Auto Warranty

With a large range of the latest automobiles being offered through contract hire, driving our dream vehicle can be now possible without being burdened by heavy car loans and huge investments. So if you have been on the lookout for a cost effective way to meet your driving needs, you can avail some great benefits by leasing a suitable car at a highly affordable deal.

The term contract hire stands for the system of leasing a vehicle for commercial or personal needs by a business or an individual from a car lease company for a fixed period of time. While there are a large number of car lease companies offering the latest brands on contract hire in the market, it is important to keep the following vital guidelines in mind in order to ensure a truly satisfactory driving experience:
• Understand your driving needs – Before you look for suitable options in the contract hire market, have a clear idea about your driving needs such as the size of the vehicle and whether you would want a family car, a sports model or a luxury vehicle for a formal occasion.
• Plan your budget – The next step is to plan a budget so that you can carry out an efficient and focused search for a suitable vehicle.
• Research suitable models – Once you have a clear set of objectives research the web for available models on contact hire by visiting various car lease websites and narrow down a suitable vehicle that meets your driving needs and budget requirements.
• Get multiple quotes – Now that you have decided on a suitable model, contact various car lease companies and try to get as many quotes as possible.
• Compare prices and features – By comparing the prices of various quotes, zero in on the best value contract hire deal available in the market.
• Take a test drive – Once you have finalized on a suitable model and the car lease company, make a personal inspection of the vehicle that is being provided to you and take the car for a test drive as well.
• Get a suitable payment plan – The next step is to plan out a suitable payment scheme which could range from making a small down payment to periodic installments, based on your lease period.
• Read the fine print – Finally, before signing the contract, make sure that you are aware of all the terms and conditions written out in the agreement.

Now that you are equipped with the right guidelines, go ahead and lease a suitable vehicle through contract hire for a great driving experience.
Summary – Contract hire is one of the best options in today’s times to meet the driving needs of individuals as businesses in a cost effective way. Important guidelines for leasing a suitable vehicle successfully include understanding driving needs, planning a budget, researching suitable models, getting multiple quotes, comparing price and features, taking a test drive , getting a suitable payment plan and reading the fine print.

If you were to compare the UK repair market to the American one you may find a difference in culture regarding waht to do if you car breaksdown. Yes in the States they do have “Auto Clubs” to attend vehicles in distress, but their focus is very much on Auto Warranty rather than buying car breakdown cover.

Auto warranty tends to be part of the deal when buying a used car from a dealer, where guarantees are made here in the UK, but they tend to be based on you bringing he vehicle back to the dealer to be looked at, where the warranty scheme in the USA, tends to include a roadside assistance callout.
In fact the term car breakdown cover is not even recognised by many in America, although Roadside Assistance is known, yet here ion the UK the term warranty tends to be used for new cars not used ones.

There are some makes such as Kia who do offer long warranties for certain car parts on the vehicles, but as the years go one, certain parts of the vehicle are then removed from the warranty coverage. But the point is, any breakdown cover is a seperate issue and to be emplyed by a free 12 months coverage on a different policy.

Only last month did I see the first TV advert dedicated to car warranties, so you would have to assume it is only a matter of time before we catch up in some parts with the USA.

The AA do not do this themselves but of you participate in the few cash back websites out there, you could find yourself getting a percentage off your breakdown insurance premium back. As we said the AA do nor participate directly but as they do pay commission to certain websites for delivering sales to them, they in turn pay back to you some of that commission.

The results are they probably increase their visitors many times over and what may be seen as a commission loss, now becomes a commission increase by the sheer numbers.

There is a question mark about how legal this is, as there is some legislation about cash rewards when taking out a financial contract as this is a financial contract in the form of breakdown insurance, you would need to find someone far more qualified in finance to explain why this type of programme is allowed and has not been shut down, of which we are sure would have been, if it were illegal.

So for now at least you can give this type of website a try, even without payouts you get the same prices as visiting the AA direct
Here is a typical site offering AA Breakdown Insurance with a cash back

Business owners who have lased cars in the past will know the difference between a non maintained car and one where servicing is included in terms of conditions and monthly premium. Even though at first glance the non maintained option may seem considerable cheaper, when you start looking at the conditions, such as when to service, where to service and the commitments to it, somehow the price of an unmaintained car no longer looks so cheap.

Not having a new car maintained properly to a car lease company, goes beyond just servicing the car and giving it a valet at the end of the contract, it also affects the warranty that came with the vehicle. Not having any vehicle services within the warranty guidelines, can make that warranty void, to all sorts of things.

Car lease firms very much rely on manufacturers’ warranties to fix problems as they arise, not only to save the expense but also to save time in administration costs, replacement vehicles etc. Ensuring your lease your vehicle with the correct mileage option is also essential. This is because most warranties cover a vehicle for a set time and mileage. If you go over that amount, your warranty is no longer in force; this adds another financial strain to the car lease company, beyond the re-saleable value of the car.

So leasing a new car with minimum options may seem like a good idea, but make sure you read all your commitments and understand why they are there and the benefit of keeping that manufacturer warranty active.

Across the two sides of the pond there seems to be differences in what is deemed a car warranty or what is really just roadside assistance. For a start within the UK, it appears that different organisation deal with the relevant parts of any warranty and in fact are sometimes offered with say a new car by two different suppliers. In better words they get a warranty and a roadside assistance or breakdown cover option thrown in to.

They often run for different periods of time. There are cars in the UK that have a 7 year warranty, but breakdown cover is only provided for 12 months only. I the USA the warranty options and roadside assistance seem to run closer together with companies including roadside assistance as part of their warranty contract. Although there are national breakdown cover providers such as tripe A, these still tend to be different companies or at least divisions run from each state. The national breakdown cover operators in the UK truly are national, even though some still use a network of garages and recovery truck owners to deliver the service.

We hope to bring news on the warranty and breakdown cover scene from this blog in future posts and any more differences we come across in the future. See you later.