Prestige car owners pay up to £13,000 for repairs

Owners of performance and prestige cars pay twice as much to repair their cars as drivers of more regular runabouts and can be faced with bills of up to £13,000.
 
According to automotive specialist, Warranty Direct, the average cost of a breakdown across its 50,000 live policies is £325.25, but a study of the claims paid in the last 12 months on prestige vehicles reveals an average bill of nearly £635.
 
And, a month after Warranty Direct revealed that hourly garage labour rates had reached record levels, performance motorists are feeling the pinch even more when it comes to top-end repairs, with workshop bills running well into five figure sums.
 
In one extreme case identified by the study, for Warranty Direct’s unique Reliability Index (reliabilityindex.com), the owner of a Range Rover Vogue was presented with what could be the UK’s biggest garage bill – a cool £12,998.46.
 
Warranty Direct’s annual study of workshops revealed a national average of £82.86 for an hour of a mechanic’s time and a high of £201.60 per hour.
 
Warranty Direct managing director, Duncan McClure Fisher, said: “Owners of luxury or sports cars are, by definition, able to afford something a bit less ordinary than the everyday runabouts.
 
“But, in reality, who can really afford bills that run into several thousands to repair their car?
 
“Parts for prestige models will always cost more than those for regular vehicles but you still have to account for labour, which is often also more expensive if you are using a prestige manufacturer dealership.”
 
In the case of the Range Rover Vogue owner, the massive bill was caused by the failure of faulty injectors and a turbo unit. After the engine had been stripped, a process that takes 22 hours of labour, the diagnosis demanded a complete engine replacement, along with a new turbo.
 
Elsewhere, among the most extreme claims handled by Warranty Direct in the last year, one motorist faced paying £10,170.40 to replace the cylinder block in his BMW 740 I Sport, while an engine failure landed an Audi Quattro TDI driver with an unwanted cost of £9,016.45.
 
Up-to-date vehicle reliability information can be found at any time at Warranty Direct’s reliabilityindex.com website.
 
Warranty Direct cover starts from as little as £15 a month. For more information or for a quote, go to warrantydirect.co.uk.