That’s quite a long question, but it’s actually an important one as a Service Plan is different to a Maintenance Plan and a Warranty is quite a different thing altogether. I’ll try help you understand the basic differences between the three products mentioned above.

Service Plan vs Maintenance Plan

Firstly, it’s important to understand what a service plan is before we can compare it. A Service Plan assists you in being able to pay for the basic (and full) service requirements for your car. Its intention is to help you budget for when your car, (usually a used car) needs an engine service with a reliable service centre. Generally speaking, a service has 2 parts – a major service, which often includes a cam belt change and a minor service – sometimes called an oil service. There are many more details about major and minor service procedures, and they do differ from car to car, so we won’t go into any more specific detail here.

A car maintenance plan is kind of a super plan – it has all the elements of a Service Plan, including a Warranty against mechanical failures and then it covers wear and tear items as well. Typical Wear and Tear items include brake pads & linings, wiper blades, shock absorbers and mounts, batteries, globes (light bulbs), aircon gas, etc. Basically anything that has a natural wear cycle and needs to be replaced as performance degrades. So a car maintenance plan is all encompassing and more suited to a younger car that has not done excessive milage. Only a very select few car qualify for a mainteneance plan – perhaps you should consider buying a service plan instead.

Hopefully, you now understand the different between a service plan and a maintenance plan.

Maintenance Plan vs Warranty

If you read above about a Maintenance plan, then you will understand that in most cases, it includes a car warranty.

But what exactly is a Motor Car Warranty? Well a warranty is a kind of insurance product that you take out to ensure that you are covered in the event of a mechanical breakdown. So for example, your car suddenly and unexpectedly starts to make a funny noise and then a clap, bang! You know that something bad just happened – and it’s definitely not a flat tyre – more like a engine problem. A warranty is there to help you in this situation – and it should probably pay for some, if not all the costs of repairing the damage sustained. It’s also important to note that different warranty plans, give you different amounts of cover.

Typically, a more expensive plan will pay out more for the cost of repairs.

Service Plans vs Warranty

If a service plan is considered a kind of budgeting aid, by assisting you by paying the full cost of a motor car service – then a warranty can be considered an emergency mechanical assistant – by helping you pay for the cost of a breakdown and repair.