Any recommendations for an extended auto warranty?

[POORSH]

I've searched all over the place (inc. Bimmer forums)and have pretty much come up with nothing. I apologize for not being a P-car related issue. The X5 forum is pretty quiet, so I thought I'd post it here.

I have a 2001 X5 4.4 Sport with 43K miles on it. The extended warranty is running out at year end, and I would like to buy another warranty if possible. I got a quote from the dealer for a 3 year plan with $100 deductible for $3500. I also got quotes from different online companies ranging from $2k to $15k. I have to say I don't feel too good going with an online company unless it is from a recommendation.

Does anyone know of or have any experiences with a good online extended warranty company?

Thanks in advance.
Peter

[Wickd89]

I would check with a couple of dealerships and see what they recommend.

I did this for my Audi and it has been great. The dealer takes care of everything and they have built a relationship with the warranty companies they offer..

$3500 sounds reasonable. I paid $2400 for my 2001 audi 3 year plan, 2 years ago..

Remember it is a 7 year old car.....

[KFC911]

My .02 worth...extended warranties are a "sucker's bet" and are a huge profit center for the "house" . I've never even considered one (for cars, audio equipment, electronics, etc.) and know for sure that I've come out ahead over the years even though I've replaced a couple of motors (Blazer & van) along the way. If I had purchased extended warranties for all my toys over the years, I'm sure the cumulative would easily total $30-40K+ by now...do the math. Sure it's a calculated gamble, but just like Vegas, odds are you'll lose. Just another perspective...YMMV.

[Noel]

I agree with Keith.

Just keep the $3,500 you would have used to pay for an extended warranty as a repair fund. 43k miles is not that much.

(This is assuming that you have no loan on the car, otherwise it should be paid off first.)

[john walker's workshop]

you rarely ever use them. i take my chances.

[yelcab1]

skip it.

[burgermeister]

Homer: I want you to stick this crayon
into my brain.
Moe: No problem -- the ol' Crayola oblongata.

Moe: All right, tell me when I hit the sweet spot.
Homer: Deeper, you pusillanimous pilsner pusher!
Moe: All right, all right.
Homer: De-fense! De-fense!
Moe: Eh, that's pretty dumb. But, uh ... [pushes crayon in further]
Homer: Extended warranty? How can I lose?
Moe: Perfect.

[chris57]

I own a shop the services BMW's and the x5's and 7 series cars generate more work and profit than any other vehicle we work on. Probably the best SUV I have driven, but definitely the highest cost of ownership. I will say I believe that most of my customers get more out of there warranty companies than they paid for the policy if they drive BMW's. That being said these warranty companies are getting more and more difficult to deal with and a few have gone bankrupt. We have had cases where customer brings car in and we call warranty company to find they are out of business. Most franchise dealerships carry the better warranty companies. The ones we have dealt with that have been good over the years are Heritage and Transcon. You need to read the plans and make sure the have comprehensive coverage. We have run into some that dont cover much for instance they cover a cylinder head that fails but not a cylinder head gasket. I think the price is probably directly related to the amount of stuff covered. Do your research, like I said there have a few of these that have gone bankrupt in the last year.

[Wickd89]

Originally Posted by KC911

My .02 worth...extended warranties are a "sucker's bet" and are a huge profit center for the "house" . I've never even considered one (for cars, audio equipment, electronics, etc.) and know for sure that I've come out ahead over the years even though I've replaced a couple of motors (Blazer & van) along the way. If I had purchased extended warranties for all my toys over the years, I'm sure the cumulative would easily total $30-40K+ by now...do the math. Sure it's a calculated gamble, but just like Vegas, odds are you'll lose. Just another perspective...YMMV.

Agree, in general. For electronic stuff, do not both (unless needed because factory warranty does not apply for some reason). I did not even consider it for my wife's Toyota.

I would not recommend it for almost anything, except a European car (Audi, Porsche, BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, Saab, Volvo, etc)..
For my Audi it has been a great decision. I paid $2400, and have already had over $6,000 worth of work done.

[aigel]

Skip it. I have a friend who put down good money for a warranty - through a dealer - only to find out that the company went bankrupt. He lost his money. No warranty.

