Breakdown insurance - any good ones?

[Geriatrix]

Okay, so I want to get a nice, relatively high-performance car but my inner miser is preventing me from spending too much.

All of the options I've been looking at are juuuuust out of warranty and I don't want to take the chance of buy a car, loving it for 3 months and then having to fork out like 40k for a new gearbox.

So I've found this site with a list of products that offer breakdown insurance.

Are any of these any good?

I browsed HelloPeter and it seems like these companies tend to duck and dodge claims a lot. Like say you need a new clucth, they tend to say "Ok, we'll pay for the cable but you have to pay for the rest...".

 

[Geriatrix]

I'm overwhelmed by the rush of responses.

 

[MFour]

I have a Motorite policy on one of my cars. I have had to lodge a claim with them for a broken Airflow Sensor, which they paid out without any problems. Thing is, not everyone has a happy ending. Reading through the policy document, it really just covers certain parts (well described) in the event that it fails unexpectedly. Any damage or failure caused by anything which could be remotely contributed towards wear and tear, or driving style will not be paid out. For instance, your example of a clutch, I doubt very much that any policy would cover that kind of part.

The dealer where I got my vehicle fixed told me a horror story of someone's Fiesta which threw a couple of con-rods out the block (motor trashed) which resulted in something like R 25k damage, they only paid out something like R2k. So I guess it all depends on what goes belly up in the end. Also with Motorite you get different grades of cover depending on your vehicle's age and service history, which dictates what they would and how much they would pay out.

No easy answer, I guess it all depends. Hope it helps.

 

[Geriatrix]

I have a Motorite policy on one of my cars. I have had to lodge a claim with them for a broken Airflow Sensor, which they paid out without any problems. Thing is, not everyone has a happy ending. Reading through the policy document, it really just covers certain parts (well described) in the event that it fails unexpectedly. Any damage or failure caused by anything which could be remotely contributed towards wear and tear, or driving style will not be paid out. For instance, your example of a clutch, I doubt very much that any policy would cover that kind of part.

The dealer where I got my vehicle fixed told me a horror story of someone's Fiesta which threw a couple of con-rods out the block (motor trashed) which resulted in something like R 25k damage, they only paid out something like R2k. So I guess it all depends on what goes belly up in the end. Also with Motorite you get different grades of cover depending on your vehicle's age and service history, which dictates what they would and how much they would pay out.

No easy answer, I guess it all depends. Hope it helps.

Thanks for the reply.
Yes that's exactly it. Sounds like they are very selective in what they would cover.
I've read a horror story where a guy had a car with 60k on the clock and then the engine went and it amounted to over a R100k in damages! Luckely the car was still under factory warranty but what if it wasn't.Can you imagine that...

 

[MFour]

Rather not imagine that...eish.

 

[supersunbird]

Do what I do and have two cheaper cars you use alternately and then when one breaks you can use the other one at least till you have the funds to fix the other one.