Mapfre Warranty

thomasm

Looking at buying a car from a dealer about 150 miles from home and they are offering a Mapfre Warranty as its not practical to get it back to them if an issue occurs. It's a 1 year warranty on a 2010 car and apparently covers nearly everything. Here's a link to it terms
http://mapfrewarranty.ie/direct/media/pdf/freedom.pdf
Anybody have any experience of these or see anything notable in it that would cause concern. Thanks

mick4_2000

Be careful which warranty you buy and what it covers. I got a 3 month garage warranty and i purchased an extra 12 month Mapfree waranty. After 4 months Turbo went and Mapfree would not cover the repair.

They have very detailed policies so read what you are getting before you buy. I was told it was engine and gearbox only to discover it did not cover much at all. :mad:

goochy

This type of warranty Is better than nothing but hasn't a patch on main dealer warranty who is the dealer ? I would get car checked by mechanic and make sure dealer has good name rather than putting faith in the warranty

Carlin

I have one an have nothing but trouble with them. Buying a used car can be like a lottery. Simply going by my experience the Mapfre warranty is a way for the dealer to distance themselves from the consumer. Spent 7 grand on a car, 9 months later the pump is causing trouble. Had both the manufacturers garage and the mechanic I use to service my car take a look at it before sending it to the mapfre garage. Both said pump. Mapfre garage came up with something that was not under warranty. I am still playing back and forth with them.

MetzgerMeister

Mapfre will only cover stuff if it's a sudden failure issue. Wear and tear is NOT covered.

I bought a car from a dealership in Dublin and it came with a 6 month Mapfre warranty and I stipulated that I wanted one to cover the turbos in the car. After I bought the car, I contacted them as both turbos had a known issue (wastegate bearing failure) and I was told that it wasn't covered as it's wear and tear, not sudden failure.

I was half expecting that answer but I knew from day 1 what I was getting into. I have 1 turbo replaced and I'm saving the cash to get the other one done at some stage.

keith_d99

I had a relatively minor issue - glowplug controller ... would have cost around €250 including labour.
The mechanic I used was a Mapfre agent - he handled the claim and it all worked out fine.

The Freedom is their best warranty - I would be surprised if a turbo wasn't covered.

George Dalton

In my opinion dealing with warranty companies is like dealing with insurance companies. If they can find any reason to reduce the cost of a claim or to avoid paying out on a claim altogether they take that opportunity.

We recently replaced a timing chain on a Golf TSI for a customer. The car was "covered" by one of these warranties. Turned out they would only cover the chain if it failed outright. The timing chain on this car was stretched causing rough running and engine warning lights but the warranty company didn't want to know. So the customer had to pay for the job out of their own pocket.

George Dalton

Carlin wrote: »

Simply going by my experience the Mapfre warranty is a way for the dealer to distance themselves from the consumer.

This is definitely the case IMO. Any secondhand dealer offering a year's warranty is certainly outsourcing the risk to a warranty company. The more unscruplous dealers will use this as an excuse to wash their hands of any problems the car may suffer inside the warranty period. We have seen this lots of times.

bazz26

Yep, as a car buyer I avoid these type of third party warranties.

Pulled out of a deal to buy a car a few months back, the car was right and the money was right but it came with a third party warranty similar to Mapfry which was a big no. Too easy for the dealer to wash his hands of any issues and tell you deal with a third party who have all sorts of stipulations written into their warranty designed to reduce the risk of them having to cover the cost of repair.

As far as I'm concerned these type of warranties are designed to protect the dealer more than the buyer.

Markcheese

Thought that under consumer law your contract is with the garage that you bought the car from ,unless it's an extended warranty ... So they can try pass the buck as much as they like.. But it stops with them ...

George Dalton

Markcheese wrote: »

Thought that under consumer law your contract is with the garage that you bought the car from ,unless it's an extended warranty ... So they can try pass the buck as much as they like.. But it stops with them ...

In theory yes. But in reality you may find it difficult to actually get them to live up to their obligations.