Who underwrites the OPC warranty?

[martyn]

 

Hi all,

Quick question, is the Porsche official warranty underwritten by a Insurance company or Porsche themselves?

 

[topradio]

I have never had it so I don't know. But I would say that they would be daft not to cover it themselves, it must be a real money spinner.

[Greenman]

Just looked at mine, there's no mention of any other underwriter/insurer, so I guess it must just be Porsche.

[Stuart21UK]

the initial warranty when you buy the car is not insurance backed (was 2 yrs with 1 yr insurance upgrade and is now straight 3 year)

If you extend the warranty, and the 2 yrs they give on a second hand car, these are both insurance backed...

mine that I renewed on Sep 2016 says:

Policy provider
The Porsche Approved Warranty is underwritten by Allianz Versicherungs-Aktiengesellschaft.

[Jonttt]

^^^^ this with a subtle difference so far as I know ie mine has the balance of the original 3 year manufacturer warranty with Porsche. This was a standard 2 years at the time of purchase but the purchaser had the option to "upgrade" to 3 years as was the case with my car. The dealer had to check this (its now standard 3 years on all cars). The optional 3rd year was classed as manufacturer warranty and not insurance backed. This runs out on my car in October 2017. I then have 2 years further warranty which is insurance backed as stated above. This comes into force the day after the manufacturers warranty runs out. So far as I know the "new approved used" insurance backed warranty is the same as people get when they extend their manufacturers warranty. In practice it should work as per the manufacturer warranty but I have not read the fine print on my paperwork to be honest.

ps its worth noting that although approved used cars are offered for sale with this 2 years warranty it is optional. If you take it it will show as a separate cost on the sales invoice. You can use it to negotiate the price of the car eg they will flex the warranty from zero to 2 years and associated cost. I think its around £1500 per year on the sales invoice. In my case I started off agreeing a price without the approved used 2 year warranty on the basis the car still had c9 months of manufacturers warranty. Once I had agreed that price I then agreed a discounted warranty price for the 2 years. There overall cost was what mattered to me, on the invoice they simply adjusted the numbers to show the warranty at full cost. They did the same with the "Swiss wax" treatment, originally quoting me c£600, we agreed £200 (I was picking the car up in winter and driving c400 miles before going home a few days later so getting the wax on before suited me). It showed on the invoice as £600 ie they simply kept on knocking down the price of the actual car to adjust for warranty and wax agreements. I presume they do this for tax and / or commission reasons ?

[martyn]

I wonder why after the Offiicial Porsche warranty expires after 3 years, they consider it prudent to 'farm out' the cover to a third party insurance company? I know that Allianz will pay Porsche a commission but if they had faith in there cars they would underwrite the risk themselves.......

There would also have to be a monitoring of the standards regarding the 111 point check, otherwise it would be in the OPC's interest to 'water down' the thoroughness of the checks to make more cars eligible for cover, and so more commission and more repairs! So how is that achieved? Spy technicians!

[topradio]

With reference to invoice prices. All the paperwork I have for my car state list prices and there is absolutely no mention of a discount. This bears no relationship to what I actually paid for the car.

[Carmine]

BMW does much the same with their extended insured "warranty". From slightly hazy memory the rationale is that if it's a manufacturer's warranty the manufacturer can not require you to use a main dealer for servicing in order to keep the warranty alive, only that the car is serviced in accordance with the manufacturer's requirements/recommendations. This is as a result of an EU ruling a few years ago. However, if it's sold as an insurance policy through a third party the third party can require that the car is serviced within the main dealer network as a condition of the policy and as the consumer you have no choice.

[Jonttt]

That makes sense, there is a grey area between warranty and insurance which affects many things from a legal and vat perspective. 

[Araf]

It's nothing to do with whether it's an insurance policy or not.  All to do with EU laws regarding warranties and block exemption for new vehicles compared to extended warranties which don't fall under the remit of the legislation covering the former.  Porsche could underwrite the warranties themselves and take claims on the chin but choose not to.  It wouldn't change their ability to impose stricter conditions.