My WRX 300 is 3 years old next week and I've been offered the Extended Warranty at £396 for 12 months or £866 for 24 months.

Until recently I hadn't even considered extended the warranty because Subarus are so reliable

This has changed recently because following it's 3 year service the car's been stuck at the dealers for the last week and a half having the gear box stripped down due to a whinning noise when you are slowing down/not accelerating in 2nd gear. The problem has pretty much been with the car from new but all previous visits to the dealer have resulted in a "it's a feature of the Impreza" and no fault found.
I've just been told the input and tube barings are worn and will therefore be replaced under warranty. This is worrying seeing as the car has only done around 21k miles and if out of warranty would no doubt have cost me an arm and a leg.
Has anyone else had a similar problem, should I be worried that there's been a whinning noise pretty much from new and worn barings are actually the result of something else?
Should Subaru be replacing the entire gearbox given the low mileage?


Other than the above problem the rear diff was replaced around a year ago due to another whinning noise from the rear end. This eventually turned out to be a hair line crack in the hub (I think) so the rear diff was replaced for no reason.

Given the above should I consider the extended warranty (I could serious do without shelling out nearly £900) or should I just cross my fingers and hope I've just had a run of bad luck and everything will be ok for the next couple of years?


Are there any reasonable alternatives to the Subaru extended warranty?

I see the AA does a cheap version which gives limited protection and covers up to £500 per claim which would give some peace of mind - has anyone any experience of this?

thanks

 

The subaru warrenty is a good one. If you are going to keep up the servicing then the subaru warrenty will be good. Also if you sell the car it should be a big plus.

Watch other warrenties, many have limits on the claims and cover next to nothing.

I'd say the next thing you might reasonably be looking at in the next couple of years are rear shocks so if you get those it will have possibly paid for itself.

5t.

 

I am getting it for mine. X fingers touch wood all I've had with mine is a dead battery due to the tracker.

 

I forgot abou that the rear shocks were also replaced when they did the diff.

I think I probably will go with the warranty afterall. Works out just over £8 per week over 2 years which overall doesn't seem too bad.

Has anyone else had similar problems with a MY05 WRX gearbox at such low mileage or am I just unlucky?