High Cost Of Repairs

[Oldmicrochip]

I was reading about several owners of Citroen C5's(same for any model), having to pay out lots of money(hundreds of pounds) to get over varous problems fixing their cars(AM I UNUSUAL), because after buying my second Citroen(1st was a BX) 2.2 SX C5, I looked under the bonnet, and thought not for me to repair(I always did my own repairs for the last 40 years), so I thought about Extended Warrent after the Manufactures warrenty ran out. Good job, it cost £351 from Citroen and over the next year it coverd about £1500 worth of repairs(parts and labour) in the Main Dealer. That I think was good value. The down side is you have to have the regular service done(with genuine Citroen parts ) to keep your Service book up to date, but does'nt have to be done at Citroen. I belive still good value. You can get cheaper Extended Warrenty(non Citroen) and I now do this for my 2nd C5(warrenty had run out 6 months ago), just bought from a Dealer.

[Guest Colin Hunter]

I agree with you that some modern cars are not easily worked on by your home DIY mechanic. Oil / filter changes are still no problem, but you need the magic garage stamp before you'll be able to buy any warranty. It doesn't matter if you forgot more about things mechanical than the mechanic ever knew. They simply won't entertain it. I was unable to continue with my warrnty from Warranty Direct (http://www.warrantydirect.co.uk/) for the reason that, as the car became older, they would cover less and the cost went up. Servicing, however also increased in price and as the car's value decreased it became unviable.

 

I will say that, while I had the cover in place I never had one year when I did not at least "break even". Most years I was ahead and was able to claim for parts and labour for jobs which, added up, the parts almost came to the cost of the cover. The downside was having to pay someone to do a service that you could have done yourself for a tenth of the cost.

 

The plus-side was that the Warranty direct cover included recovery after a breakdown, up to 8 days car hire, and overnight accommodation if you became stranded as the result of a breakdown. Very re-assuring when you're away from home on holiday with the car full of wife, family etc!

 

Great for peace of mind. Cheers ;)

[TurboSlag]

Cars are generally as easy to work on as ever, it's just a different set of skills that are easy to acquire. Instead of being able to strip a carb, you'll need to know where to poke the probes of a multimeter. There are several good books on fuel injection & engine management. It's simple, if you have the inclination. The rest of the bits (suspenders, steering, gears, brakes etc are much as they ever were.

 

The flip side of these extended "warranties" is also evident. They aren't "warrnties" in the proper sense of the word, but a mechanical breakdown insurance policy that fail to cover more items than they do. Having spannered in the trade i've met many folk such as yourselves who've been glad they had them, and even more who paid out to find they didn't cover the item that eventually failed. Some policies ay specify OE parts, but any competent engineer (even yourself) can do the work - that's your right enshrined in civil case law. Naturally, most folk don't know this and pay for expensive servicing, often at the dealer from which they purchased the policy.

 

It's a balance of risk/reward that only you can decide - in the rare event I keep a car beyond 3 years I usually have a pretty shrewd idea of how its behaving (else it'd be chopped in for a new one anyway if it's been irksome) and i've never bothered with these "warranties" and have never suffered a large repair bill in excess of the cost of a "warranty" policy in 23 years of driving.

[Guest Colin Hunter]

You're absolutely right! The only reason I kept my 110 Xantia for as long as I did, thereby breaking my (Once Golden) 3 years max rule was that I liked the car so much, and, to be fair, up until the start of this year the car never gave a moment's bother except for (Very minor) problems which were repaired under my Warranty Direct breakdown scheme. One such part was the power steering pipe which started to leak from a joint between rubber and steel and was replaced. The cost of the pipe to buy (Citroen only) was more than the warranty cost!

 

Cheers ;)

[Guest mrben]

Hi, I’m new here but came across a site which might be able to help some of you out if you’re looking for parts so thought I’d let you know, it’s called Auto Parts Finder

 

Looks like Auto Parts Finder is for current stuff but it’s not just for they have parts on there for various brands including: Alfa, Citroen, Ford, Peugeot, Nissan, Mercedes, Renault, Saab, Mazda, Vauxhall, Smart, Jaguar, Fiat, Suzuki plus more to come.

 

You can search for parts on the homepage by Brand, Description or Pt/No if known and the results tell you who has them, the price, where they are and gives you a direct telephone number so you can call them up, there is also an advanced search where you can search for 4 parts at a time for 4 different brands if you want.

 

There’s also a dealer directory which will help find main dealers in and around your area plus a message board function which allows you to leave adverts for the parts you are looking for, best of all it’s free!

 

Auto Parts Finder looks fairly new as they’ve only got 160,000 parts listed all from main dealers but it could grow into something big, especially for redundant/obsolescent parts that are available from main dealers at vastly reduced prices but with full warranty’s.

 

Anyway have a look it’s Auto Parts Finder

[Guest mrben]

Hi, I’m new here but came across a site which might be able to help some of you out if you’re looking for parts so thought I’d let you know, it’s called Auto Parts Finder

 

Looks like Auto Parts Finder is for current stuff but it’s not just for they have parts on there for various brands including: Alfa, Citroen, Ford, Peugeot, Nissan, Mercedes, Renault, Saab, Mazda, Vauxhall, Smart, Jaguar, Fiat, Suzuki plus more to come.

 

You can search for parts on the homepage by Brand, Description or Pt/No if known and the results tell you who has them, the price, where they are and gives you a direct telephone number so you can call them up, there is also an advanced search where you can search for 4 parts at a time for 4 different brands if you want.

 

There’s also a dealer directory which will help find main dealers in and around your area plus a message board function which allows you to leave adverts for the parts you are looking for, best of all it’s free!

 

Auto Parts Finder looks fairly new as they’ve only got 160,000 parts listed all from main dealers but it could grow into something big, especially for redundant/obsolescent parts that are available from main dealers at vastly reduced prices but with full warranty’s.

 

Anyway have a look it’s Auto Parts Finder

[techbod]

this is good to a point and generally over priced but cheaper than the dealer so ill give it a 1 out of 10 success unless you better control the prices and not take advantage of people,

its not all about finding cheap parts but fitting them ( THE PRIORITY ) we all know how scrap yard work " 50% less than the dealers " try fitting the part in your price :)

[techbod]

or should I say half price jewelers similar to pawn brokers ( get it for nothing ) and rip the customer off :) :D