Extended warranty

[00redLUDE]

Just wanted to know what people here think about extended warranty on new cars? Is it a good idea or bad idea? Does it depend on the type of car you buy? If you do buy extended warranty do you just want to cover powertrain or everything? Thanks in advance.

[rc2002]

I think it depends on the car. Obviously with a Kia I might go for the extended warranty. Not so on a Lexus though. And you have to take your driving habits into consideration too...

Depending on how much it costs for the extended warranty, it might not be worth it. Some of the most expensive repairs are powertrain related and most cars have at least 3 year/10000km powertrain warranty anyways.

In the end, warranty works differently for every different manufacturer... What kind of car are you planning to get it for?

[max_boost]

If you plan to sell the car in the future, it is an attractive feature to have. More peace of mind than anything else.

[C4S]

RichardChan2002 is right .. on Honda, Lexus etc... then probaby don't really need extanded warranty, but you never know !

However, that is all depends, for example, buying 2 yrs extanded warranty for a Honda Civic, or an Accord, may cost $1,000 ...but it may cost $ 3000 on a Audi A4 1.8. ( I just pick a #)

Costs for extended warranty are base on the "car history" means It will be cheaper to buy warranty for a same yr civic then a Neon because of the good history of a civic. (even civic is a more expensive car) and buying extended warranty for a BMW 325i will cost so much less then an Audi A4 1.8 or a Jaguar X type, due to their histories.

I guess 00redlude is driving a 2000 prelude ? if so, the car should be still under Honda 5 yr Warranty, and you can go to different Honda dealerships for Warranty prices.

[G]

I always get a new car every 2 years so extended warranty would make no sense for me.

[nickyh]

Do you also buy the extended warranty with electronics?

I've been told by insiders that is how the dealerships make their money - people buying the rust proofing and extd. warranty.

Me - the way i change cars, i've never bought one. VW at least gave me a choice - they said i can purchase an extended warranty at a later date, i was not pushed into a decision right away.

[B17a]

Originally posted by nickyh
Do you also buy the extended warranty with electronics?

ITs only worth it if you remember you have it. Most people forget they even bought it 6 mos after, and can't find the receipt when they need it. I've bought it on many of my electronic purchases and have made full use of it many times. Usually one trip into the service shop more than pays for it.

[benyl]

How long do you plan to keep the car. If you are going to drive it into the ground, get it, it is worth the peace of mind.

If you are going to change cars every 5 years, I would take my chances. Most cars come with a 5 year/100,000 km powertrain and a 3 year/60,000 km bumper to bumper. The most expensive things to fix are usually in the powertrain.

Don't buy it based on what kind of car it is, or how much it costs. Buy it based on how long you keep the car. Lexus and Honda have their lemons too... it would suck to be stuck with one and not have an extended warrantee.

[Weapon_R]

I think you also have to throw another variable into the mix - what does the extended warranty cover? As far as I know, it's limited to the repairs and it's not bumper-to-bumper, but i'm not 100% sure.

Now consider an extended power train warranty. When I bought my car, T&T offered me the choice of an extended warranty for a grand or something like that to 160k but that only covered powertrain. Given the fact that i've rarely ever heard of an engine or tranny blow in 160k for a honda, I declined. Should it HAVE gone before I hit 160,000km, it would have been easy for me to find a replacement engine or tranny for about the same price, give or take a couple hundred. And since something like that would have been a freak occurance IMO, it wouldn't have been a recurring problem. Luckily, I have experienced NO major or even minor repairs with it, so the thousand bucks was well saved.

Now if I were buying a Neon (no offence meant here) where head gasket repairs were common at 120km's, etc, i'd seriously consider the peace of mind of an extended warranty.

Give us some more info, and we can answer. What kind of car? How much is the warranty? etc. In my case, that thousand dollars I saved would have been quite enough for one repair for which the warrenty covered - and to expect that it would have gone twice or three times in my car would have not been rational.

[C4S]

Originally posted by G
I always get a new car every 2 years so extended warranty would make no sense for me.

every 2 yrs .. wow .. that is a very "LONG" time pierod....

