Should I get extended warranty for my VW?

[KingC]

Hi everyone,

As I have just purchased(not lease) and picked up a brand new VW Tiguan Trendline 4motion, I am wondering should I get the extended warranty on it or not I have rejected it before when I bought my 09 Matrix because I know it is a Toyota, and parts + repair techniques are easily accessible from many sources.

I do plan to keep the Tiguan for at least 5 years and more. For myself, I have some basic vehicle repair and diagnosis skills and will learn more over the time period.

However, I am well aware of the potential problems that a VW vehicle can be very troublesome (depends on your luck!) and cost quite a bit to fix.

I don't drive that much so probably I would pick an extended warranty for 7 years/100,000KM @$2275+tax. (When compare to $3200 Insurance/year, it seems it is nothing LOL)

What do you guys think and does anyone have had any experience about it?

e.g: If I can do the brakes+maintenance myself, will all the warranty be voided?

Thank you everyone and thanks for taking your time to read this post.

Edit:some grammer mistake.

[deadprez]

$3,200 a year for insurance ?

You need to go see a Registered Insurance Broker of Ontario.
I know there is one floating around this forum.

Regarding the warranty I believe you can get third party warranty with better coverage for a cheaper price.
I heard Mohammad mention this on Car talk Canada CP24 program one sunday evening.

Just a thought.

If anything tho I would seriously look at the fine print before purchasing extended warranty. I know VW parts are seriously expensive so its something you should look at very seriously.

[KingC]

$3,200 a year for insurance ?

You need to go see a Registered Insurance Broker of Ontario.
I know there is one floating around this forum.

Regarding the warranty I believe you can get third party warranty with better coverage for a cheaper price.
I heard Mohammad mention this on Car talk Canada CP24 program one sunday evening.

Just a thought.

If anything tho I would seriously look at the fine print before purchasing extended warranty. I know VW parts are seriously expensive so its something you should look at very seriously.

Insurance wise, everyone in BC gets the same price, with no discount, it costs $3700 (everyday driving+3mil 3rd party+$300 deductible comprehensive/collision), with my only 15% discount....turns out to be $3200..

I have heard some stories about 3rd party extended warranty uses OE-grade parts in repairs(instead of original VW parts)?

Moreover, I have noticed that the price jumps up quite abit for longer mileage for the extended warranty(does it mean SOMETHING in statistical way lol?)
for 7 years general:
$2051 for 80,000KM
$2275 for 100,000KM ($200 jump)
$2934 for 120,000KM ($659jump)
$3594 for 140,000KM ($660 jump)

[deadprez]

[QUOTE=KingC;8838641]Insurance wise, everyone in BC gets the same price, with no discount, it costs $3700 (everyday driving+3mil 3rd party+$300 deductible comprehensive/collision), with my only 15% discount....turns out to be $3200..

QUOTE]

Is that per vehicle ?
And I just finished complaining about $2,000 to insure an 03 corolla and 03 explorer to my friends.

[mangoman]

DEFINITELY consider the extended warranty on the car if you're keeping it for more than 5yrs however read the fine print. As an example I had a 3rd party warranty through the VW dealer and when the turbo bypass/diverter valve went, neither VW nor the warranty co. would agree on if the valve was a powertrain component or not so neither of them would cover it. In the end I bought it myself and installed it myself (dealer wanted $80 in labour alone for a 10 min. installation). Perhaps if the extended warranty is through VW Canada then you won't get into a situation like that.

Hi everyone,

As I have just purchased(not lease) and picked up a brand new VW Tiguan Trendline 4motion, I am wondering should I get the extended warranty on it or not I have rejected it before when I bought my 09 Matrix because I know it is a Toyota, and parts + repair techniques are easily accessible from many sources.

I do plan to keep the Tiguan for at least 5 years and more. For myself, I have some basic vehicle repair and diagnosis skills and will learn more over the time period.

However, I am well aware of the potential problems that a VW vehicle can be very troublesome (depends on your luck!) and cost quite a bit to fix.

I don't drive that much so probably I would pick an extended warranty for 7 years/100,000KM @$2275+tax. (When compare to $3200 Insurance/year, it seems it is nothing LOL)

What do you guys think and does anyone have had any experience about it?

e.g: If I can do the brakes+maintenance myself, will all the warranty be voided?

Thank you everyone and thanks for taking your time to read this post.

Edit:some grammer mistake.

[nornet]

I'm looking at a 7 year 160k km extended warranty for my Subaru right now. It probably has a better reliability record than your VW but it is still peace of mind and will make resale easier.

