Volvo's extended warranty.

[The Londoner]

My XC90 is out of warranty in April next year and I am already being bombarded by my dealer with offers to extend the warranty and dire warnings about getting any faults seen to before the manufacturer's warranty expires.

Does anyone have any experience of the extended warranty, what it costs and what it covers? Is it anything like the Porsche one which costs gazillions every year and seems to cover nothing at all?

[Jepetto]

'The Londener' I highly recommend it - I took it out on my Volvo S60R (54 plate 2005) last year for approx. £750 for the year. It was well worth it - I have bills and receipts for over £4500 for the year. Some of the jobs include:

-New Shock for active suspension - >£700 for the part alone.

-New Steering Rack, 4 wheel alignment and fitting - >£1500.

-New flywheel and clutch - >£1250.

-Exhaust manifold blow - Then the stud extraction when it went wrong - >£1000.

Bear in mind where I put '>' I mean more than!

If you plan on keeping the car for at least the next year - definitely take out the warranty! I have had no problems with the Volvo warranty service - in fact they are very good. For claims over £1000 (as in most of the claims ;-) ) they have to get a warranty assessor to okay the work and cost - this can take an extra day or two.

For your info I have been quoted £550 to extend the warranty for a further year from October 2008 - October 2009.

Hope the above is of some help!

[The Londoner]

Did you have problems with the car prior to the manufacturer's warranty expiring or did they all appear afterwards once you had the extended warranty?

[Jepetto]

I actually bought the car on its 3yr birthday i.e. the day of the end of the manufacturers warrenty. It was checked out by Volvo on that day and any faults that were found (namely the knackered shock) were registered and repaired under the manufacturers warrenty. All other faults came to light over the past 12 months. The inspection also allowed the warrenty to be renewed. Hope that answers your question.

[Darlo74]

I had the same issue when my factory warranty expired earlier this month. The Volvo warranty was excessive when compared to other comparables on the market so in the end I went for a guaranteed franchise repair warranty from Warranty Direct - you can haggle with them and I managed to get 13 months for £450 which was a high saving on the Volvo offer (and they wouldn't budge).

The other thing that annoyed me about the Volvo warranty was that RAC breakdown cover was not included - even Porsche included that in their extended warranties. So I had to extend that separately, but I did get a letter from Volvo RAC before it expired offering a 2 year deal for around £150 which seemed good to me!

Hope that helps.

Darlo

[Powderpuff]

My V70R (2003) was under extended warranty when I bought it, this year they fitted a brand new engine when one of the cylinder liners cracked....so they paid out just shy of £10,000! No arguments, no quibbles, just excellent service.

Needless to say I've extended the warranty for another year and will continue to do so as long as I own the car...this year it was £450...and to me the peace of mind is worth every penny.

[Swedish Brick]

I tried to book in my 2 year old V70 D5 for its' first MOT & service with a Main Dealer well before its' 3rd birthday - they couldn't fit it in on the dates I could spare the car and I was told to try a few weeks later. I told them when I booked it in BEFORE the warranty expired that the SatNav "Enter" switch on the steering wheel was playing up and would need checking out. When they finally had a space for the car to go in for service at the start of Oct they argued that it was out of warranty - by 5 days! - and it would cost me to get the switch changed over...through no fault of my own!

Glad to hear some happier stories with better service being received by us deserving punters as my nearest Official Service agent is being really grotty and arguing over a £35 switch. Since the car is now out of warranty I don't think that they'll be seeing it, or our other Volvo S60, back again.....and I don't think I'll be extending any kind of warranty on it either when £500 gets an awful lot of work done at my Independant Specialist who is alot closer to home and treats its' customers better too.

[T4RRR]

Powderpuff said:

My V70R (2003) was under extended warranty when I bought it, this year they fitted a brand new engine when one of the cylinder liners cracked....so they paid out just shy of £10,000! No arguments, no quibbles, just excellent service.

Needless to say I've extended the warranty for another year and will continue to do so as long as I own the car...this year it was £450...and to me the peace of mind is worth every penny.

You really cannot fault the Volvo Used Car Warranty, especially if the work is handled by a garage who are supportive. However, can you let me know how you have successfully renewed the warranty year on year because I've been told that the maximum you can get on a car is 4 years (so only an addtional year over the 3 yr manufacturer warranty) if you're the 1st owner and 2 years if you buy a select used car (so again only an additional year over and above the Volvo Used Car Warranty it comes with).

[Powderpuff]

Before the warranty ran out (after the new engine though) I spoke to my local dealer who phoned Volvo warranty for me to confirm I could extend it.

The reply was that as long as it's extended before it expires then it could be renewed up until the car is up to 100k miles. I think the price depends on the current mileage, hence mine being a low miler was cheaper than other people I know have paid for their extensions.

When it came to extend I couldn't do it on the phone with Volvo warranty as they bizarrely can't take credit cards over the phone, so a quick trip to the dealer and they did it there and then

[halo25]

Considering the amount of work my 57k Volvo V70 D5 is going under then warranty extension is a must. Its a 06 model and has just had all the injectors replaced and I am waiting to see if they are also replacing the gearbox !!

Apparently there is lots of hassle with some dealers doing warranty work with Volvo at the moment so you may have to push hard at time to make sure you get things done.

[Jepetto]

Just Renewed My Warranty with Mill Garages Volvo for 2005 Volvo S60R:

£620 for 2 years full warranty as long it is taken out before 60k miles.
Also included in this is breakdown assist that picks your car up and delivers it where you want (Doesn't bother sending someone out to fix it!). Plus it includes MOT insurance - You MOT a week early and if anything fails (that would normally fail under the warrenty) it is replaced and re-tested!

I'll pass on more details when i get the paperwork through. I know its no longer with inchape but the warranty is identical and is sold by Volvo Mill Garages as a competitor to the inchape one!