Extended car warranties. Good or bad?

I bought a new car on Saturday. When I was doing the financing, the guy did the hard sell on me to buy an extended warranty. "$3,200 retail, we'll sell it for $2,900." Their final offer ended up at $2,400. It is good for 84 months, 70,000 miles. It kicks in after the factory warranty of 36/30,000 expires. "Bumper to bumper" but there are several listed exclusions.

I had not research this at all. The guy said I could cancel within 30 days if I wanted to. So I went ahead and got it. I got home and started reading all the negative comments about Fidelity Car Warranty company. How things weren't covered, how the company dicked people around, how it was hard to get their money back, etc.

I took the comments with a grain of salt. A lot of the complaints were dealing with how people had not read the contract. And I figured that people that it worked for didn't go on the internet to sing the praises. People usually only take the time and effort to post something when they are pissed off.

The other selling points of the deal is that if I don't use it at all, after the seven years, I can get all my money back but $50. It also will convey if I sell the car.

So, has any one ever bought an extended warranty? But more importantly, has any one ever successfully used one to fix something on a four or five year old car, and felt like they had gotten their money's worth out of the deal?

 

I never buy an extended warranty on anything. I put 20,000 miles a year on a car so I generally trade after 4 years. The money I would have spent on an extended warranty I put aside just in case I need it for any major repair after the warranty expires.

 

It's a gamble. Odds are that you will spend more money on the extended warranty than you would for repairs. That's how they make money. You are better off putting money aside yourself for unexpected repairs. However, some people are willing to pay for the extended warranty in order to have the piece of mind that if something major went wrong it would be covered. Personally, I do all my own repair work so repairs are far cheaper to begin with, making an extended warranty a very bad idea for me.

Also, chances are very good that you can get a better warranty than what the dealer sold for a better price. This has been discussed extensively on car forums like vwvortex.com and fourtitude.com (VW and Audi forums I check often).

 

Dealers make more profit on selling extended warranties than on the actual car. I had a great experience with a 1987 Pontiac 6000 STE (I always wanted a car with Suede seats). I noticed the transmission was slipping a bit and took it into an Aamco shop with 99,600 miles and the mechanic replaced it under warranty. My warranty would have expired in another 400 miles and I would have been stuck with a $2000 repair bill.

I bought my wife a 2005 Nissan Pathfinder which was the first year of this body type and I regret not buying the extended warranty. We still own the car and it now has 100k miles. We have had to pay out of pocket for several repairs that I have never experienced in my life, and I once drove a 1974 Fiat 128. Stupid stuff like some switch in the fuel tank that required draining and removal of the tank, about a $600 repair. A set of solenoid switches in the transfer case that blew. An entire week to diagnose an electrical problem that involved several black boxes (engine control modules, vehicle control modules). And to top it off, two transmissions and a radiator that leaked engine coolant into the tranny due to its poor quality. The dealer put this through as a warranty, but Nissan said it was due to an out of warranty component that failed: the radiator. That said, this car is my wife's serenity spot.

I would shop the warranty around, this does not seem like a good deal as it only kicks in after the factory warranty expires, so you are paying $2400 for 40,000 miles of coverage and 4 more years.

So, what did you get?

 

$2400 will buy alot of repairs,the truth is that if anything breaks, it will prob be in the first 36k(free coverage), if it makes it that far your car will prob be good til well beyond 80K.

What brand of car?

Just think, they tried to sell you the thing for $3200, then dropped to $2400 faster than you can say ripoff, how would you feel if you payed the $3200?

 

OK, I'm still driving my 1998 and don't pay much attention to cars.

What is it?

 

Please, just tell us the model.

 

The only time I got an extended warranty (many years ago) was when I was negotiating the sales price of the car. They were not giving as much on the price as I thought they should, so I persuaded them to throw in an extra 2 yrs. on the standard 3 year warranty, and they accepted. Owned that car for 5 years, and never used the warranty anyway.