[jandumm]

Hiya, just thought I'd put in my two cents wrt VWs - as I was talking about this with my hubby a few days ago.

I bought a used VW in 2003 - it was a 2001 Jetta 1.8T with 67000 km on it -> it currently has 230000 km

I was tallying up how much it cost me to maintain it up until this point -> my calculations showed it cost around $5,000 for the life of the car (-> however this includes:
- 3 sets of new tires + 1 set of winter rims
- 2 timing belt changes
- rear and front brakes
- a number of "VW" typical failures, including but not limited to:
- window regulators on both sides
- wiper motor failure
- coil paks (would've been covered under warranty)
- door lock module failure
- leak in a coolant pipe
- mass air flow sensor
- alternator

The majority of these problems have occurred in the last two years - when the car was way beyond 150,000 km.

So in short, there should be minimal problems from the time between the factory warranty expires to when the new warranty expires -> the other thing I don't like is the "7 year or 100,000" thing -> most people drive between 20 - 30000 km a year.

That being said, some questions you have to ask are:

- where will you be getting your car serviced -> I have never serviced my car at the stealership -> if I did, I suspect my costs would be doubled or tripled
- what does the warranty cover? as others have mentioned, what does the fine print say?
- what are other MKV owners saying? I'm a HUGE fan of the forums on vwvortex -> they're knowledgeable and nice and should be able to give you an owners perspective on the warranty issue
- how handy are you? are you able to fix things or at least diagnose them yourself or will you be at the mercy of the dealership
- how much will you be driving? if you won't be driving a lot, then at least you'll be getting some value out of the 7 years

An additional note is I work in a field where we have to provide warrantys on high tech parts -> there's a department of 5 people who's job it is to calculate the average lifespan of our equipment and to calculate the optimum warranty period so that we'll maximize our profit. That's the whole thing with warranties -> there's this concept called the "bathtub" curve -> which is fundamentally saying that components will fail the longer they are used so we statistically determine the failure rate of a particular component -> if we know a batch of 100,000 of identical components will fail every 62 months, we will provide a warranty of 60 months.

We just purchased a used Saab -> and asked the dealership for their prices -> how come they refuse to provide an extended warranty beyond 140,000 km. I suspect it's because their reliability calculations showed that it wouldn't be cost effective to provide anything more.

[pax1234]

I was tallying up how much it cost me to maintain it up until this point -> my calculations showed it cost around $5,000 for the life of the car (-> however this includes:
- 3 sets of new tires + 1 set of winter rims
- 2 timing belt changes
- rear and front brakes
- a number of "VW" typical failures, including but not limited to:
- window regulators on both sides
- wiper motor failure
- coil paks (would've been covered under warranty)
- door lock module failure
- leak in a coolant pipe
- mass air flow sensor
- alternator"

That is very good price for all that work done. May I ask where do you get it done? I am thinking of getting a new VW Golf in the fall too. Thanks

[mangoman]

And just for a comparison the same failures on a 2000 GTI 1.8T:


- a number of "VW" typical failures, including but not limited to:
- window regulators on both sides
+1 (actually +3 and I only have 2 windows)

- wiper motor failure
+1

- coil paks (would've been covered under warranty)
+1 (not covered on mine when they failed)

- door lock module failure
+1 (1st 3 months)

- leak in a coolant pipe
- mass air flow sensor
+1 (once out of pocket and once covered by VW)

- alternator
+1 (this is more of a standard repair for a lot of cars but didn't expect it after 4 yrs)

I've had other issues/failures too but thought I'd chime in to show which ones are reallllly common and can cost ya if you have to pay out of pocket.

[labenge]

I'm looking at a 7 year 160k km extended warranty for my Subaru right now. It probably has a better reliability record than your VW but it is still peace of mind and will make resale easier.

How much does this cost? I'm in the market for a Subaru and am contemplating whether an extended warranty might be useful or not.

[calgaryhhr]

My girlfriend bought a new VW last year and only has the original warranty. I bought a GM vehicle in 2005 and I only had the original 3 year warranty as well.
With GM you could extend the warranty at any point prior to it expiring although the cost goes up. It is cheapest to buy it right at the beginning and gets more expensive later on.
I think VW extended warranties work the same.
Basically the way I approach this sort of thing is to buy it later if I feel it is really necessary. If I'm having a lot of problems with the vehicle while under warranty I would consider extending it for the added protection. If I hear or read that a lot of other owners are developing problems as the vehicle gets driven more or ages than I would consider the extended warranty as well.
Basically I would hold off on paying for something which might not be necessary.

