End of 3-Year Warranty Period Looming

[Vale46]

Hey everyone.

I am UK based and have a 2014 S3 which was purchased in September 2014. As I near the end if the warranty period, is there anything I can do to minimise 'risk' with the warranty period coming to an end?

My offside mirror motor really struggles moving the mirror 'out', and so I presume this should be covered under warranty as the unit has never suffered a thump.

Aside, is there value in me getting the car health-checked (perhaps independently), in case there is anything costly amiss?

Apart from the mirror, the car sounds and drives well.

I would really appreciate any advice on whether there is anything proactive I can do to minimise any undiagnosed issues which would cost me dear to sort out outside of warranty.

Finally, is the extended warranty something you would recommend? I have never owned a car from new before and so this is all a learning curve.

Cheers for any advice or opinions.

James

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[AudiNutta]

The mirror should be covered yes, I'd imagine there is a stupidly long time threshold that it has to take longer than but you can argue it against normal operation of the other side.

You could get it inspected, but I doubt there would be anything wrong with it... you driving it would spot something amiss more than an inspector underneath with a torch.

I'd look into extending the audi warranty (you can get a quote online). The way to think of it is if something catastrophic goes wrong, like a previous member on here who had an engine rebuild that cost £12k when the warranty was voided. The engines are supposedly an £8k replacement if they go pop. The warranty is probably between £500 and £1000 a year, depending on how you set the excess (you can have no excess). If it was me in a performance car, I'd be extending it. I'm going to order a new RS3, I will order the 5 year warranty from factory for £545.

 

[Vale46]

Thanks for the reply. I had the look at the extended option on the website, but it just replied that the option was only available for cars over 3 years old. I think I will book the car in and talk with them through the options. As you say, the extended warranty seems to make sense given the cost of the engine and gearbox.

One of my headlights has a tiny vertical crack in the lens, which reading various forums seems to be quite a common occurrence. Certainly not impact or stone chip related, it is just on the upper corner. Looks like a stress crack. Unsure on the viability of the sorting that too.

Thanks for the reply again.

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[AudiNutta]

Thanks for the reply. I had the look at the extended option on the website, but it just replied that the option was only available for cars over 3 years old. I think I will book the car in and talk with them through the options. As you say, the extended warranty seems to make sense given the cost of the engine and gearbox.

One of my headlights has a tiny vertical crack in the lens, which reading various forums seems to be quite a common occurrence. Certainly not impact or stone chip related, it is just on the upper corner. Looks like a stress crack. Unsure on the viability of the sorting that too.

Thanks for the reply again.

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Your car is still quite a long way off warranty expiry, you will get that come up until you are a couple of months away. I think Audi will tell you the same story as they will use the same quotation system. Find a May 2014 registered S3 and put a quote in for an idea before yours is old enough for the system to give you a price. If you don't plan on modifying it, get the warranty. If you are going to modify it, the warranty is worthless.

That's interesting, I haven't come across that one before. Again take it to Audi and get them to have a look. You will have to prove that it wasn't caused by an impact, these light clusters complete with Xenon units are upward of £1000 on some cars so get a battle going.

Something worth noting, if you make Audi aware of a problem before the warranty expires and it develops 6 months after it expires they will cover it. For example on my A3 I had a strange noise on start up develop, Audi tried to say it was normal and I was worried with the warranty a month off of expiry. They said don't worry, you have told us about this now and the job is recorded on the system. If the fault comes back in 6 months and uses a problem, they will cover it because I made them aware in the period of warranty.

 

[S32B]

That's the problem with modern cars, if they go wrong out of warranty it's big £££. Mine is 3 years old next March and I'm looking to change this year.

3 years = MOT, big service and new tyres, breakdown membership so around £1,000 (if nothing is found in the MOT). So I see it as put that £1,000 down on another new one and start again! Yes it's expensive to keep a new car under 3 years old constantly, but there is no worry and for me that's worth it.

 

[AudiNutta]

That's the problem with modern cars, if they go wrong out of warranty it's big £££. Mine is 3 years old next March and I'm looking to change this year.

3 years = MOT, big service and new tyres, breakdown membership so around £1,000 (if nothing is found in the MOT). So I see it as put that £1,000 down on another new one and start again! Yes it's expensive to keep a new car under 3 years old constantly, but there is no worry and for me that's worth it.

I hear an RS3 calling..................

 

[Ormesome]

Some tips for you as i went thought this recently.

• You can only renew your warranty 1yr at a time
• If you dont renew in the 1month period before the warranty running out then you will pay nearly double!
• If you use a similar cars reg number that are over 3yrs old from Ebay or Auto trader then you can see some quotes. HOWEVER, be aware that when you get quotes using this method, the quotes you will get are going to be for cars that are outside their warranty so will be double the price as advised in my 2nd point.
• Make sure you are registered on the Audi site via Audi themselves. This is NOT the myaudi.com site, it is their internal website i guess they use for certain things like Audi Assist etc... If you/your car are not registered then you will get higher quotes too. Example of this: I was quoted over £1000 a year for 1yr warranty, i rang up, they added my name and car to the system, told me to get another quote online again & it had come down to £400.

I got Full cover - 15k miles and £0 excess for £400 for this year. You can get it as low as £280 per year with Named cover and a bit of excess.

Cant say for sure if i would recommend the extended warranty as nothing ha gone wrong yet, but the Audi warranty is actually priced similarly to 3rd party companies so it makes sense to go for this option.

My thread here, read it to the end as i updated it!

http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/audi-extended-warranty-wtf.307569/

Also, just another thing, Audi Assist is £145 for 2yrs if you renew before expiry date which is incredible value.