thank you for your comments, as said £850 with £100 excess is for one year, if this was for two year extension it would be a no brainier! fully understand thoughts about alternator and other components, am I correct the body warranty including roof extends for six years or am I mistaken, we have currently 21000 mile on clock first registered 1/03/2014, will have a chat with dealer on Friday while our Cali is having M O T. also I am aware that when California's are four years old, the service schedule requires cam belt change, but because of work involved the advise water pump also, total cost approx £900.
As said earlier having no problems at all, further thought needed.

Alan

 

[Jabberwocky]

£850 is for 1 year

Thank you for your comments, as said £850 with £100 excess is for one year, if this was for two year extension it would be a no brainier! fully understand thoughts about alternator and other components, am I correct the body warranty including roof extends for six years or am I mistaken, we have currently 21000 mile on clock first registered 1/03/2014, will have a chat with dealer on Friday while our Cali is having M O T. also I am aware that when California's are four years old, the service schedule requires cam belt change, but because of work involved the advise water pump also, total cost approx £900.
As said earlier having no problems at all, further thought needed.

Alan

Sorry Alan, missed the one year. Ooops!
Neither the Cam Belt change nor the Water Pump would be covered by the warranty.
As far as I am concerned the roof has an extended warranty (total six years) but I included it in my calcs above as it seems some members have had a push back on this point from dealers/VWCS. So it was covering an angle really.

At 21k miles? I'd be sorely tempted not to extend particularly as you have, what sounds like, more than half an eye on a T6!

 

[california kid]

That's ok Jabberwocky, our Cali is very well specked, the OH did comment when we visit dealership, we will ask the question of what is available,ours is the 180, will try and test drive both the 150 & 204. With the talk about Road tax changes, looking at the prices it will make it very expensive over the five years with the extra supplement, if we consider to order a new Cali, although upon speaking to work mates the comments are if you can afford a California, you can afford the Road Tax!

Alan

 

[Bibs]

This is not the same as the 2 year extended factory warranty that is offered on the T6.The maximum amount per claim for this is £2500 so in my opinion its not worth it.

 

[Jabberwocky]

That's ok Jabberwocky, our Cali is very well specked, the OH did comment when we visit dealership, we will ask the question of what is available,ours is the 180, will try and test drive both the 150 & 204. With the talk about Road tax changes, looking at the prices it will make it very expensive over the five years with the extra supplement, if we consider to order a new Cali, although upon speaking to work mates the comments are if you can afford a California, you can afford the Road Tax!

Alan

Lets hope your work mates are not in charge of budgets!

Oh, also the fuel consumption of the 204? I've been seeing some grumbles about that matter here. https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/204-dsg-mpg.17221/

 

[B J G]

Have you tried warranty direct for a comparison?

https://www.warrantydirect.co.uk/qa/?v=motor

 

[DM]

I suspect this may be be an insurance policy underwritten by a third party rather than a manufacturer warranty. What is covered? There are often lots of exceptions. Does it include the roof and interior?

It's a tricky one. If nothing goes wrong it'll seem expensive. But you could end up with big bill if something does.

 

[vmaxkiddy]

Thank you for your comments, as said £850 with £100 excess is for one year, if this was for two year extension it would be a no brainier! fully understand thoughts about alternator and other components, am I correct the body warranty including roof extends for six years or am I mistaken, we have currently 21000 mile on clock first registered 1/03/2014, will have a chat with dealer on Friday while our Cali is having M O T. also I am aware that when California's are four years old, the service schedule requires cam belt change, but because of work involved the advise water pump also, total cost approx £900.
As said earlier having no problems at all, further thought needed.

Alan

Cam belt and water pump change for £900 ! Quoted price from my dealer is £516, or from a Skoda dealer ( same basic engine used in the Octavia and Yeti models) £485.

 

[Freeley]

+1 DO NOT pay £900 for belt and water pump replacement! Was about £600 on both my previous transporters.

 

[kenm]

Just had an email from VW re extended warranty for my March 2014 SE. Clicked the link to their website and chose all component cover, less than 10k per year and zero excess. The price coming up is £1937.78 for the extra year! There must be a glitch in the system but will consult stealer when in for an MOT at the end of the month. At that price it would be a no brainer to go down the self insure route.

