Is a warranty worth the money?

[Jack Toff]

Good evening, I'm a new Mini owner and giving it a good clean, polish and wax tomorrow so will post the pics up over the weekend. It's an 05 plate MCS.

In the meantime there's a couple of issues I may have such as the age old power steering pump problem and a smell of fuel inside the car.

I took out a warranty on the Internet yesterday and hoping that if the problems are still there in a couple of weeks (which I'm sure they will be) the warranty will pay for the repairs.

Anyone had any experience of situations like this?

Thanks in advance.

[Tigger, Eeyore & Roo]

Without knowing the insurance comapny involved and the level of cover purchased, it's hard to say.

But, the level of cover offered by such warranties is normally disappointing.

If there's any possibility that this is a pre-existing fault, that it can be attributed to wear and tear and unless it's a sudden and catastrophic internal failure of a covered component, then your chances are very slim indeed.

[Tigger, Eeyore & Roo]

To illustrate the point:

In 2010, I took out a year's cover from Warranty Direct. It was their top of the range policy and because it was taken out just before the original 3 year MINI warranty expired, it even included cover for wear and tear.

After about 3 months, at 46,000 miles, both rear wheel bearings expired. The garage, helpfully as it turned out, advised to only get the very worst one done under the warranty as they said that there was very little chance that WD would pay for both of them.

I paid my £240 for the single replacement wheel bearing and despite the fact that it was a claim that was genuinely covered under the terms of their policy, they rejected the claim. It took about a month's fight before they relented and paid out.

[Jack Toff]

Thanks for the reply, I'm mainly interested in it covering any future common pricey problems such as power steering pump, fuel pump etc

[ging]

I think that says a lot about these sort of warranties when the garage are turning down business because they don't believe the warranty company will pay out on a 3-4 year old car.

[Jack Toff]

Ok, well I've decided not to go for a warranty as it looks like it would be money down the drain and a lot of arguing.

How much do you think I'm looking at for a new power steering pump and a new fuel pump - both fitted. If anyone knows roughly how much for an independent and a Mini dealership I'd be really grateful.

Thanks in advance......

[Jack Toff]

Can anyone help on this please?

Been quoted £280'plus VAT for the ps pump plus fitting of an hours labour from a place where they reckon they have all the BMW gear and ex BMW technicians. BMW want £170 just to stick it on a diagnostics which will tell me what I already know then charge me an AMA nd a leg I assume for the supply and fit of ps pump.

I also think they quoted £180 plus VAT for the fuel pump plus 45 mins labour to fit.

Decent prices from the independent or should I go main dealer?