Renewing 1999 Esprit V8SE warranty

[petemckinley]

My warranty runs out today and I have been quoted £1120.00 for one year for all mechanical and electrical less the usual consumables. Any ideas on alternatives. Thanx

[lotusguy]

My warranty runs out today and I have been quoted £1120.00 for one year for all mechanical and electrical less the usual consumables. Any ideas on alternatives. Thanx

Pete,

That sounds like a really expensive extension of the warranty. I guess whatever direction you go, you're taking a gamble. You are gambling that your car will have in excess of £1,100 worth of trouble in the coming year.

The V8 uses a lot of proprietary, specialized tools, some very costly (ie the timing belt tuning tool - £4,000) which makes maintaining it yourself a less likely proposition than one of the 4 cylinder cars. In the face of this, the warranty cost doesn't seem too bad.

Ask yourself, based upon your anticipated use of the car over the next 12 months, your driving style and maintenance habits and the past operating and service history of the car, what is your confidence level that the car will require service exceeding the cost of the warranty in the coming year? Then act accordingly.

All things being equal, personally, I'd place the £1,100 in a savings account as a contingency against anything going wrong. But as I said, the dice are in your hand and you're the one who has to live with the results of your 'throw'...Hope this helps...Jim '85TE

[cnh1990]

I don't know about the Uk but in the USA the timing belt adjustments go for many years as mandated by the feds. I have heard the figure 100K or so many miles. This may not apply to cars in the UK. Also the pollution control devices are supposed to be good for 50K per the manufactuer, also not know if it applies to UK cars. Bank the money or go get other quotes for other after market warranties. Here they have many companies that supply after market warranties. Seems like a lot for a warranty.
Calvin

[kmaier]

Yes, in the US, Lotus Cars US covers cambelt service for 10 years or 100K miles (a really good deal). In general, the service interval is every 12 months, or mileage around 12K to 18K miles methinks. I've had one cambelt service so far. It does take a solid 4+ hours (needs some time to cool down) so be prepared to either wait a while or drop off and pick up later.

Regards, KM
2000 V8 (1 down, 9 to go.... then I must pay)

[rob.ellis]

Peter - i guess the simple question is how much work has been done on the car under the original lotus warranty? If you've had a trouble free two years, then you may want to take the risk (especially if you don't do a high mileage). However, if the car has been in and out of the dealer with lots of problems and maybe you do a high mileage, then the warranty would make sense.

In your position, i would probably buy the warranty. (Have a look at my running costs on my profile). It doesn't take much for you to rack up a £1000 bill at main dealer rates. Give you an example.. if one (of your two) catalysts fails that will be £1000 straight away

I would do it, if only to avoid the sleepless nights!

Cheers
Rob

ps - suggest you join up on the uk esprit yahoo group. more esprit related traffic than on here.

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/UKLotusEsprit/