jackson'smama Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 the 3yr/36k mile warranty is about to go. tell me why i should or should NOT invest in buying a warranty that will last me unlimited miles for the life of my car. i'm on the fence. if we hadn't already done some warranty covered work, i'd say absolutely not, but with all the electronics on this baby i'm terrified of what a dead door motor or faulty dvd player might cost me in a couple of years. i have no plans to get rid of this car anytime soon - it's the family vehicle. fwiw, i have a lifetime powertrain warranty already. advice? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissad2 Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Don't buy it...it's usually a scam. There are so many exceptions to everything they usually worm their way out of paying for most things. If you do decide to buy it make sure you read all the fine print. Is this a warranty from the dealership? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 I've always heard that these are hard to collect on. In past years they would, for instance, not pay for any work that was not pre-authorized, and then also never answer the authorization phone line. Catch 22. If it's from the manufacturer, not just a third party agreement from the dealer, then it would be worth considering since you plan to keep the car for a very long time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindyg Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Clark Howard says to buy one ONLY if it is from the car manufacturer and not from some third party. He also advises that you check Consumer's Reports for the reliablity of the car you are considering before you decide. He also advises that you finance this through your credit union and never through the car dealer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissad2 Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Dealerships make a lot of money on selling these extended warranties. My mom and dad both used to work at a dealership (not in sales though) and the salesmen used to really push the warranties because they made more commission on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackson'smama Posted February 22, 2012 Author Share Posted February 22, 2012 good points. thank you all! it IS a manufacturer's warranty - not some third party company. i would be paying in full, not financing it. it's really electronics that concern me. we have power EVERYTHING (doors, locks, hatch, seats), dual dvd players (so a radio/cd/dvd with backup camera screen plus a video entertainment system that is separate). so far, we had a window that "came off" it's chain/track and wouldn't come up and we've completely replaced the cd/radio player once due to it being "spotty" with reading dvds and with it's open/close feature. we've also had to replace brake rotors twice and had the doors "reprogrammed" because they weren't opening and shutting properly (sliding side doors) this is a three year old van and i'm feeling like if i'm gonna keep it, i want it to be covered if something happens. i will have a 100 deduct. for each repair if needed under the new warranty. but your responses make me think that things may not be covered anyway. it's thru the dealership where we get most of the servicing and work done so hopefully we wouldn't have problems with it being honored, but i KNOW i don't wanna deal with that kind of hassle. ugh. i wish we'd bought it when we purchased the car and i wouldn't have to think about it now. it's like i want it, i just don't wanna hand over the cash for it thinking "what if i never need this coverage?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leola Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Car warranties are the only ones we buy. There are some very shady companies out there, but dealership warranties are usually fine. You just need to find out what it covers and what it doesn't. You also need to find out what you have to do. It should be the same as the one you currently have (as far as getting work covered.) Ask them to give you more information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 read the fine print VERY closely. Most "extended" warranties are written to be fairly worthless in the real world. Lots of loop-holes. again, read very carefully to see what is actually covered, and what they will actually do. we purchased an extended warranty once, through home depot. - for a washing machine. good thing, as it did go out, but the warranty company wouldn't fix it, only replace. and what they offered to replace it with wasn't anything I wanted and that was all the money they were willing to pay. (re: and they would only pay for the super cheap online where the shipping was nearly $200 - and you guessed it, we'd have to pay that.) and the super cheap online was again, a couple hundred (or three) dollars less than hd or most anywhere else for that matter for the very same machine. however, there was nothing about NOT paying shipping in the warranty fine print, so they had to cough it up the shipping cost too. I took the money, and ordered something better from someone else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MHowell Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Clark Howard says to buy one ONLY if it is from the car manufacturer and not from some third party. He also advises that you check Consumer's Reports for the reliablity of the car you are considering before you decide. He also advises that you finance this through your credit union and never through the car dealer. :iagree: He also says to take whatever the monthly premium is and put it into an 'auto savings' so you have it for needed repairs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMA Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Clark Howard says to buy one ONLY if it is from the car manufacturer and not from some third party. He also advises that you check Consumer's Reports for the reliablity of the car you are considering before you decide. He also advises that you finance this through your credit union and never through the car dealer. We have an extended warranty on the Suburban through a third party and they have paid for every repair. The dealer would send all repairs through the warranty to check and they paid for things that the dealer thought would be considered under warranty. We have financed through the company at the dealer's in 2005 for the Suburban at 0% (GMAC financing) and it was fine. We also financed through Toyota at 0% a few years ago and it was fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catwoman Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 We always buy the extended manufacturer's warranties on our cars. I have never heard of an "unlimited" warranty, though -- ours are always X number of years and X miles. We don't have any deductibles, either. I know the warranties can be expensive -- I think our last one cost over $5,000.00, but I consider it money well spent, because I know how expensive a few major repairs can be. We don't usually keep our cars for long enough for the extended warranties to kick in, but we still buy them, "just in case." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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