Used auto warranties?
 

What's everyone's thoughts on used car warranties and where's the best place to get one? A car we are looking at (50k on the clock) has a 10 year 100,000 powertrain warranty and a 12 month/12 miles high tech warranty, but I need to find out what each covers when my wife brings the info home. If I knew the history and owner of the car, I might not even get one.

At one dealer, they wanted $4200 for the gold plan! It was 10 years/120,000 miles (70K for us). Surely there are places where you can get it cheaper than that.

$4200 pays for a lot of repairs, but can be eaten up fast with newer cars.

I wouldn't pay ten cents for any warranty that is not backed up by the dealer.

Too many cases of a failure, and the dealer won't lift a finger, saying they just sold you a third company's warranty. These warranty companies have been notorious for going out of business every few years, and opening up under a different name so there is no recourse for anybody who purchased a warranty from the now-defunct company.

I'd spend $200 on the factory service manuals and keep the $4000 for whatever parts may be needed down the road.

Working on cars got much easier when I quit looking at Chiltons or Haynes manuals. Get the manuals the factory techs use, and all is well.

FIL is stranded in Kentucky right now when their 06 F-250 pulling their camper with the dreaded 6.0L started over heating and stalling. The "extended" warrenty that he paid an extra $2800 for last year won't pay anything towards this $2100 bill, because it doesn't qualify as a covered issue. It turns out that the warrenty would cover a new engine if needed, but not an EGR cooler, and an oil pan cooler ! He is so pissed off, he could spit nails, and spending even more money on staying for an extra 3 days.

I wouldn't p[ay two nickles for a warrenty that could slip through a loophole somehow.

I'd be tempted to make sure it needed a new engine

Both credit unions I used last offered their own extended warranty - I believe each was for 3 years - at a reasonable cost.

+1. I've gotten extended warranties from my CU for my E55, Lexus, Murano and MINI. All have paid off more in repairs than the very reasonable cost of the warranty.

I forgot about our credit union. I'll have to call them tomorrow.

BTW, the $4200 warranty was through Hendrick Automotive. A quick look at what was covered and I'd go with the silver plan for $2k less.

If you get something that's still under factory warranty, I can get you a quality extended warranty. Otherwise, it has to be inspected in our shop.

The car has 50k on the clock. IIRC the factory warranty is 3 years and 36k.

The majority of aftermarket mechanical warranties that are sold at the dealership level are not worth the paper they're written on - my experience. That's not to say ALL aftermarket warranties are bad - but know the ones we're referring to here are sold by dealers to generate 'high margin packs' or high front-end loaded products or services.

There are some good companies, but you won't find them at the dealership. FWIW - I worked at a very large (at the time) independent BMW / Porsche sales & service facility. In their best year; 2006 they grossed $35 million total revenue. They also sold aftermarket warranties - 3 different companies actually. When things started to go south in late 2007 - all 3 warranty companies had already started to implode from the cash loss.

Ultimately - one of the core poor decisions when those warranty companies went belly up was to basically say to the customer..................good luck with that.

They sold those warranty's on almost every car and refused to honor and keep the trust with the customers who made them wealthy. They were bankrupt by 2013.............................as in "0"

Is it this car?

Used 2013 Volkswagen Tiguan - MINI Of Charleston, SC

If so, it's a "miler" for being a 2013. My guess is it has a retail market value of $18-19K. Also shows an open recall for a clock spring. How much more could a new Tiguan cost with just the features you'd want? It would have a factory warranty, new tires, new brakes, everything. Just sayin'...

Its a VW? ^ what he said, cant see that being a gas and oil changes only car.

If you think you will get 4k worth in repairs during that time / mileage, maybe it is time to think about another vehicle instead of a warranty.

My buddy had an aftermarket warranty and exactly what is described above happened. He had a claim and they were bankrupt / out of business. $2500 out the window.

G

I also second the "check out a new one". MSRP for the base appears to only be 25k. You probably can get something much nicer for $25k out the door. So why "save" 5k and then have to worry about buying a $4k warranty.

I was in the same spot when buying my TDI golf. Good used units - all out of warranty - were 18k. Mine was 25 out the door.

G

Not worth it. I bought one on my Mercedes - think it cost me something like $3k and I only got a few hundred bucks worth of value out of it by the time it expired (incidental things - a crank position sensor, coil packs, a hood shock, stuff like that). If you think the engine might spontaneously explode then it might be worth it but I'll never get one again - the stuff that matters is all excluded (tires, brakes, clutches, wheel / pothole damage, windshields, etc.) and / or has such high deductibles as to not really gain you much.

Yes there's some peace of mind but at the end of the day I bought a solid car so probably didn't need it. If I'd bought a Maserati on the other hand... ;)

Also keep in mind that they will try to put aftermarket crap on the car as replacement parts to shamelessly cut their claim costs - I really had to pitch a fit about this and argue with about six different people in their bureaucracy each time explaining the difference between "OE", "OEM" and "aftermarket" and that I wanted at least "OEM".

Bottom line - save your money and just buy a good car, drive it and be confident in the fact that the odds are very, very low that it's going to ever disintegrate underneath you for no reason - which is about the only time the warranty would probably ever pay for itself.

I guess I'm in the minority...I've never purchased an extended warranty on anything, EVER. I figure with what I haven't spent over the years, I could probably buy a 20K car and still be way ahead...but that's just how I roll. If it weren't for lawyers....I probably wouldn't even have insurance on my cars & houses...I don't like the odds...YMMV.

KC911, you're not alone, i've never felt the need to spend thousands extra on each car just in case something might happen. I tend to fix my own car, or, I have a guy who does it fairly cheaply.

Always my thought. I also have the philosophy that you only insure things that you can't afford to fix or replace. Remember that the aftermarket warranties are only insuring your car because they believe you will pay them more than they pay out, i.e. they will make a profit. Why not keep the money yourself, stick it in a maintenance fund? Or you could just buy a reliable car.......:D

All good thoughts. The car above is one we are looking at. It's the same year as ours. A new car with what we want is $10k more than we want to spend now a days. This car will be an even swap for what we had, but less miles and more options.

I don't have the time or the inclination to work on the car beyond regular maintenance, hence the warranty. She wants it and I'm not so sure.

I get the spam email, postcards in the mail and even phone calls from companies that want to sell me a warranty. They all start with the "fact" that the warranty on my car has expired and they can help me. One cold caller even called my home phone and left messages that I ignored. They finally called one day when I was waiting on my wife to get ready so we could go to dinner. I answered and the sales pitch began. She asked what cars I have and I said I have two. She asked the make model year and mileage of them. A 1986 El Camino with 330,000 miles and a 1985 Porsche 911 with 160,000 miles. She just hung up on me!