United Car Care?

[Jim Becker]

The current quotes are several hundred more than the original one. Maybe it goes up every year?

There was a recent price increase, unfortunately, so that likely bumped it up a little more.

[Greg R Bradley]

The car repair shop that I own refuses to deal with any of them. The service manager tells me that the few that were decent have become a joke. They are basically a huge profit center for the used car dealers so they push them hard. They end up denying most claims since they mostly warranty parts that don't fail. Read the list of covered and not covered items and try to reconcile that with parts that actually fail.

An extended warranty from the manufacturer on a new car is a completely different warranty. Those require repairs performed by the dealer with rare exceptions.

None of that is to say that there aren't certain repairs that might make one a good idea. But you won't know that unless you waste the money on one and then just get lucky enough to have it work out.

[Carlos Alvarez]

They end up denying most claims since they mostly warranty parts that don't fail.

This is a reminder to only buy an exclusionary warranty, not an inclusionary warranty. Exclusionary means that EVERYTHING is covered except for the specific items or classes of items that they spell out. So for example, the service contract that bought us a new trans and AC basically said EVERYTHING except X is covered. The list of items was all the obvious stuff like the battery, brake pads (but not non-wear brake items), clutch plates (but not non-wear clutch items), etc. No issues. When we had an injector problem on the BMW, the exclusionary warranty excludes oil and other fluids, however I said that the oil was polluted by the failed injector so they covered it ($150 at the dealer, $80 elsewhere).

They are not all the same, and they are not all a poor value.

[Marc Jeske]

Simplified, any and all insurance spreads the risk, but, at end of day, as in Vegas, the House wins.

Marc

[Bruce Wrenn]

With the average mileage of the four vehicles sitting in our yard on the north side of 200K, we have spent less than $2000 on them over the years. Single most expensive item was carburator for my Mighty Max pickup ($499,) It comes with a lifetime warranty through Autozone. When I buy parts, I always try to buy lifetime warranted parts. This week had to replace a cooling fan relay on !998 Chrysler Town and Country. Took defective one to Advance, along with receipt, and in less than five minutes was on way home to install it. ALWAYS MAKE A PHOTO COPY OF RECEIPTS, as they quickly fade, especially kept in glove box. Autozone' computer keeps better record than Advances. Seems that Advance purges their every three years. Once went into Advance to replace a mass air flow sensor ($150+) for Areostar van, and their computer said I had never bought anything from them. Went to car (Honda Civic) and brought back copies of receipts for muffler, master cylinder, and distributor, all bought from that Advance store. Told them, "Now tell me I haven't ever bought anything from Advance." Walked out with replacement mass air flow sensor, at no cost to me. FYI, MAS was a store brand that only Advance sells. As a side note, brother used to do inspections for an extended warranty company. Weirdest call he ever got was to come remove some dangerous materials form a lease return Toyota. Turned out to be three 30# cylinders (unopened) of R-12, which he sold for $1200. Not too bad get paid for inspection, and sell the R-12.

[Art Mann]

The economics of such contracts will never work out, regardless of who is offering the contract. The company is willing to bet your repairs will, on the average, be less than the cost of the contract. That is how they make money. If you are financially able to pay for your own repairs, why wouldn't you want to take the same bet? Perhaps if you are a very poor driver . . .

I have a friend who bought an after market service contract from a Honda dealer when he bought a late model used Odyssey. When his transmission failed at 90,000 thousand miles, he had to get a lawyer to force the company to pay. It took two months. He was lucky to have a spare car.

[Jim Becker]

Art, I understand your logic and in aggregate, the general service contract market favors the provider over the consumer. I will say, however, that my Mopar lifetime contract has paid for itself twice over because of the expense that would have been incurred to replace some very pricy components had I needed to pay for them outright. I wouldn't have bothered if I was only going to hold the vehicle for 4-5 years or wasn't racking up a lot of miles, but I knew I'd blow out the OEM warranty in about two years and later determined I'd be driving it for a lot longer due to my retirement and having my younger in college. Now keep in mind that this is a manufacturer contract and covers everything except "consumables". It's not a shaky, 3rd party contract which I'd never, ever buy on anything.

[Carlos Alvarez]

Man, so many absolutes expressed here. I'm going to cancel my car and home insurance because they never pay off and the economics never work out.

[Jerome Stanek]

Isn't that an old joke you buy life insurance and the company is hopingyou live and your hoping you die

[Marc Jeske]

Man, so many absolutes expressed here. I'm going to cancel my car and home insurance because they never pay off and the economics never work out.

I think this must be sarcasm, or totally wrong.

If your "luck" ends up w no or minor claims, ( less than you paid in) then you "lose"

But if your claims exceed your payments, then you "Win".

Well, assuming they pay w/o major hassle as mentioned above..

But, and this is a BIG BUTT - many of these third party warranty co's make one jump through toooo many hoops - REALLY needs to be considered.

So to say it "never" works out is totally inaccurate.

But, still long term, as a pool of payers/claimers, the House still wins.

Exactly like any Lottery.

Obviously this is simplified, no regard to anything like potential ROI of funds not used as Premium payments if one self insures,other stuff like that, but still accurate enough.

If you buy $1,000,000 of Life ins today, pay i dunno maybe a couple hundred to start it... and you get totally sucked into your 1946 Northfield 24" Jointer the next day,with just your steel toes of yer boots left hangin above the outfeed table, and your Wife and new Boyfriend get a check a month later for $1,000,000, well then it was worth it.. Right ?

They will probably have to replace the DC, specially if in hot summer, but they'll be left sittin pretty.

The Northfield will come out unscathed after a bit of cleaning.

Pretty sure we all know this, just sayin.

Marc

[Marc Jeske]

That said, I will add - In a week i'm ordering two 24kbtu "window" AC units ( about $700 each)for a new shop..either Amazon or Walmart..and seeing as how US made window AC is not available.. and figuring high chance of Chineez throwaway.. I will be seriously looking at spending about $30 for each for a 2 year warranty extension.

Marc

[Carlos Alvarez]

But, still long term, as a pool of payers/claimers, the House still wins.

Of course, like all insurance.

[Jerome Stanek]

You have to check some of those warranties that say extended. When I was buying one of my trucks the dealer offered an extended warranty saying it was bumper to bumper but when I checked it over it did not cover the bumpers and other stuff also it was not extended by the 5 years that it sounded like as it started the day I signed the paper work. so it only extended it 2 years. The guy trying to sell it gave me an example of how it worked he said if something broke you bring it in and pay $75 and they would cover the rest and if you had a problem that was small you still paid the $75 dollars and every repair had to be recorded.

[Jim Becker]

Jerome, many OEM extended service contracts do start at mile 0/day zero. During the original OEM warranty period, the deductible doesn't apply, but other benefits are often available. With my Mopar plan, for example, the rental/loaner provision is active from day one. (it stops at 7 years/100k miles, however) As you note, it's very important to carefully review the actual contract before signing up and paying for it. As Carlos noted, there is also a time window for the best price...typically in the first 12 mos/12K miles, after which the price often bumps up. That's how the OEM manufacturer "compensates" the buyer for signing on while still under the original factory warranty.

[Tom M King]

We come out ahead, in the end, by not buying extended warranties on anything.