[LWJ]

First, I have absolutely ZERO experience with car warranties. BUT, I do have lots of experience with insurance.

Here is how I see it:

Anything you can't afford to pay for is a candidate for insurance.

IF you can afford to pay for it, do NOT insure it. Why? Because insurance companies always need to make a return on their business. They have actuaries that study the numbers far better than you and I can and are professionally making a bet on this.

A related thought is this: any policy that has a FIXED payout (dental insurance comes to mind) should be avoided as most of them are simply charging you to manage your cash. (And, I have not purchased dental insurance ever as we are able to save and address this cost with our family budget. So, it has paid out for us.) An easy exception is Term Life. I buy Term and advocate for anyone who may have a need to buy term. I have seen many people pass away without adequate funds for their surviving family and that is tragic.

Back to the original question? My instinct is to avoid add on warranties every time. But if I were buying something Italian OR complicated OR first year of production I would be tempted. WPOZZZ and his Alfa seem like a great example of this.

Sidenote: I used to always ask the warranty caller about my 1980 SC. They hung up on me as well.
Sidenote to sidenote: When I had my 930, now there is a car that may very well be worth buying a warranty on! No idea what a toasted engine would cost for that but it would be over $15K I suspect.