Extended car warranties are B.S.

[bunyip]

Yep. I've always had the philosophy that if I need to buy extended warranty I'm probably buying the wrong product.

Unfortunately even the good brands have the odd lemon which is why we never buy a new revised model.
Anyone remember the 'world car' by GM back in the mid 80's, here it was the Holden Camira with bits from all over the GM empire, it was a shocker.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Back in 2012 when my wife and me bought a Chevy Impala for her, she asked what I thought about buying an extended warr. for it. I told her, I really didn't believe in them and didn't want to buy one.

Here it is, 2020 and that Impala has 246,000 miles on it, it starts/runs like it did new, doesn't burn oil, and has had a total of one wheel bearing, a check vale in the intake replaced and the throttle position sensor replaced. All were done at over 100,000 miles and were not high dollar replacements.

Everything else had been oil changes, tires, brakes, one battery and I replaced the struts at about 225,000 miles. It still has the original starter, alternator, exhaust ect. and I wouldn't be afraid to jump in it and take a major trip with it, tomorrow.

We would have wasted our $$ if we had purchased an extended warr?

SR

 

[dnw64]

We would have wasted our $$ if we had purchased an extended warr?

I'm not one for extended warranties. But peace of mind is not something you can easily put a dollar value on, and for some people it is far higher than the premium.

FWIW, we bought a 1985 Chevy Astro when it was 4 years old and had about 70k miles. Other than consumables, the only things I replaced before I sold it with 228k on it were the alternator and fuel pump.

 

[Oaktree]

I'm not one for extended warranties. But peace of mind is not something you can easily put a dollar value on, and for some people it is far higher than the premium.

But that's the same mentality that some people have where they "need" to trade every 3 or 4 years thinking they're buying reliability. A modern vehicle is just getting broken in at 100k.

Yeah, it's good to avoid the first year or two of a new or redesigned model, because you know all the bugs haven't been worked out yet, but an established model should give 10+ relatively trouble-free years.

 

[LouNY]

For all those that haven't and don't want to buy extended warranties and haven't needed one, good for you.
For all those that didn't buy one and didn't need one, congratulations you hit a home run.
For those purchased one and didn't need it, well at least your vehicle did good for you.
For those that didn't purchase one and needed it, sorry.

For me I will continue to buy them for expensive purchases, I have bought a few most of which were not needed.
However a couple did get used, so I'm at about a breakeven cost for them.
One important reason to me to buy one is that I am having a harder time now days performing the repairs that warranty will be covering.
I still do my routine maintenance and tire swapping on the cars and pickups.
But I'm to the point especially on these new vehicle I don't care to change an alternator or water pump.
Some of them are so buried that it is a major project to change and the proliferation of electronics and the expense of some of them.
Also it is getting very hard to find independent mechanics to work on vehicles, many of the shops are not very impressive.
But as I said earlier I'm getting to were I'm not really up to pulling an engine or tranny to repair and reinstall it.
For that reason I like and will continue to buy extended vehicle warrenties,those that don't want that's fine it's your money and time.

 

[fried1765]

For all those that haven't and don't want to buy extended warranties and haven't needed one, good for you.
For all those that didn't buy one and didn't need one, congratulations you hit a home run.
For those purchased one and didn't need it, well at least your vehicle did good for you.
For those that didn't purchase one and needed it, sorry.

For me I will continue to buy them for expensive purchases, I have bought a few most of which were not needed.
However a couple did get used, so I'm at about a breakeven cost for them.
One important reason to me to buy one is that I am having a harder time now days performing the repairs that warranty will be covering.
I still do my routine maintenance and tire swapping on the cars and pickups.
But I'm to the point especially on these new vehicle I don't care to change an alternator or water pump.
Some of them are so buried that it is a major project to change and the proliferation of electronics and the expense of some of them.
Also it is getting very hard to find independent mechanics to work on vehicles, many of the shops are not very impressive.
But as I said earlier I'm getting to were I'm not really up to pulling an engine or tranny to repair and reinstall it.
For that reason I like and will continue to buy extended vehicle warrenties,those that don't want that's fine it's your money and time.