[tsxnation]

If you are a buying an extended warranty on a new car, you can haggle the price down quite a bit. After the fact, you will be stuck paying whatever the dealership wants because they wont bargain on it. It's not uncommon to pay 1-1.5k extra to get the maximum extended warranty available.

[nornet]

How much does this cost? I'm in the market for a Subaru and am contemplating whether an extended warranty might be useful or not.

I have a US Subaru so the warranty cost is actually quite low, about $1k I think. From what I've heard its at least twice that up here.

[KingC]

Sorry for the late reply, was busy working the whole day!
and I found a plastic trim is missing from my new Tiguan

Is that per vehicle ?
And I just finished complaining about $2,000 to insure an 03 corolla and 03 explorer to my friends.

Yes...

DEFINITELY consider the extended warranty on the car if you're keeping it for more than 5yrs however read the fine print. As an example I had a 3rd party warranty through the VW dealer and when the turbo bypass/diverter valve went, neither VW nor the warranty co. would agree on if the valve was a powertrain component or not so neither of them would cover it. In the end I bought it myself and installed it myself (dealer wanted $80 in labour alone for a 10 min. installation). Perhaps if the extended warranty is through VW Canada then you won't get into a situation like that.

I have uploaded a scan of the extended warranty booklet, it seems like it covers everything which I guess it should work out quite well. Thanks for your remind of the 3rd party warranty issue. =)

Hiya, just thought I'd put in my two cents wrt VWs - as I was talking about this with my hubby a few days ago.

I bought a used VW in 2003 - it was a 2001 Jetta 1.8T with 67000 km on it -> it currently has 230000 km

I was tallying up how much it cost me to maintain it up until this point -> my calculations showed it cost around $5,000 for the life of the car (-> however this includes:
- 3 sets of new tires + 1 set of winter rims
- 2 timing belt changes
- rear and front brakes
- a number of "VW" typical failures, including but not limited to:
- window regulators on both sides
- wiper motor failure
- coil paks (would've been covered under warranty)
- door lock module failure
- leak in a coolant pipe
- mass air flow sensor
- alternator

Just the 4 sets of tires well worth $2500 out from the $5000?
I guess VW is "quite" reliable for the first 150,000KM then..

In response to above,

- I will do most of the maintance services myself. But I don't know if it is a good practice to get back to stealership "for record purpose".

- what does the warranty cover? It seems that it covers everything except maintenance parts?

- what are other MKV owners saying? I have just looked at the 2.0T FSI forum briefly and will definitely get onto it.

- how handy are you? I am planning to get a VAG-COM kit later to do some customization and diagnosis code reading. Will learn how to change brakes and rotors eventually and more.

- how much will you be driving? probably 15000KM per year as I have a second vehicle avaible (shared with my dad).

And just for a comparison the same failures on a 2000 GTI 1.8T:


- a number of "VW" typical failures, including but not limited to:
- window regulators on both sides
+1 (actually +3 and I only have 2 windows)
.......

Do they fail within 7 years/100,000KM?

My girlfriend bought a new VW last year and only has the original warranty. I bought a GM vehicle in 2005 and I only had the original 3 year warranty as well.
If I'm having a lot of problems with the vehicle while under warranty I would consider extending it for the added protection. If I hear or read that a lot of other owners are developing problems as the vehicle gets driven more or ages than I would consider the extended warranty as well.
Basically I would hold off on paying for something which might not be necessary.

I believe the business manager told me that it is the same price if it is purchased within 20,000KM, is that true or just BS?

If you are a buying an extended warranty on a new car, you can haggle the price down quite a bit. After the fact, you will be stuck paying whatever the dealership wants because they wont bargain on it. It's not uncommon to pay 1-1.5k extra to get the maximum extended warranty available.

Well I got the price down quite abit and the deal is done..so I guess I need to pay in full anyhow.

Thank you all for the input effort and much apperciarte.
Probably I will get the extended warranty for a piece of mind IF the warranty allows me to change brake pad/do maintance/replace cosmetic items by myself(or other mechanics). I will double check with them about that. Do you guys think I should get them to write down that I can do my own maintance or items listed above on paper once they agreed? To protect myself from them declining my warranty request?

Sorry for the long post, I don't think many people can finish reading it. Really apperciated.

[KingC]

In addition, attached is the 5 star and 4 star plan booklet description, by looking at the 4 star plan, it seems to be covered a lot of stuff (LOL, I doubt I will ever damage my cylinder block for my life...) with lots of stuff that could hardly broken. Then 5 star plan did turn me down abit on the vague description of Exhaust and Emssion system (O2/MAF sensor not included in warranty then?) and the hose (water cooling hose also not included?)





Once again, Thanks.

K