After market warranties?

[Which Roger]

This discussion reminds me of a boom box I purchased at Sears over 30 years ago for 100 bucks. Salesman offered an extended warranty for $15, which I declined. The boombox is still blasting whenever I work in the garage.

 

[Big_Hitter]

This discussion reminds me of a boom box I purchased at Sears over 30 years ago for 100 bucks. Salesman offered an extended warranty for $15, which I declined. The boombox is still blasting whenever I work in the garage.

vehicles aren't small electronic objects, they contain many of them

must have been a nice boom box for $100 in 1988

 

[CRLLS]

Can't say anything about Audi's. I almost never buy extended warranties. I have bought 4 over my lifetime. So far, 3 of them have paid for themselves. the 4th one I just purchased for a 3 yr old car. Time will tell if that one will be worth the money.

I'd think that a $1K warranty for a 12 yr old Audi will be very limited in it's scope and possibly a high deductible. As has been already mentioned, the devil is in the fine print. read it and understand it. Look for things like retention of regular maintenance records, which you will not have. This alone might disqualify any claims on the power train.

 

[Chuckanut]

I worked in a repair facility for a major retailer about 40+ years ago.

Those warranties were a big profit center even back then.

I avoid them.

 

[RunningBum]

One exception I made recently is for an mp3 player I really like to run with, but seems to have a lifespan of about 18-24 months--battery, headphone connector, screen, something. Usually I wouldn't buy an unreliable product like that, but there really isn't a good alternative anywhere near that price ($36), so I figured I'd live with replacing it as needed. Then I noticed that Amazon offered a 2 yr SquareTrade warranty for $3.65. Reviews on the warranty service were good, so I bought it. 14 months later something went wrong so I filed a claim. Later that day they sent me a FedEx label to print and told me to ship it back, and once they received and verified it, I'd get my $36 back. About two weeks later I got the money, as an Amazon credit IIRC.

I bought another warranty with the same replacement product, but it went unused. I'm still $29 ahead. The key for me was that it was a product I really wanted, but not great reliability, no good alternative, and it wasn't a killer to me if it did conk out--unlike a car that you don't want failing far away from home. Also it was easy to make the claim by mailing it back in, and they weren't screwing around with repairs, or sending me a refurb that might have it's own problems or be outdated when I made the claim. I got my money back. It's small change for me either way but I'd apply the same principle at any price. I just don't think there's too man deals like this around, and I don't think I've bought a SquareTrade warranty on another Amazon purchase.

 

[USGrant1962]

I just bought a Honda Pilot and the extended service contract (they are not warranties) pitch caught me off guard. We keep vehicles a long time and I was worried about all the electronics as well as more typical stuff like the 9-speed transmission that had some historical problems. Also, Honda's bumper-to-bumper warranty is only one year.

I ended up buying the dealer's contract, then researching it since there is a 30-day cancellation period with no charge in my state. What I found is that there are a couple of Honda dealers that make a side business of selling HondaCare contracts over the internet with very little markup. From what I can tell they sell a ton that way.

In the end, I cancelled my dealer's self-managed contract and they matched the online price for HondaCare at $1395 for 8 years / 120K miles. Oh, and I got over a grand back from the dealer's contract. At $14.50/month it is pretty cheap insurance.

And, BTW, that is what these contracts are - insurance. The dealers original paperwork had even had both an administrator (Ethos) and an insurer. Like all insurance, the insurer makes some net profit across all their sales or they wouldn't sell it, and you win by losing if you have to use it.

 

[GravitySucks]

Is this DS that had the accident and the blown engine? Best of luck.
DD sold service warranties for a large insurance company. The price she qouted me via the insurance company was way less than the auto dealers price. She also advised that I not buy the insurance as it was the companies highest margin product. Call his insurance company and see if they offer a similar product.
I'd pass, but I'd also pass on a 12 year old car that has a known high cost of repairs unless he's real handy with a wrench.

 

[skipro33]

My Subaru warranty has paid for itself easily. At year 5 and about 70,000 miles, I noticed it was using oil. I went to the dealer and they did a free oil change and told me to return in 1200 miles. I did. The oil had been reduced by 12 ounces in 1200 miles. The dealer gave me a loaner and 3 days later I had a brand new engine installed. As soon as I picked it up, I went to the sales department and traded it in on a new Subaru. They gave me an additional $1,400 trade in with the new motor installed and they refunded me the last 2 years left on the 7 year/100,000 mile service contract.
Fast forward 4 more years and my new Subaru is using oil. Dealer is in process of testing with a free oil change and having me drive 1200 miles again.

I don't know what's up with Subaru cars using oil, but they sure stand behind them if you bought their extended service plan.

I'll tell you what; most people have no idea the sophistication that is built into new motors. I bought one of those little dongles that plug into the port on the car and bluetooths to an app on my phone. It will tell me if a tail light is burned out and not only that, but what mileage was on the car when it did fail, how fast I was going, yada, yada, yada. There's more computing power in a new car today than in the lunar landing module that landed men on the moon. It's no wonder self driving cars are around the corner.

Labor at a dealership can run as high as $200 an hour. The Dodge dealer near me wanted $650 to replace the driver side rear mirror. Parts and Labor. Seems the mirror can remember settings based on if it's me or DW driving and adjusts, has a heater built in to keep the frost off, has turn signals built into it and a 'puddle light' that illuminates when I hit the unlock on the key fob. It also folds out when I tow. Nothing is simple any more. I ended up buying the mirror on Amazon for $150 and watched a youtube video on how to replace it.

 

[aja8888]

I don't know what's up with Subaru cars using oil, but they sure stand behind them if you bought their extended service plan.

FYI: https://www.torquenews.com/1084/subaru-settles-oil-consumption-lawsuit

2016 Subaru Forester

Subaru has agreed to settle in the oil consumption lawsuit filed against them in 2014. What will Forester, Outback and Crosstrek owners get in return?

Owners of Subaru Forester, Outback, Crosstrek, Impreza and Legacy are getting compensation from Subaru from the oil consumption lawsuit filed against them. According to Law360, Subaru of America (SOA) has agreed to compensate the drivers who filed the class action suit. SOA agreed to extend warranties and reimburse drivers for certain out-of-pocket costs from the alleged defect that is causing their vehicle’s engines to use excessive amounts of oil.

 

[txtig]

We remodeled our kitchen about seven years ago. We installed an under counter, two-zone wine refrigerator. About $1000. During the first year, it failed and was replaced under the manufacture’s warranty. The second unit failed after about three years, but the original warranty was expired. So, we bought another $1000 wine fridge. But, this time I bought a $100 5-year extended warranty. Well, about six weeks ago, three years into the extended warranty, it failed. After a bit of back and forth with the warranty company they finally bought me a brand new unit. Now, I’m in the process of trying to get another extended warranty on my third fridge on seven years.