I have two EXCELLENT independent mechanics.
One in Massachusetts, and one in Florida.
Both guys are great, and relatively inexpensive.
I bought an extended warranty once,...in 1999, on a 3 year old Mercedes.
Wasted $2,000.
Never again!

 

[rgr33]

I had a weird situation happen when I bought my wife a new Toyota Highlander in 2013. The finance guy repeatedly kept working on my wife to persuade us to buy the extended warranty, but I don’t really believe they are a good gamble on a New car so I continually refused.

Finally, after several attempts failed, he says “ well ‘‘this is good news, Toyota says they will drop the price of your new car by $1000, if you purchase the 100k warranty at $1000. No purchase, no discount’ Now my wife really cranked up the pressure, so I gave in, not wanting to hear about it over the next several days.

The out the door price remained the same, the car has long since run out of warranty and we never used a penny of the extended warranty.
Not a salesman or finance guy, but I have to assume there was some extra profit in there somewhere, or maybe a spiff for the f and I guy.

 

[fried1765]

I had a weird situation happen when I bought my wife a new Toyota Highlander in 2013. The finance guy repeatedly kept working on my wife to persuade us to buy the extended warranty, but I don’t really believe they are a good gamble on a New car so I continually refused.

Finally, after several attempts failed, he says “ well ‘‘this is good news, Toyota says they will drop the price of your new car by $1000, if you purchase the 100k warranty at $1000. No purchase, no discount’ Now my wife really cranked up the pressure, so I gave in, not wanting to hear about it over the next several days.

The out the door price remained the same, the car has long since run out of warranty and we never used a penny of the extended warranty.
Not a salesman or finance guy, but I have to assume there was some extra profit in there somewhere, or maybe a spiff for the f and I guy.

I had a somewhat similar deal...well not quite.
I bought a one year old 7K mile Corolla from a Honda dealer across the street from the Toyota dealership.

The Honda sales manager called me in his office and essentially tried to force the $800 extended warranty down my throat.
He simply would not take no for an answer.
He told me if I decided I did not want it, I could cancel with a phone call,..... if I did so within one week.
To get him off my back I agreed!

The following morning I called and cancelled the extended warranty.
My refund check arrived 5 days later.
Who buys an extended warranty on a one year old Corolla?

 

[k0ua]

or maybe a spiff for the f and I guy.

Of course.. That is what it always boils down to. I remember taking about 3 hours trying (and succeeding) selling a policy to an individual that I would benefit a total of $95 dollars over a period of a year if the individual kept the policy. Why did I spent so much time indulging this person who was lonely and wanted someone to talk to you might ask? Because it was at the very end of a period that I would qualify for a large spiff if I met a certain goal. I had literally just a few hours to meet that goal. So I was real compliant and let this guy bend my ear for hours to get him to sign. He got what he wanted (someone to talk to) and I got what I wanted. win win.

 

[Oaktree]

Who buys an extended warranty on a one year old Corolla?

Well, if it's like the one my wife had, I would. Of course, this assumes they wouldn't find a way to weasel out of that too. :fiery:

Some of them are so buried that it is a major project to change and the proliferation of electronics and the expense of some of them.
Also it is getting very hard to find independent mechanics to work on vehicles, many of the shops are not very impressive.
But as I said earlier I'm getting to were I'm not really up to pulling an engine or tranny to repair and reinstall it.
For that reason I like and will continue to buy extended vehicle warrenties,those that don't want that's fine it's your money and time.

Tough go for independent mechanics these days. So much proprietary stuff that you need the dealer's scan tool to diagnose or reset. Even if that service info was available, it would probably be cost-prohibitive for anyone who doesn't specialize in certain makes.