E320 CDI Extended Warranty

[LesGosling]

My E320 CDI manufacturers warranty ended in December and given that I have just been quoted £1000+ per annum by Mercedes I was wondering if anyone had experience of a more cost effective solution.

 

[Blobcat]

Hi & Welcome

How old is your car? a few forum members have gone down the 'Service Plus' route and there are a few threads on it. IMHO aftermarket Warranties and not worth the paper they are written on.
I have effectively 'self insured' mine for the last 3 yrs.

 

[LesGosling]

Hi Thanks for the reply

It was 3 years old in December 2006. I am waiting for Merc to quote 'Service Plus' costs but they said it would probably not save much

 

[LesGosling]

So Merc want £1856 for 2 years 'Service Plus' they wont do 3 years as the car is 13 days out of manufacturers warranty.

Still very expensive 1 years warranty extention on a Porsche 911 is only £700

 

[Rory]

It's not just a warranty though - it covers all servicing and repairs (due to wear and tear).

I'd be a bit miffed they wouldn't sell you 3 yrs cover though (even if you have to lose the last 13 days of it).

 

[Blobcat]

How many miles per year are you doing?

 

[jberks]

try a different dealer. they don't necessarily sell MB warranties anymore so it's how good a deal the dealer can do with insurance cos. I Paid £600 for a fully comprehensive warranty to kick in when my E270cdi is 3 years old and the MB warranty expires. I bought it with the car from the dealer and just stuck it on the finance.

 

[Parrot of Doom]

Warranties make them a profit. Thats why they offer them.

Unfortunately the odds are against you seeing that profit.

 

[mioba]

spot on parrot of doom

the big corporations will never lose, they are dangling a carrot infront of you.

The only way i can see service plus being worth it is if you do high mileage, and say take it out when you know you have 6K miles left on pads and disks and tyres.

then again it would not surprise me if there is sting in the tail here also. ie they only offer service plus on cars that are A1 and the dealers will not have to spend over the odds on it in the first year.

 

[Blobcat]

As per above I have self insured for the last 3 years, and compared to the warranties/service plus I am ~£1,500 up. However if something serious happens then I may not be in quite such a good position.

 

[hawk20]

I think Service Plus is better value than most here are allowing. And not just for high mileage drivers as the cost drops substantially if you do 'normal' mileage. I have been quoted £62 per month ex vat (£72-85p inc Vat) for an S320cdi doing 12,000 miles per annum. That is £874.20p per year including Vat. It would give cover to the end of the 6th year or 120,000 miles whichever comes sooner.

Bear in mind the price is fixed -no price rises. It covers MOT's, servicing, brakes, all repairs and maintenance (except tyres) and is virtually a guarantee. It also gives UK breakdown cover for me and wife (worth £150 from the AA) and gives cover in Europe too (worth another bundle). I think that is good value and good peace of mind. It works out at 7.3 pence per mile for an average mileage person doing 12k miles p.a.

 

[jberks]

I have been quoted £62 per month ex vat (£72-85p inc Vat) for an S320cdi doing 12,000 miles per annum. That is £874.20p per year including Vat. It would give cover to the end of the 6th year or 120,000 miles whichever comes sooner.

To be fair, that's a reasonable price. Not quite a no brainer but if you want main dealer history it makes a lot of sense and chances are you'd break even or possibly even up a bit. After all, I've rarely come out with a bill less than £450 or so by the time the odd bit of maintenance has been carried out. One major failure and you're quids in.

As far as companies always coming out ahead is concerned, these warranties are bets or to put it another way, insurance policies. They make money out of us all having home insurance but who'd self insure on that one? With home insurance, the chances of claims are low, but the hit, should a claim be necessary could be so horrific, we see it as a necessity and don't question it. A car policy has a far greater chance of a claim, but the impact of each claim is potentially manageable to most of us, hence we doubt it.
Personally, I'm happy with a comprehensive warranty so don't begrudge the £600 I paid the dealer. I have peace of mind that should I need it, it will be there for me. Where I get doubts is with things such as warranty direct where you pay and then chances are, if you need them, they won't be there for you.

 

[Rory]

I have been quoted £62 per month ex vat (£72-85p inc Vat) for an S320cdi doing 12,000 miles per annum. That is £874.20p per year including Vat.

Is that per year for all 6 years?

If so then that's £5245 in total. I'd say that's going some for 12K/yr. Even if the car was serviced every year (and you can't over-service it, as they'll rely on ASSYST) then it should only need 3 minor services and 2 major service (the last one would almost certainly fall beyond the 6 yr mark) so the basic servicing cost will only be, say £1650. Even if you were to go mad and say 2 sets of pads and disks (£1500?) and 4 MOT's (£200) then you're still paying an extra couple of thousand pounds for (basically) yrs 4-6 repair cover (as 0-3 will be covered by the warranty anyway).

If you were doing 20K/yr then I'd say it probably makes sense (as long as the monthly cost wasn't much more), but I'm not so sure for 12K.

 

[benzo]

I think the best option is to pay for service yourself while it's under warranty and then put it on service plus after 3 years are up. That way you are paying a bit more for your extended warranty AND service/ wear and tear costs over the next 2-3 years.

 

[Rory]

I think the best option is to pay for service yourself while it's under warranty and then put it on service plus after 3 years are up. That way you are paying a bit more for your extended warranty AND service/ wear and tear costs over the next 2-3 years.

I think MB adjust the prices to allow for that, though?

I guess it's easier to justify (to yourself) the cost once it's out of warranty as you can offset the extended warranty *and* the service cost against ServicePlus.

