Extended warranty -

[Rich Engelhardt]

My wife bought a new car yesterday.

I swore up and down I'd never throw away money on an extended warranty.


BUT.... there are so many electronic gizmos and whirly-gigs on newer vehicles you almost have to pay extra as insurance.

Extended warranties have saved our bacon with appliances in recent years. I'm pretty much sold on them for a lot of things.

[Pat Germain]

The specific car is an important factor. If it's anything from GM, Ford or Stellantis, I would say you absolutely need an extended warranty.

[Jim Becker]

I buy a vehicle manufacturer backed comprehensive extended service contract (they are not actually "warranties" no matter who calls them that) because of the complexity and because it eliminates any financial surprises if some component fails within the terms of the contract. For my Subaru Ascent Touring, I have a 10 year, 100k mile, $0 deductible ESC that covers everything except a very short list of exclusions which are largely wear items and cosmetics. If I hold the vehicle for the whole 10 years, my "insurance cost" is $235 a year. If I don't need to use it and trade early, I get money back as I did when I traded the MY19 for the new MY23 this year. Burn up the head unit that's also the heart of the vehicle's computer systems...$2500 minimum. Need a transmission out of warranty...that's currently about $12000 for my particular vehicle. I'm good with the small cost of the contract I purchased.

Currently, "as we speak", I'm actually sorry I didn't opt for an ESC for the new laundry appliances I bought a year and a half ago. The washer electronics died this week. When the tech gets here next week, I'm not looking forward to the cost and we've already been discussing where the cost line is between repair and replace.

[Jim Becker]

The specific car is an important factor. If it's anything from GM, Ford or Stellantis, I would say you absolutely need an extended warranty.

I would say that leaving those brand families out relative to whether an ESC "is right for you" is not a good idea. They are no different than any other brand when it comes to reliability.

[Ron Selzer]

I have mixed feelings, most of the time I don't buy it. 1997 Dodge Intrepid, extended warranty bought and needed. 2003 bought a PT Cruiser that ended up being a lemon, we lost our court battle with Chrysler after the lawyer said it was all my fault for not telling Chrysler about the problem not being properly repaired by the Chrysler dealer, we bought it from. The extended warranty paid over $7000 to repair the car. 2004 1500 Ram pickup I bought new, without extended warranty. Has never needed any repairs until way after the warranty would have expired. Guy at work bought it off of me and way over 200,000 miles, still running strong. Only basic, expected repairs needed.
2018 Ford Transit, 2018 Ford Edge no extended warranty, have not needed any repairs.
Ron

[mike stenson]

Yep, worst car I ever had was a Subaru. The various GMs and Fords have been pretty reliable, all in all.

The infotainment system on my Mazda sucked enough that I think I'm done with new vehicles though. They'll all feel old in months. The one time I had an extended warranty and there was a problem, they bent over backwards to try and deny the claim. Just like the home warranty on that came with this house when I bought it, actually.. They just ghosted us when we had a septic failure.

[Jim Becker]

Yep, worst car I ever had was a Subaru.

It's luck of the draw...we're on number 7 and have had no real issues other than some age related things with a MY11 Outback that simply resulted in a trade for a MY20 Forester for Professor Dr. SWMBO. Anyone can have issues with any brand and some things are very subjective, too. I've never had a claim denied for a manufacturer based ESC. And that includes a MOPAR contract that paid out quite a big on the MY12 Grand Cherokee I owned.

[mike stenson]

It's luck of the draw...we're on number 7 and have had no real issues other than some age related things with a MY11 Outback that simply resulted in a trade for a MY20 Forester for Professor Dr. SWMBO. Anyone can have issues with any brand and some things are very subjective, too. I've never had a claim denied for a manufacturer based ESC. And that includes a MOPAR contract that paid out quite a big on the MY12 Grand Cherokee I owned.

Our first one had a fuel system failure, that burped gasoline out of the fill door. The second one (they replaced the first) burned oil like a clapped out track porsche. You know, the issue there was a TSP over, except our Vin "didn't qualify". After two in a row, I'm just done. I know plenty of people love them, but I'm also aware they have a higher than average TCO.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Jim,
It was exactly the experience we had with an appliance that made the decision to buy for us.

[George Bokros]

I never bought one before but did on my '21 Ranger. Like some have said,"The electronics and gizmos are expensive."

[Pat Germain]

I would say that leaving those brand families out relative to whether an ESC "is right for you" is not a good idea. They are no different than any other brand when it comes to reliability.

I respectfully disagree. Any brand can have issues, but when you look at the Consumer Reports surveys, the three "American" brands stand out with the most problems. Whenever I mention Consumer Reports, people get prickly and insist on parroting the UAW propaganda that Consumer Reports is biased against American cars. So I'll state that their reliability ratings are based on surveys of tens of thousands of people who actually own the vehicles. And yes, I used to participate in their survey every year. For people who still think they're biased, oh well. I can't tell people what to believe.

[Pat Germain]

I'll repeat what I always say about vehicle extended warranties; when you're buying the vehicle and the sales weasel pitches the extended warranty, ask for the total cost. The weasels like to break it down as, "Only an extra $30.00 a month!". Whatever the total cost, offer to pay half. I don't know what the profit margin is on those things, but it must be significant since they will often accept the half price offer.

[Rich Engelhardt]

$1900 was the total price.
The extra coverage takes the warranty to 10 years, 100k miles.

What sealed the deal though was the extended covers more than the Hyundai coverage.
Hyundai - and I suppose everyone else - has come up with a new way to weasel out of things.

Warranties are only good for defects, not wear and tear.
If the display goes bad, they can claim it was due to wear and tear and not a defect.
Supposedly, the extended one doesn't do that - yet.

[Mel Fulks]

I haven’t read Consumer mag in years. I don’t think they are biased, just nutty. They had some really far out warnings about what
might happen to you in some cars. Guess some of those things could happen ,but they were too vigilant in finding dangerous stuff.
Even now I never step on a candy wrapper , too many bad falls !

[Jim Becker]

I respectfully disagree. Any brand can have issues, but when you look at the Consumer Reports surveys, the three "American" brands stand out with the most problems. Whenever I mention Consumer Reports, people get prickly and insist on parroting the UAW propaganda that Consumer Reports is biased against American cars. So I'll state that their reliability ratings are based on surveys of tens of thousands of people who actually own the vehicles. And yes, I used to participate in their survey every year. For people who still think they're biased, oh well. I can't tell people what to believe.

I guess I misunderstood and thought you were saying that GM, Ford and Stelantis vehicle owners didn't need to consider ESPs which is why I said they should.

I don't find CRS bias so much as they don't necessarily adapt their reliability algorithms fast enough. It took several years for them to properly reflect "current" reliability on the vehicle I drive and when an industry insider documented to them that the numbers didn't work, they ignored the advice to check it. For two years. Nearly four years in, the reliability estimates for the vehicle still reflected "year one" (expected) issues even though their survey data on the intervening years did not reflect the issues. That was a math error, not a bias. It was finally corrected about a year ago.