Does an extended warranty on my generator make sense?

[Charlie Velasquez]

The math is that all extended warranties are bad buys. They have to make money or they couldn't make money selling them.

Joe

Not necessarily. The companies run the numbers. They know what it takes to make a profit. But as Bill mentioned in his quip about Vegas, that profit is "in the long run".
But just like in Vegas, knowledge can skew the odds more in your favor.

If youdo something that affects the variables differently than what the companies have inputted, then the odds of use would change. If you know this, than you could make a decision as to whether an add on makes sense.

We purchased a new Sonata for my wife. Now, when I get a new vehicle I tend to baby it for a while. I will park in a more distant spot at the shopping center to better isolate it. My wife, on the other hand thinks the best thing about a compact is it can squeeze between cars other models could not. She tends to pick up her cappuccino and drink while she drives.
We purchased the extended care program. They detail her car on a regular basis, touch up door dings, and such. In winter I tend to scrape off any ice on the windshield completely, she kinda scrapes it off, then uses the wipers to try to get the rest. They replaced the wipers 2 months after we bought it.
Just replacing her lost key paid for the program that year.
She thinks if the speed limit in town is 35mph, then you should go that fast till you HAVE to stop. If I see the light turn yellow 200' ahead, I'll start slowing down, she would speed up if not at the speed limit, then brake hard.

The point is the company makes generic assumptions, but you have specific knowledge. The extended care program would not have made sense for a vehicle driven primarily by me; but one driven by my wife, it looked a lot more attractive.

[Jerome Stanek]

The only time I bought an extended was my first Laptop. It was over $2500 back in 1995 and I was taking it out of town when I was working. That paid for itself as Best Buy would reimburse you if they could not fix it I ended up with a new laptop every couple of years that didn't cost me anymore as the laptops kept coming down in price.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Even a blind squirrel.....

I used to shun extended an warranty.

Then - we bought an LG refrigerator from Lowes.

We were told that we could buy a water filter for 50% off - if we bought the warranty. The catch was, we had to say yes or no to the warranty right then and there.
I walked over and looked at the price of the filter - $75. so we said ok to the warranty.

Our factory warranty ran out and a month later, we lost the compressor. They replaced it last November & the new one quit in January. They replaced it a 2nd time & yep - it quit again in March - right after the shut down. Three months later we still had no refrigerator & the warranty company refunded our entire purchase price since nobody could get parts to fix it.

This was not a low end or top of the line - it was a mid level - but - not some cheap Roper or something.

We thanked our lucky stars we had been duped into taking the extended warranty..oops -forgot -I found filters online for about $11 which is why I said "duped".

[Scott Clausen]

I always decline extended warranties with one exception. I bought a Volvo from Carmax and had to take it in for some ECP valve that kept clogging. On the second replacement Volvo said the engine was sludged and no more warranty service. Carmax paid for the engine to be torn down and cleaned. They gave me a check to take over when I picked it up. It was close to $2000 if I remember it right. So being that far ahead I have never bought another one.

[Ron Selzer]

I as a rule don't buy extended warranties, however my ex-wife preferred them so on her cars we bought one each time. Paid off on a 2003 PT Cruiser over $7500 for replacing wire harness behind dash, 27 days in the shop. The other cars never came close to breaking even. In the long run we probably boke even, however the money was spread out over 17 yrs instead of that one big hit. Buy on computers and it paid on one laptop, not needed on the rest so down money in the long run.
Ron

[Tom Bender]

We need them less now. We can fix almost anything with you tube to help.