Extending the warranty

[woofy]

I'm hitting the 3 yr mark in Nov and sometime after that will switch cars around and the RS will become my wifes car. I asked about extending the warranty last year and was told about the 4yr service with the timing belt etc.

From memory is was around $1300 and extended to 5 yrs. Went into Richmond for the first time since George left and Zagames took over and its an entirely different place. The showroom is jammed packed with cars, the used car bit is also jammed with more new Skodas and there were several new salespeople including a new manager (Paul). I think the demise of Bayfords caused them to get a huge increase in sales and they are stocked up. Even went as far as telling me they are the biggest Skoda dealer and are stealing sales from other places due to them actually having stock. I didn't say thats probably cause Bayford were the biggest and someone had to fill the vacuum!

Anyway pretty impressed, and also seems Lenard has moved onto City Audi, apparently the Richmond site is the training ground for the Zagames other dealers, so Vito is doing that job now. They had another 50 cars stored up the road as well, and aim to have stock continue on until about Dec, by then the new stock will have well and truly rolled in.

Anyway I have to ring on Monday to check the 4 yr service cause they quoted a much cheaper price than I've heard before, but the extended warranty is now to 6 yrs and $1800. We would keep the car until at least then, they are also now offering a more limited aftermarket one for $800 that covers major items. Allianz offer the official one, still don't know why VAG Oz don't seem to stand behind their own products but anyway. Do you reckon its worth it?

We were also thinking of going to a Superb Wagon soon, but thinking lately, we might get a 118 wagon instead and use it was my work car for 2 yrs or so, and then go bigger. My daughters are only 3.5 and 6mths, so I will gain a bit more room with less baby crap in the near future. The Superb still wouldn't have much more room in the middle with two seats, and rear legroom doesn't matter.

I may also be tempted to buy privately from someone if they have a FL RS wagon in really good condition in about 8mths time or so. Apparently there are a few owners wanting to trade in their RSs for RS Fabias and Yetis on the cards at Richmond. I'd only be after the FL version really, one pre FL is enough.

[VAG newbie]

I think it is definitely worth it to take extended warranty as most Skoda parts are VW/Audi, ie, expensive, especially the notorious DSG. Chances are it probably won't break, but if it does, it will cost a fortune.

I was going to take the extended warranty when I decided to do 3.5 years lease with my Superb (because my lease starts in Jan, so I always get a car that is built in the previous year, which will hurt me at resale time. I wanted to extend for a further 6 months all my future leases will be the same year built car). Even for the extra 6 months, I dare not go without warranty. But it turned out to be more economical for me to lease the car for just 3 years (as the cost of extended warranty is about the difference in residual payment for 3 and 3.5 year lease).

Shop around, and see what terms and condition each warranty has. You wouldn't want a cheap warranty yet it doesn't cover everything, or has a cap on how much they would cover for a single item (I once had an aftermarket warranty, that only cover up to $1000 for the injector, but it costed $1895 to replace. So $895 out pf pocket expense)