Volvo Extended Warranty

[Lexman8]

When my XC90 was 3 years old in Oct '19 I took out a Volvo Extended Warranty costing £445 for one year. I've just had the renewal offer for another year starting Oct '20 saying it'll cost £595; a £150 or 33% increase.

Either they are having a laugh (literally at my expense) or it reflects the significant increase in cost to repair SPA-based cars as they age and therefore, by implication, the unreliability of them. I accept that these are complex cars but even then, I'd expect a car that'll be under 5 years old at the end of the cover period to still be mainly fault free and not need a £600 warranty to cover it.

Obviously I'll look around to get a better price but it's also got me thinking that I should ditch the car sooner than I originally planned. If they're seen to be so unreliable and expensive to repair, will secondhand values ultimately suffer?

[Roosterb]

I paid my dealer £400 last June when mine was 3 yrs old. This June it was £595. Considering I had most of the front suspension replaced last year including shocks, I probably got my money’s worth. Then the steering sensor went a few months ago. Not the ideal way to look at it I know, but it makes me feel slightly less ripped off.

[Deman77]

They are really pushing profit margins on service and repairs at Volvo. I had both rear door locks done at 4.5 years old this winter under extended warranty. That alone was going to be 900+. I paid 850 for 2 years extension to 5yrs when just under 3yo and considering all those hoses popping amd engines cracking on diesels it is probably worth the peace of mind. To be fair that is the only thing that went wrong in those two years. But i had so much time with courtesy cars in the first 18 months - knocking air suspension, squeaky breaks, battery controller (from print outs I think they charged nearly 5k back to volvo) that I was going to pay for extended warranty no matter what.

I am all traded in now - just waiting for my stelvio to be built so just need this thing not to break in the next 3 months.

Have you considered non-volvo warranty? I think warranty direct quoted me 900 for another 2 years with their most expensive plan. Perhaps it was 3 years as I thought it was good value. But I think 500 for a year with things going with such an expensively stuffed car seems reasonable.

[nu11eaf]

The older the car gets the more the warranty will cost as there is more chance of things failing as they get older. I suppose we will be looking at even higher warrany prices each year.

[simonjedrake]

Originally Posted by nu11eaf

The older the car gets the more the warranty will cost as there is more chance of things failing as they get older. I suppose we will be looking at even higher warrany prices each year.

Just like a Private Health policy as our bodies own R&M cost more as we “mature “(I was going to put age!)

[Lexman8]

Here are some quotes. For each provider the first figure is for 1 year and the second for 2 years cover.

WarrantyWise - £687 & £1,306
Warranty Direct - £331 & £595
RAC Warranty - £278 & £508

I tried to make the quotes as close as possible so typically they're for maximum cover, uncapped labour and £25 contribution per claim.

I haven't checked the small print but only WarrantyWise specifically mention 'Driver Assist' systems. The other two (somewhat vaguely) cover 'all electrical components' and neither explicitly cover or exclude driver assist. As my car has full Intellisafe, BLIS, etc I'd want these covered especially as the electronics on the XC90 are prone to problems and very expensive to fix.

Incidentally, WarrantyWise calculated the car's value as £26,500 which is ~50% of what I paid for it 4 years ago. Would like to believe that but it seems high.

[Deman77]

Yes now I remember e92 m3 was 900 with warranty direct for 2 years half of bmw own and xc9 0 was going to be half that. Not helpful I know.

Did you read a sticky by mr Fisher? The t8s are going to be signing up en masse me thinks and that might pull up the prices of D5 too. So get it for as long as you can now just check it is transferable.

[Lexman8]

Originally Posted by Deman77

So get it for as long as you can now just check it is transferable.

A 2-year warranty probably makes most sense.

My original plan (which I'm likely to stick to) was to keep the car another two years until the middle of 2022 by which time EVs might be more 'affordable', there will be a wider choice and the supporting infrastructure will have improved. By 2022 the Tesla Model Y will be available in the UK (assembled at the Berlin plant currently under construction) and perhaps its build quality will be better by then. Right now, I can't see me buying another ICE car.

One of my mates bought an XC90 T8 R-Design a few months ago and is about to order a Tesla Model 3 Performance so it'll be interesting to see how they compare (yes, I know they're very different cars, but still...).

[Washwipe]

Having just purchased an XC60 with one year warranty from Volvo, already using Warranty Direct with previous vehicle, I was canceling the policy when I enquired about warranty on the XC60, as it has less than 60k on it they offered three years for £760, that covers everything, a lot cheaper than the Disco4 I had which was £1800 for two years warranty.

[Deman77]

Originally Posted by Lexman8

by which time EVs might be more 'affordable', there will be a wider choice and the supporting infrastructure will have improved..

Here is a rant.
I’m all for new tech - I owned two Priuses for 8 consecutive Years and now have i3 as a run around. EV is ok as a run around I’m a sub 1.5 ton car but as a long range car it is just so wasteful - accelerating and braking 2.5ton plus lump and having atrocious cornering and ride just so you can go an extra 100 miles once in a while. And then anything more than 5min charging is totally unacceptable to me- so it is either battery swapping which didn’t happen or just home charging which means they should just be the short range run arounds. I profess big pivot away from full long range EV unless solid state gives some shocking breath through in range and charge rates.
I am going with a fire breathing v6 petrol - I am not encouraging this insanity by giving money to the likes of Tesla or even to the proper car makers who just got pressured by shareholders into building this rubbish. Hopefully in 10 years we will have hydrogen on supercapacitors but until then it should be mild hybrid or a short range plug in with least possible weight penalties. Look at Toyota - they didn’t get pressured by the diesel fad, they persevered with mild hybrid petrol and they didn’t really take up the full EV. They are the ones to watch for sense.