Now, in the more recent years, I have bought four various Hyundai models, and one Kia ... all VERY good, solid, reliable cars (one van) ... and they all came with a standard 5-year bumper-to-bumper, AND a 10-year power train warranty.

 

i do not know what that is either, but i could not imagine driving it for a year, let alone 3 or 8.

how do you like it so far?

how often have you traded cars in the past?

what is it?

 

Cool. I dig those. (It’s a Ford Flex, no?)

I agree with MisterJJ about shopping around. I don’t have any experience myself. But, I am something of a car nut and every mag, site, message board etc. that I’ve read has said basically the same thing MisterJJ did – you can usually find better and/or cheaper coverage from somewhere other than a dealer.

Insurance is a pretty personal thing. Everyone’s risk tolerance and personal finances are different. For me, I’d say “no way, no how” would I ever get an extended warranty. If you want me to expound on that, I’d be more than happy to. But really, it doesn’t matter. It is the price that YOU place on the potential peace of mind that an extended warranty could grant you that matters. That said, shop around. If the price you place on said peace of mind is $X, why not try to get it for $X-500?

 

Very nice, Ford Flex. Best of luck! I am surprised that Ford does not offer an extended warranty and the dealer is going through a third party insurance company. If you are a member of AAA, you might want to see if they offer a policy.

I have not bought a new car since 2005 as I am driving a 1998 Volvo S70 with 125k miles, my goal is to put 250k miles before I part it out.

 

Thanks for the commentary! lol

Yes, as mentioned, it's a Ford Flex. I have been looking for a car for a long time. Nothing was really grabbing me out there, but I settle on this because I wanted to get rid of a van I've been holding on to just to lug stuff around.

But now I am happy with it. Lots of bells and whistles. It has Sync, where my cell phone is hooked up to it. "Call home" and it does! lol. "Find italian restaurant." It does. Cool.

Good suggestion hammie to call AAA. I will.

 

Still plugging along in my 1998 Accord with 230,000 miles. Bought it new with 8 miles on odometer.
These days only putting about 6,000 per year on it, but still averaging 32.4 MPG.

My wife says I have OCD when it comes to the car but I have recorded every gas fillup since 6/1/98, along with every cent of maintenance costs. $7.872. Which includes 3 sets of tires.

 

Sounds like my father. I remember him noting the odometer reading & amount of gas at every fill-up so he could calculate his MPG (prior to the automatic readings cars will give you today) Since I only inherited half his genes, I only keep track of maintenance - not gas fill-ups.

 

I like getting the extended warranty especially if I'm going to keep the car for a longer amount of time. However, I only get the warranty from the car manufacturer. Ford ESP is an excellent plan. I don't understand why the dealer would not try to sell you Ford's own warranty plan.

You can do the research yourself at their website:
http://www.fordwarrantys.com/

Punch in your car data and you can see the price. You can choose from $0 to $100 deductible. I'm coming up with for an example 72/75,000 with $0 deductible for $1,549. This is the premium plan care that covers everything.
You can even purchase this plan after your factory warranty runs out.

 

Well I'll be go to hell! Thanks Jimbuc.
Shocking they don't sell their own product. Obviously the dealership makes more off of the independent contract. I am just shaking my head.
Thanks very much again.

 

If you ever decide to get the Ford ESP put in your e-mail address and you will usually get a discount code to save even more. I extended my 2007 Ford Focus for 3 more years and got a $207 discount.

 

I would love to know why the Ford dealer does not sell their own Ford Warranty. I'm also sure the zone rep for Ford would like to know as well. I think you broke the code: follow the money trail!!

 

I called Ford ESP to see who they were exactly. They are a Ford dealership in Connecticut that started doing the service agreements ten years ago, "and we just started doing real well with it".

So it's not Ford, but it is in a close special relation with Ford. "Backed by Ford".

But this was enough for me to call my dealer and tell them to cancel that contract. Fortunately they had some issues with the papers, so they will simply redo them, minus the cost of the service agreement.

Thanks again.