 

[WelshGas]

Just had an email from VW re extended warranty for my March 2014 SE. Clicked the link to their website and chose all component cover, less than 10k per year and zero excess. The price coming up is £1937.78 for the extra year! There must be a glitch in the system but will consult stealer when in for an MOT at the end of the month. At that price it would be a no brainer to go down the self insure route.

No glitch.

 

[WelshGas]

Cam belt and water pump change for £900 ! Quoted price from my dealer is £516, or from a Skoda dealer ( same basic engine used in the Octavia and Yeti models) £485.

+1 DO NOT pay £900 for belt and water pump replacement! Was about £600 on both my previous transporters.

Not with the 4th year service costs as well. Normally gearbox oil, aircon etc:

 

[steve and lisa]

Just had an email from VW re extended warranty for my March 2014 SE. Clicked the link to their website and chose all component cover, less than 10k per year and zero excess. The price coming up is £1937.78 for the extra year! There must be a glitch in the system but will consult stealer when in for an MOT at the end of the month. At that price it would be a no brainer to go down the self insure route.

That is correct, that is near enough what we were quoted, we ended up putting ours in a savings account and forgot about it, it has been in there nearly a year now so we are £1900 in credit, we will put another £1900 in there for the coming year. Its like our own win-win insurance policy

 

[california kid]

Hi All further to my previous post re cambelt and water pump replacement at year 4, the £900 I mentioned should have been £800 approx, breakdown as follows £445 for cambelt and water pump plus £295 for full service or £145 for small service all plus v a t. This is fixed Vw pricing, but room for some discount. I discussed this today while our Cali was having it's first M O T. Although you do not need to have a service while having the cambelt and water pump replaced, I personnelly was going to tie the two together to save an additional visit, anyway that is to think about next year.

 

[T6 CFO]

Hi All further to my previous post re cambelt and water pump replacement at year 4, the £900 I mentioned should have been £800 approx, breakdown as follows £445 for cambelt and water pump plus £295 for full service or £145 for small service all plus v a t. This is fixed Vw pricing, but room for some discount. I discussed this today while our Cali was having it's first M O T. Although you do not need to have a service while having the cambelt and water pump replaced, I personnelly was going to tie the two together to save an additional visit, anyway that is to think about next year.

Certainly with my Touran I got a good deal on both occasions that I had it replaced. After the initial warranty period all my servicing was done by a friend at a local garage. Not worth the hassle though for the cambelt with the price they offered on a discount deal. Downside was the free health check they did, needless to say I just ignored the zillion faults they found as my friend was quite happy with the vehicle.


Mike

 

[california kid]

Hi Mike while our Cali was in today for its M O T & with being three years old she was due for a brake fluid change, we also got a health check all ok, have decided not to take out extended warranty and will roll the dice!!! I will however continue to have our Cali main dealer serviced, with residuals high hopefully if we do decide to upgrade to a T 6 we will get a decent price for our Cali.

Alan

 

[T6 CFO]

Hi Mike while our Cali was in today for its M O T & with being three years old she was due for a brake fluid change, we also got a health check all ok, have decided not to take out extended warranty and will roll the dice!!! I will however continue to have our Cali main dealer serviced, with residuals high hopefully if we do decide to upgrade to a T 6 we will get a decent price for our Cali.

Alan

That's good it getting a clean bill of health. I'm with you on the VW servicing though. Cali will always be done by the main dealer. Can't see I will ever sell it but just in case and the complexity of the vehicle.


Mike

 

[Ted]

Hi all,
I'd be very careful with warranty companies. There are some really dodgy ones out there. I bought a Mercedes car 6 months ago, with a 'twelve month all singing and dancing gold cover'. I needed a new part for the heater, and although they accepted the claim, I needed to phone for an authorisation number once the garage had diagnosed the fault and confirmed the price.
After being on hold for two hours (over several calls) I told the repair garage that I'd just pay for the repair myself (£300).
The warranty isn't worth the paper it's written on.
Absolute shocking service from Auto Protect.

Incidentally the repair garage said they have had issues with this company before with other customers. They also stated the RAC warranty is very good, and they have never had a problem with claims.

VW warranty might be expensive, but it'll be the best cover you can get!

Ted.

 

[motacyclist]

No glitch.

Well, can you get it for £850 as per OP or do you have to pay £1937? £850 seems reasonable for an extra year's peace of mind.