I have been offered a mechanical warranty by the car yard i am looking at buying a car from but the vehicle has only done 69,000 ks so do you think it would be neccessary as its usually mechanical stuff that will go wrong isnt it? TIA
intrade,
Jan 14, 1:11am
warrantys dedmand you get the vehice serviced by who ever is in there warranty club and not your mechanic .making extra money for the dealers buddys . also you have a warranty its called consumer guarantees act. dealer have to give almost the same warranty as if it was a brand new car on any old heap. So i would not want to be a dealer and i would never buy no warranty also.
andy61,
Jan 14, 1:14am
If its a Euro car ,you will more than likely need it, but otherwise theres a good chance its a waste of money.
jahari,
Jan 14, 1:34am
No its a japanese import and my tho0ught were if its only done that many ks and you need a warranty it doesnt say much for the vehicles they sell lol
thejazzpianoma,
Jan 14, 2:56am
Dealers LOVE people to buy warranties, from their point of view what you are effectively doing is paying to cover THEIR liability under the consumer guarantees act and as an extra kicker they are likely receiving a commission as well!
So, with that in mind, personally if I was buying a warranty I would buy it once the dealers reasonable liability period was running short. Not straight away.
As for whether it's worth it, the best thing to do is to ask for a copy of the policy and have a read. You need to consider what you are actually likely to be covered for after all the exceptions are removed. I would then suggest you consider the potential cost and likelyhood of those few items failing in the insured time vs the cost of the insurance (including excess, max claim limit etc).
You need to do this quietly, logically yourself without the dealers input as they have a seriously vested interest as pointed out above.
You may also want to consider the alternative of just putting that warranty money + excess aside. Do that on a yearly basis and you may quickly have your own "insurance policy" that is guaranteed to payout for any reason and without excess or conditions.
As an aside, if you are concerned about unexpected repairs etc. Be aware that dealers are heavily pushing a lot of CVT Nissan product (Note, Tiida, Wingroad etc). The Note and Tiida in particular are just built to be 5 year life span disposable cars for Japanese use only IMO. They just arn't built to last, yet dealers are pushing them heavily here as there is good money to be made. Many suffer from serious hidden under body rust due to a lack of rust proofing, they also suffer poor quality fitment and parts in general. However of most concern is the transmission, that generation of Nissan CVT's are guaranteed to fail between 120K - 160K, we are not talking high risk here, we are talking about pretty much every unit. This is not me saying this, but it comes directly from a transmission repairer.
So. if you have one of those in your sights, perhaps consider again or at the very least do get the warranty.
This post will likely generate a LOT of hostile remarks as these boards are swarming with dealers and their mates. There will no doubt be many attempts to discredit me etc. Talk to a CVT/transmission specialist though and you will likely hear exactly the same thing, likewise panelbeaters who are doing the rust repairs on new imports etc.
Best of luck with it all.
stevo2,
Jan 14, 3:00am
^^^ This ^^^ I have bought dozens of cars and never bought a Warranty yet. On the odd occasion that I have had a problem (very soon after purchase) the dealer has sorted it for me with very little fuss.
jahari,
Jan 14, 3:16am
Many thanks for that thejazz.
We are actually looking at getting an Nissan El grand do you know if the transmission and rust issues effect these vehicles?
Can you also tell me what the liablity length of time is for a dealer?
jmma,
Jan 14, 4:20am
He is just googling that for you, he shouldn't be long now (o:
tigger8,
Jan 14, 5:01am
you could ask the dealer as to why they are trying to sell you mechanical warranty, do they know that the car is not up to standard or is there something faulty. ask them as they want to sell you warranty the car must be bad
franc123,
Jan 14, 5:11am
They aren't warranties anyway, they are insurance policies with compulsory minimum maintenance requirements that may or may not totally pay for major repairs, that dealers get commissions for selling them to you. Up to you whether its worth the premiums or not, if you are buying a low km car that's clearly been maintained well in the past and will be in the future then chances are you won't need to claim. Depends on what you are buying of course.
kazbanz,
Jan 14, 6:28am
wrong and wrong and--yep I agree Warranties require a vehicle to be serviced by a legitimate garage ANY garage CGA has limitations time wise--a warranty doesn't Nahh being a dealer is a mugs game
sw20,
Jan 14, 6:36am
I've got one, but I have an RX-8, where an engine rebuild can cost half the price of the car, and they seem to decide to die when they see fit. I don't think I'd bother with a conventional piston engined car, the kinds of conventional engined cars that you may want them for, like the early to mid 2000s Mercedes with the air suspension, that suspension will most likely be excluded from any cover.
