This is not as clear cut as the title would suggest!

My L405 will be 3 years and 100,000 miles old in September. It will make sense to add a further year's cover, to take it to take it to 135,000 miles, with Land Rover's own policy. It'll cost £1,060.00 excluding recovery and I was happy with that.

Equivalent cover with Warranty Direct is over £2,950.00

So, I was all set to go with the Land Rover branded policy, until someone suggested the RAC. The downsides are that I will have to go to an Independant (which isn't so bad), I will need to pay and claim back (which isn't great), but I can get 3 years UNLIMITED MILEAGE cover for £1887.65. That would expose the RAC up to around 200,000 miles!

Has anyone any experience with their cover? Thoughts please...

I had an RAC one a few years back on a Disco, everytime something went wrong there was always a reason the whole thing or part was not covered.

A good example was i had a ceased caliper, they cover the caliper but not the pads and discs that had to be replaced

Also had a rear airbag on the suspension go, agreed only to replace one even though the recommendation from landrover is tjhey have to be done in pairs..

Thank you, this is just the sort of picture that I need to build...

Anyone else have experience of them?

One thing I do know is that the £1060 costs the LR dealer £640 to buy . I wonder if there is a deal to be done with County Landrover John ?

I like your thinking Rob!

A point worth keeping in mind if you decide to pay for the LR Extended and/ or the LR Select Warranty (sold in the name of LR although provided by Car Care Plan Ltd):

If you have what you think might be a fault or warranty item on your car that you hope might be covered under the warranty, every LR main dealer I've used, has always pointed out beforehand that there will be a "diagnostic charge" to be paid if they explore what the issue might be and then for whatever reason it's not going to be covered/ honoured by the warranty provider.

Diagnostic charges can be fair enough. It's a business, some things take time and with that there are cost considerations. However, an outrageous example in this regard was two days ago when reporting a query front passenger door lock mechanism fault. The MD tried to get me to agree to pay a "£180 diagnostic charge" if the warranty company would not honour an associated claim. So that's the risk, in this example, of potentially having to give them an unreasonable £180 for pulling a door handle a couple of times. In fact, knowing they would try that stunt put me off taking it in for them to look at it for a couple of months for fear of getting stung. Unacceptable that you're left feeling like that when paying "them" £145.50 a month for warranty. A sad indictment on LR who shamelessly and misleadingly IMO market *their* LR Extended and Select warranties to get people to buy them; and then the moment you do buy them, LR UK and MDs distance themselves from it, being the first to point out its not actually an LR warranty, it's provided by a third party.

In the end, the MD couldn't get the door mechanism to fault, I refused to pay the £180 and they successfully made the claim for a new mechanism anyway... because they were advised to check the facts... It's a known fault.

Not even sure if you can use non franchised garages to service your car if you have the LR Extended and LR Select warranties without invalidating those warranties (haven't tried for fear of getting shown the hand in the event of needing to make future claims).

But for feeling a "better play the game" need to use LR MDs (i.e. in case of needing to use the warranty or introduce the "good will" debate), I probably wouldn't use one again because in general, my long term experiences of their bedside manner have been in the appalling category.

Last edited by pld118 on 1st Mar 2020 7:05am. Edited 4 times in total

Interesting, thank you.

Although LR can’t insist on dealers doing service and repair working during the manufacturer’s warranty, they are legally entitled to (and do) during the extended warranty. If I went to my Independent, with a third party warranty, they’d be a lot gentler on the diagnostic charge. Perhaps they have experience of dealing with the RAC lot and could tell me.

My experience of the extent of the LR warranty cover has actually shown it to be a good overall product to have though, hence we always have one in place.

We're 7 months into paying monthly for this years LR Extended Warranty. The car is currently sitting in a MD waiting to have a rear diff pinion seal replaced (parts kit plus 6 hours MD labour time quoted); and a new front passenger door lock mechanism is to be fitted. It's the first warranty claim we've made in the 7 months. I'm guessing, based on LR part prices and MD labour rates, that had we paid the MD to do this work without the warranty in place, it would have come to quite a bit more than we have thus far outlayed for the warranty.

Note - despite always preferring to pay for things outright, for sound reasoning, we pay the LR warranty monthly (£145.50 without breakdown cover). It works out the same overall cost to pay it monthly as it would paying one annual lump sump but... you can stop the monthly payments at any time without penalty. So, if you decide to change the car 6 months into the year for example, you've not wasted hundreds of pounds (or put another way, you're not having to wonder what balance of monies paid you might get back).

Red Merle

I’m assuming that quote from Warranty Direct is due to the mileage you cover?

I’ve been quoted £3.5k by WD for 3 years cover on our 2014 Petrol. That’s all boxes ticked, main dealer rates and 0% contribution to parts. It has only covered 43k miles.

I’m still undecided because I use my local independent who I trust far more than a MD and £3.5k will get me a lot of repairs.

Add in the obligatory ‘sorry sir, that’s not covered under the warranty’ which I’m sure will happen at some stage and it really is a dilemma

Yes, their prices seem to reach for the skies as the initial mileage climbs. I’m struggling to keep it under 100,000 miles, at 3 years old, to be able to qualify for any cover at all.

As an aside, what I do find funny is that if I had bought a nice “reliable” Audi, VW or Volvo, I’d have been looking for cover from 2 years, as that’s where the 60,000 mile limitation kicks in. Complete rubbish really!

Everyone is different, so there is no "right answer", but FWIW:

1. Have a good read of the terms of the different policies. One of the LR policies I was offered on my last 322 had a claims limit of £3,500 per incident, which made it pointless for me, as it's the catastrophic failure one wants to guard against.

2. Someone else on here made the excellent point that these warranties are a product on which the provider looks to make a profit, so the average claims experience should be below the cost. Obviously if you are above average/unlucky or just like the peace of mind it's still worth buying one.

3. if you like the dealer you have been using and are not certain that the alternative that you'd have to use if you took an alternative warranty would be as good, are you comfortable with that?

4. I'd be wary of not having a recovery service, but more relaxed about not having a warranty with a 3yo car, even with your high mileage - higher mileage is probably better for RRs than sitting about with seals drying out, calipers not getting used, discs rusting etc. My experience (admittedly 12 - 13,000 miles a year only) has been that problems tend to come up early due to build issues and then things settle down for a while, after year five i would be expecting to spend on repairs every now and again, but for example years four and five with my last 322 I just had a new starter motor (£700) and the cost of the recovery service (say £200) against two years' LR warranty (say £2600). Only Range Rovers since 1988

Red Merle wrote:

... Although LR can’t insist on dealers doing service and repair working during the manufacturer’s warranty, they are legally entitled to (and do) during the extended warranty...

I can confirm that I have had the LR extended warranty for 4 years on my L322. They paid out with no quibbles for both work done at the main dealer and at independents. The thing to watch for is that they sometimes only pay out based on a discounted LR part price and set hours per part if you use an independent. If you go main dealer they pay in full and you don’t even see the invoice!

It is expensive but well worth it, over the 4 years I have claimed more than I paid.

I’ve been looking at a motor easy policy for my recent toy, covers wear and tear too, well worth a bit of research

Or stick the equivalent in an ISA
It's all about attitude to risk. I've read too many stories on here about refusals to pay out. Gone to a good home: 2011 4.4 TDV8 Vogue SE Buckingham Blue with Ivory and clear glass = "Rory"
2025MY Defender D350 90 in Silicon Silver on coils
1974 Series 3 Lightweight = "Millie"
Many, many other Landies over the years
My preferred specialist: www.glenrands.co.uk
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