Presumeably you'd really lose if you bought a 6 year deal when the car was new and then sold it after 3 yrs? In Hawk20's case he'd have paid £2600 for perhaps £1500 worth of service & maint.

 

[OmniCognateNeutronRangler]

For what its worth I have service plus. I have a 1 year contract based on 20,000 p.a. The services required depend on when you take the policy out. 12,000 mile p/a could be an A and a B service if you take it out just before one of the services is due.

I pay just over £70 per month. So far I have had the following

1 x B service + Plugs and Filters (not part of the standard service)
1 x MOT
All Brake Pads replace
Front Disks Replaced
Radio Fixed
Remote Central Locking Fixed
Cruise Control Fixed

I will also have another A service before the contract ends and that also assumes nothing else goes wrong.

Now, basing this in Merc prices it breaks-down the following way:

1 X B Service - £500
Spark Plugs (12 of them + 1 hour Labour) + fliters £200
1 x MOT £50 - that's a guess
All Brake pads, plus disks plus Labour - £400
Radio Fixed/Remote locking/Cruise Control - £600 (I know this price because it's the 2nd time they'v done it)

so in total that is approximately £1850 + £250 for the next A service, on a policy that cost about £900. To me that really is a no-brainer. Additionally I keep my Mobilo Life cover (worth about another £150) and my rust warrantee.

You could argue that I have been unlucky with the amount of work done on the car but then so could any of you reading this. So Service Plus covers not just all your servicing but also peace of mind.

btw, Service Plus CAN cover tryes too, it's about an extra £20 per month. At the time I didn't think it was worth it. But in hind-sight I have spent around £250 on tryes so far this year (2 new tyres + one repair) so it would actually have been a good idea after all.

 

[Rory]

Additionally I keep my Mobilo Life cover (worth about another £150) and my rust warrantee.

You'd get that 'free' anyway if you had the car serviced at an MB dealer so it's not an additional benefit.

In your case you'd have done pretty well out of ServicePlus even without the additional work - your basic services / plugs / MOT would have cost more than the ServicePlus fee. You really couldn't lose. I hope MB don't realise - they may take steps to prevent this in future!

Where are you in your cars lifecycle - did you just take for a year because your car's 5 yrs old?

 

[OmniCognateNeutronRangler]

I took cover for a year because I probably wont keep the car for much longer than that (it was 4 years old yesterday). I tend to put lots of miles on cars (although less this year) and wanted to keep some kind of residual value. The way I see it you either keep cars forever (so don't bother about resale value) or for only a year or so, so that the residual value isn't too horrendous. Given the cars somewhat dubious reliability I'm not keen to go the "keeping it forever" route.

as for the mobilo life thing, I believe you need to have it serviced at an MB garage to maintain that. If I had not gone for service plus I definately would not have had the car serviced at an MB garage so I would have lost the cover. I appreciate that "technically" service plus is not the reason for keeping mobilo life but it is in my case.

 

[izzi613]

Hi Omni, missed you for a while.

On this Service Plus issue, on your advice Omni, I finally received a quote today. My car has covered 81K and is just 3 years old the price per month quoted for 10K per annum is £62.75. Now this is an annual figure of £753. My car is due a B service in 7600miles and I have just relaced front pads so these are fine. Discs and pads at rear are also fine. I can't really see how this will be worth my while as there is no guarantee that they will cover the other stuff Omni has had done, looks more like a goodwill gesture Omni as this is not technically 'wear and tear' but warranty work.

So my conclusion is (as with other posts here) that Service Plus is only really worth the money for a high mileage driver where services, discs & pads will soon mount up. For me, my pad changes cost me £40, disc changes £40 approx for OEM stuff (do them myself with lots of help from nice ppl ) and services, well lets assume one a year at no more than £400 (often less). All in all not really worth it in my opinion.

 

[OmniCognateNeutronRangler]

Certainly if you are willing to fix things yourself (I know my limitations when it comes to cars - if I tried to fix my own it would probably result in VERY large bills ) you can do things a lot cheaper. As for services, a B service at an MB dealer for you car will be £500 and wont include plugs or filters. They are extra. You'll also need to get your car mot'd which is included (as are any repairs required to get it through the MOT).

Based on that I would say that given the quote its probably going to cost you about the same if you go with service plus, possibly a little more but will give you peace of mind.

As for the electrical items being a good will gesture, read this e-mail I received from MB contracts department after the central locking broke last time (this is before I had taken out the service plus):

I can confirm to you that yes, the service contract covers you for all
electrical and mechanical breakdown, replacement and repair due to normal
wear and tear. This is why we request the multi-point check and insist that
all faults/repairs detected at the time are rectified before going onto
contract because after the start of the contract we will be responsible for
all of the repairs.

I have also clarified with Ian King, who is one of the claims assessors
that the electronic gubbins would be covered under Service Plus.

This basically means that any electrical or mechanical item that is
standard fit from factory will be covered if it fails through normal wear
and tear. We will not cover any damage whether accidental or deliberate.

I hope this clarifies matters, you are welcome to keep this email for your
records. I apologise that you have been receiving conflicting messages, you
are welcome to ask anyone who is giving conflicting information to ring us
here and we will confirm what is and isn't covered.

I think that's pretty unambiguous. If I did nothing to break it then it's considered wear and tear.

btw, someone else posted prices for brembo brakes for the C-Class (I assume yours will be the same as mine) and they cost £300 just for the discs alone. I'm sure there are cheaper around though. I think the ones for my BMW only cost about £30 each. I think you said you paid £45 for yours, which seems very good. Please bear in mind all my prices were based on mercedes parts and labour, which are obscene IMO