Extended Warranties
 

Anyone of you have work with any reputable aftermarket car warranties? Looking around the net there's plenty of horror stories. Looks like the real good companies will only work direct with the car dealers.

Looks like you got the answer you were looking for.

Just kidding, surely there's one decent company out there somewhere...maybe?

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There can be some reputable companies. My suggestion would be to talk to a few dealers for the make of car that you have. What year, make, and mileage is the car? It may not even qualify and a lot of times extended warranties are prohibitively expensive when the car gets older.

I just heard of an extended warranty that was sold on a brand new $1.2M McClaren for $75K. Cost on it was $65K.

The bigger dealers will sell you their own warranty under a different brand name, as in they also own the warranty company.

Extended warranties are a rip off, but if you really want one, go to a credit union.

It's just an insurance policy and they'll sell you one for 1/10th of what the steeler would try to get.

Get the terms and conditions and read them before you buy a warranty. If there are too many exclusions then walk away. If you don't understand the terminology then walk away. If they won't give you the T&Cs up front then RUN away.

If you belong to a credit union, check with them first. I bought two extended warranties in the past from my CU and both have paid off. I bought a 4 year exclusionary warranty for my 2005 E55 for $2100 and to date, it has paid $3k+. I bought a 4 year for my 2004 RX330 and it was only $1000. It wasn't exclusionary as it was too old for one, but it covered a lot of stuff. There's 2 years left and it has already paid $1k, so it is a break even deal for me. Both were through NAC. I went to my CU yesterday for my 2006 Murano and they changed their warranty company and it is now Enterprise. A 4 year warranty is $1400.

I purchased one a couple cars ago... In addition to all the other small print stuff I would make sure it's transferrable. I feel like I was able to squeeze a few more bucks out of the car when the buyer was getting easy access to a warranty.

thank you guys

Mrs. Lee got one from BMW North Scottsdale for her E92. She had them throw it into the deal and it probably would have run $1800 on its own, five yrs. unlimited miles, includes everything. First summer she had it, a/c had a bad evaporator. $1800 repair bill and she didn't pay a dime. A month ago there was another $2500 in misc. repairs and she didn't pay anything. It's been back for a bunch of little stuff in between and she always gets a real nice loaner. She has a new X1 this week. It's really paid off for her.

I would do a CPO at a dealer. But would be very leery off anything else.

It is just insurance - the stakes are relatively low - I would self-insure. That means just pay for the repairs!

Being that I have been in the business it would take a lot for me as a consumer to buy one from a dealer. In 2007 as the housing crisis tsunami was starting and credit was tightening I saw 3 very big aftermarket mechanical warranty companies go belly-up with a large independent BMW dealer here in Va. The retail cost to the customer could be as high as $4500+ depending on what car they bought and the extent of coverage.

Ultimately the dealership had to compose 'that' letter to all their customers who bought them that they were on the hook for any repairs because the company was no longer in business and that any questions / issues should contact them directly.

So imagine you just purchased a $65K late model used BMW750 with close to $5k added for the warranty and then have the dealership less than a year later say: "Oh well"...................


Almost all mechanical warranties have specific verbiage where the obvious wearing parts that frequently fail are not covered at all.

That's why I suggested talking to some dealers. They can sell the factory extended warranty and the price is negotiable. Sometimes they can be sold to a car that's out of warranty without selling the car, as in a "service drive" situation. It is basically insurance and you have to judge for yourself if it's a good deal or not. It may not seem like a good deal until a big repair comes up.

Crazy what the aftermarket warranties costs, I have here about 10 quotes none of them under 4K :rolleyes:

Do you mind sharing what make, year, model, and mileage is on the car?

Sure is a 2009 Benz S550 with 47K miles

$4K+ sounds right. Consider the risk.

I bought one on my M.B. When I bought it. Not bad but not great. I never broke even on it and I doubt I'd get one again. It was peace if mind in case the engine or diff. ever decided to go kaboom, but that's about it. Clutch was excluded (although I haven't had any reason to replace it and I'm about three years out of warranty now). I did get several sensors replaced - one thing that really irritated me was having to fight with the warranty company over the type of parts used in the replacements. They always insisted on cheapo aftermarket and I insisted on factory / O.E. only. I usually got them to split the difference with me, but I'd be especially wary of any policy that doesn't specify the type of parts or outline procedures for "upgrading" to whatever you want.

All-in-all it was good peace of mind but unnecessary. I wouldn't do it again. I only got back about $0.35 or so on he dollar.

I emailed a friend of mine who is a part-owner of a Mercedes dealership. The best quality extended warranty you can get, I suspect, is a factory (or factory-sponsored) one. When the car is out of warranty, hopefully you can get one that is allowed for "service drive" sales, meaning the dealership can sell you the warranty without having sold you the car or inspecting it. They usually have a 30 day and 1,000 mile "blackout" period where claims won't be honored.

I'll let you know if MBZ sells such coverage. It won't be cheap, although I'm sure the markup should be reasonable. How many miles per year do you plan on driving the car for the next few years? How many years of coverage would you want at the maximum?

Many years ago I was given the advice to not take on insurance for any risk I can absorb myself....the theory being that since insurance is a profitable numbers game, if I were to set aside all the money I could have spent on buying insurance and then draw down on it as various losses (e.g. the engine in the car packs it in), over your life, you would end up with a positive sum of money to your credit.

Been doing that for 35 years, would argue that it is a successful strategy and I always decline extra insurance, the case being helped these days by some credit cards having some level of insurance protection included as part of the merchant fees.

So my advice is to decline the insurance, put the money in the bank, sit back and enjoy.

D.