AA warranties only cover 10%

If you are considering taking an AA warranty out, do not bother.

I have had various motor plans with the cars I have owned, but had never needed to claim. When buying my car about 2 years ago, I was told that the best warranty is from AA, although being about double the cost. I was told that other warranty providers cover only a small portion of claims, where AA would cover complete claims and leave you in the same position before making the claim, so I spoke with the sales people who I gave various scenarios to and asked what they would cover, and each time I was told that I would have complete cover.

about a month ago, my car started firing on 3 cylinders. The car made the 1 km trip back home. I was then advised that it could just be an ignition coil that failed, and was told to drive the car to the mechanic. They then confirmed that there was no compression in cylinder 1. The car was then taken to a specialist repair shop, who then stripped the car down and found that the number 1 cylinder was damaged.

The assessor found that it was due to a failed injector or something like that. The fact is I don't care why it failed, but I was told I had cover for this type of thing. The report from the mechanic said the engine requires and entire rebuild at a cost of R70k+.

AA state: :"As per both reports confirm the root cause of this issue can be attributed to the deterioration of the Teflon seal on the piston number 1 .The Teflon seal had burnt away, causing a compromised seal in the cylinder. This compromised seal, in turn, allowed for additional air intake into the combustion chamber, resulting in the damage observed. The claim payout limit for overheating is R7826.09."

Bottom line is, they are only willing to cover around 10% of the claim.

I am in the process of taking them to court for my money back as this is not what I was sold when buying the car. I recommend you save your 20k odd that the cover costs, and avoid all of this drama.

My legal costs will be about 10k in hopes to get back the original 20k spent on the car and they just hope that people don't go this route as it will cost money for little gain taking them to court, but someone has to stand up for the little man.