I'm shopping around for a replacement car right now - looking in the 2005-2007 year bracket. One place is offering a free TCS Test and 3 year Quality 1 guarantee. Are these just sales gimmicks or really worth having ?

careful with the guarantee as most of them have exclusions 3 pages long....

its its had a recent MFK i dont see any need for a TCS test

Actually, I disagree with rob1. In any other country I would be wary about an aftermarket warranty, but in Switzerland the companies really do seem to stand behind their products.

We had Quality1 warranties on both of our cars, and when we had trouble with the cars the claims were approved immediately and paid in full. All the garages we worked with seemed to know the system well, and none ever had problems getting claims approved.

Two words of advice: try to get the dealer to upgrade the cover to 'Five Star' as part of your negotiations, as this gives much better cover than the other versions for not a lot more money, and be aware that while labour costs are always fully recoverable (minus a 'franchise' of CHF100), older cars with higher kilometers will have the payout for parts reduced to reflect wear-and-tear. This reduction is according to a schedule which you can download from the Quality1 website.

The MFK is renowned for being 'thorough' but it does not flag up future problems e.g. warn about brakes having only 6 months left, cambelt requiring replacement at next service, etc. I just wonder if the TCS test would warn of such things, or if like you suggest maybe it's just an MFK-like check.

Have a look at the servicing schedule to see if anything know (like a cambelt change) is coming up. In any case, you should negotiate to have the car serviced as a condition of sale, and be clear about what is included in the service.

My experience of buying cars from a dealer in Switzerland is that they usually won't budge much on price, but you can almost always get them to throw in freebies -- particularly those which don't have a big cost to them (eg, labour on a service).

Both of the cars I bought were advertised with Quality1 warranties, and both times we were able to negotiate an upgrade from 1-star to 5-star as part of the deal. Both dealers offered to include a fresh service as part of the deal. I even managed to negotiate a new vignette (car bought in December) and full tank of petrol. Don't ask, don't get...

as i said... careful to see what it includes and excludes, same with the TCS test you need to see what it includes

The MFK is not that through, it covers basic safety items & needs a clean engine. Not very different to a UK MOT. It only says things are above the minimum standard today. Tomorrow & with another tester the car could fail,