jahari,
Jan 14, 6:54am
Perhaps you know the answer?
topzone,
Jan 14, 6:58am
I've bought one or two cars with a mechanical warranty, never had to claim on them over the cover period. Then there's my cousin, he bought a late model BMW V8, the transmission shat it's self under warranty, 9k in repairs later . . .
jmma,
Jan 14, 7:07am
No problem with transmission or rust, great vehicle. If I needed something along those lines I would not hesitate at looking at one of those. The amount of time CGA applies would depend entirely on what went wrong. ie What would be the reasonable timeframe for that component, taking into consideration, age mileage and conditions of use. Hope that helps (o:
msigg,
Jan 14, 7:18am
The EL grand is one of the best vans out there for the money, luxurious, powerful and very easy to drive. They Do Not have any mechanical problems whatsoever. The do like fuel and have a large motor. They will do huge km no problems, seen them up to 340,000km no problems. As for warranties most cars /vans are very good and have no problems, as said above if buying some european vehicles it is highly recommended to get a warranty because the are expensive to fix and suffer from more general problems than say aussie or japanese, korean, sourced vehicles. Hope this helps.
kazbanz,
Jan 14, 7:19am
jahari-Concider this carefully.Will the poster you are so profusely thanking dig into THEIR pockets in 12 months time if the transmission does die or the engine blows up or any of the hundred of other possible senarios a warranty covers after fair cover under the CGA etc has run out. To clarify a few things --a reputable warranty company will only require servicing of the vehicle every 12 months or 15000km (whichever comes first) which realistically is what a diligent owner would do anyway. Incidently -I'm not an Elgrand fanboy. Nice to drive but whewee they sure do know how to drink the juice. a DIRECT competitor is the Toyota Alphard. Specifically the 2.4 version. They are same interior space but theres a fair saving on fuel costs to be had.
xs1100,
Jan 14, 7:40am
and there are actually some very very good warranties out there without limits but do have some conditions on them in regards to servicing
jahari,
Jan 14, 7:52am
Great thanks
jahari,
Jan 14, 7:54am
Cheers for that.
jahari,
Jan 14, 8:00am
Thanks i will look into that.
I have an Estima at the moment and i have to say thats pretty hungry as well lol
kazbanz,
Jan 14, 8:19am
if its a 2.4 from 2000 on then --mmm yea well I don't agree-purely based on capability.--if its the old 1994-2000 (one sliding door) model -OR a 3.0l V6 one then I agree.
xs1100,
Jan 14, 8:19am
next level for a el grand,they have never seen a fuel station they didn't like
robotnik,
Jan 14, 8:24am
Fuel economy is hardly a consideration any more with gas prices being so low these days. Get the 3.5L model even, it doesn't matter.
thejazzpianoma,
Jan 14, 8:57am
The Elgrand is a different situation to the disposable cars mentioned earlier. It's more expensive new and generally better put together, I haven't had the opportunity to see as many on a hoist as I have the Nissan cars so can't comment on rust etc.
Only the very new (2010 +) Elgrand runs a CVT and it will be a different unit to the ones discussed. My key concern with the Elgrand would be the fuel cost, regardless of what motor is in it they absolutely suck the gas. You have to ask yourself "would I run a BIG V8 car to do the sort of running I am doing?" because even though they don't have a V8 option they use much the same amount of fuel.
The other problem is, the sort of running people typically do in these (picking up kids from school, shopping etc) is about the worst sort of running you can have for fuel economy, so you wind up with the perfect storm of consumption.
The thing is, depending on what you actually need, there are other options, options that can do as good or better job, be just as fast (or faster) but literally cost you less than half the running costs.
These options won't necessarily be what the dealers are pushing though, as while they are available here there is not necessarily going to be easy money to be made importing them.
If you decide to give the Elgrand a swerve I would be happy to recommend some alternatives. However rather than just take a guess at what your needs are, if you want some suggestions it would be better to give me a run down on what it actually is you are looking for in a car. How many people you are carrying, what sort of running you do, how many km you travel in a week, what features you like etc.
Lastly, with regard to the dealers liability period. It is annoyingly vague, basically the consumer guarantees act covers used vehicles and in short it says the vehicle should be "fit for the purpose" and free of defects for a reasonable amount of time. That amount of time would vary depending on how much you paid, how old the vehicle is etc.
I seem to remember some examples relating to cars on the consumer affairs website, if you google consumer guarantees act along with vehicles you should find it.
Hope that is of some help, best of luck with your search, and happy motoring.
Since the public registrations are closed, you must have an invite from a current member to be able to register and post in this thread.
Have an account? Login here.