Think about it: The insurance companies have a statistician run the numbers. On average they have to make money. Insurance only makes sense if you can not bear the risk, financially. A major repair on a newish car should not be financial disaster to you (otherwise buy another vehicle). Insurance should be bought for major disasters that you can not cover yourself. (Terminal life, residence fire, health).

A used car warranty insurance is right in there with pet health insurance or warranty insurance for your plasma TV.

Just my two cents,

George

[mjshira]

These are a waste of money.

[POORSH]

My only rational for thinking about it is that my last warranty cost me $2500 and the repairs during the the lst 4 years came to around $4000, and the fact that it is 4 years older now. It is never the big stuff (thank goodness), it is always about the little stuff ie. electricals.

[KFC911]

Wow, sounds like you bought a lemon! Out of curiosity, didn't the new vehicle come with a decent "basic" warranty that would have covered most of that stuff anyways (like 3 year/36K miles) or something along those lines? Any product can have defects, but usually they'll show up early on from my experience. As I stated, I've never purchased any type of extended warranties, but have certainly had things "go bad" within the first year or so, that were covered. Another thought comes to mind...do those "little" repairs come out of the "stealership pockets", or were they milking that extended warranty for all it's worth (getting reimbursed from whomever)? I still don't like 'em, and would never purchase one, but that's just the way I am. FWIW, I had a buddy purchase a new VW Passat for his wife several years ago. During the first three years it was always one thing after another (covered under basic warranty) and he swore he would sell it the day the warranty ran out (and he did). His running joke was, do you know what Passat means in German? His answer: crap . Good luck!

[POORSH]

Keith,
I didn't realize how bad that sound until you brought up the lemon issue. In actuality, there was one instance where an indi shop couldn't figure out what the engine light was on for and milked the warranty (Fremont Foreign Auto Repair-Eduardo-Becareful of his salesmanship)for more than half of the $4k I mentioned. I know, I knowk, my bad. Should've taken it to the dealer, especially with a warranty.

[the]

try warrantydirect.com.

I've only bought an extended warranty once in my life, on a Mercedes that had a lot of work done under the factory warranty while I owned it.

Of course, as soon as the factory warranty expired, and I was under the aftermarket warranty, the car became pretty reliable!

It still had a decent amount of work done to it under the extended warranty. warrantydirect always dealt directly with the shop, and always paid every penny of every bill, no problem or complaints. I had some of the work done at a dealership, some at an independent. warrantydirect has been around for a while.

For me, at the end of the day, I did not recover the amount that I paid for the policy, though. Came within a few hundred dollars, but didn't quite get there.

extended warranty is like most insurance, it's a gamble, you v. the insurance company. But they know what they are doing, the odds are stacked against you. You may end up winning, but chances are you won't. They have a lot of data, and their numbers are very carefully calculated. they take into account the type of coverage (powertrain v. bumper to bumper, etc.), the length of coverage (time and miles), and the deductible amounts, and come up with numbers that are going to, overall, greatly favor them.

[alniki]

Originally Posted by chris57

I own a shop the services BMW's and the x5's and 7 series cars generate more work and profit than any other vehicle we work on. Probably the best SUV I have driven, but definitely the highest cost of ownership. I will say I believe that most of my customers get more out of there warranty companies than they paid for the policy if they drive BMW's.

+1

A friend of mine sold his 2-year-old X5 in a panic, moved to a new Lexus RX, and saved the difference in his bank account, a happy end.

[Noel]

Originally Posted by KC911

Wow, sounds like you bought a lemon! His running joke was, do you know what Passat means in German? His answer: crap . Good luck!

It's not a lemon, just a modern German car. I owned a 1998 Audi A4 for 6 years that I bought used with 40k miles on it. In that time, I spend ~$9K on repairs and maintenance and I even did a bunch of work my self. Every time I took it to the shop, it was $1,000. The last straw for me was when the clutch started slipping. The car had 140K miles on it by then so I didn't think much of it, until the mechanic told me that the clutch had plenty of life left on it but started slipping because of a failed seal on the front of the tranny that leaked fluid all over the clutch. I can’t tell you how many leaks I had to fix in that damn car and don’t get me started on the electrical problems…

I now drive a 2006 Subaru Legacy GT as a daily driver, 45k miles later (Bought new) and it has never been in the shop (I perform all maintenance myself) for a repair (Knocking on wood now). No German daily drivers for me.