[00redLUDE]

Originally posted by G
I always get a new car every 2 years so extended warranty would make no sense for me.

I hate you. hahahaha j/k

Originally posted by nickyh

I've been told by insiders that is how the dealerships make their money - people buying the rust proofing and extd. warranty.

Yay, I tend to agree with you on this one but in the back of my mind I'm thinking what if something in the car does go, it would be nice to have some warranty on it.

To be more specific I've been looking at different vehicles. I'm looking at the BMW E46 but they only have a 4yr/80000km 'new car limited warranty' whatever that means. I can get extended warranty with BMW. They offer it through autoshield. Now with autoshield they have different coverages. POWERTRAIN (engine, turbocharge.supercharge, tansmission, transfer case, and drive axle), ADVANTAGE (powertrain and steering, brakes, electrical, air conditioner), ENHANCED (powertrain, advantage, and fuel delivery, front and rear suspension, cooling, enhanced electrical), and ULTIMATE (all the above and more).

Here is the price for the ultimate package (so the other packages would be less): to cover up to 5yr/100000km is ~$2500, for 6yrs/ 120000km is ~$3500 and for 7yrs/140000 is ~$4500!! That is a sh*t load of $$!!

So here is my question. BMW is a nice car, no question but I have heard they sometimes have some reliability issues. If something goes, whether it is a small thing or big thing, being a BMW it will cost some money. What would the best package be considering both price and coverage. I was thinking that the powertrain is really all I need for extra coverage. I just don't want the engine to go at 100000km and me left holding the bag. Any advise would be great, thanks.

Btw, here is a bad story about extended warranty. I heard it third person, so I don't know how accurate it is. I heard some one bought a used BMW (199?) had extended warranty on it. One day the tranny goes on the car. Extended warranty tells this person to goto BMW for an estimate ~$8000, they then tell him to go to a private transmission company for an estimate ~$7000. The extended warranty company tells this person that both estimate is way too high and that they will not cover for it and REFUND him the money he paid for the extended warranty, WTF?!! Again, heard it third person but it scares me about extended warranty.

Anyways, really long reply thanks for reading and again thanks in advance for any advise.

[C4S]

um.. I had extend warranty, but never used it ..
If buying a New car, unless you know you are going to keep the car for long (ie more then 4 yr)

But if you buy a used car, 3 or 4 yr old, then good to have extend warranty.

When I sold my car, I got extend warranty on it, and that is one reason why that fellow bought it from me, however, I don't think you can really sell the car for more with more warratny, but easlier to sell for sure.

And I don't think your "BMW tranny" story is turth, if the Extended warranty cover the tranny, then they should pay for it, and I never heard a BMW Tranny will cost $8000 (well, unless the New 6-Speed SMG on New M3) Ie: BMW tranny is running around ~$3000 for E36.
Anyway, Good luck ! E46 is so nice, and good value too ! high demand, short supply !
$4000 plus for warranty ? that sound a bit high ...

[MerfBall]

You have to remember that extended warranties designed to ensure as little claims as possible. So some warranties will only cover power train for x amount of years because in the x amount of years they are forecasting (of course based on statistics) that very few problems should arise. You have to ask yourself why the majority of extended warranties will only cover major engine components and not bumper to bumper even for an extra 2-3 years.

Extended warranties as mentioned before is there for the companies to profit from. Although it does add piece of mind for the consumer, the likelihood of said consumer to ever use it is far and few.

As for the BMW tranny story, it's quite possible you have to read the fine print in the warranty agreement. I have heard of warranty agreements that have clauses such as refunding the cost of warranty.

[nickyh]

I hate changing cars every two years it's quite the pain - but my first car had really bad Karma and i to make the decision right then and there about it, and my current car is a lemon. If i planned on keeping my Jetta, yeah i think the extd warranty would be worth it because let's face it - VW has reliability issues.

But again - what is mentioned to be covered you may have a hard proving to the dealership it's not a wear and tear issue. Some are easier than others but you are at the mercy of the dealership being honest.