Extended car warranties are B.S.

[5030]

A. They no longer exist
b. We wanted something reliable

I knew the answer would be that... Just poking...

 

[5030]

A little no auto insurance warranty story for ya...

I carry a high deductible in my farm insurance to keep the premium down, being a farmer, I'm thrifty. I carry a 1000 buck deductible. Anyway, I'm driving out of the barn and I stupidly left the drivers door open on the tractor and caught the door of the tractor on the door frame of the barn door. Now the door is all glass except the handle, the gasket weatherstrip and the grab bar and in an instant, all I had was a pile of glass chunks and no door so I called the insurance and told them what happened. Told me to find out what the door cost...

$995.00. I ate the entire cost. Oh well, life on the farm.

 

[Diggin It]

Had an Insurance Agent tell me this several years ago. "If you can afford the loss, don't insure it. If you cannot afford the loss, insure it."

I lived that way for a lot of years. Figured things out on spreadsheets, comparing premiums to potential losses. Only bought the insurance that was required for the cars, dropped everything else. House was a gamble, but the rates were/are all based on some pie in the sky McMansion false guesstimate of 'replacement cost' that is 2-3 times what is realistic.

Then prices on even simple things started getting stupid. Lumber is silly high. Even simple things like copper wire have gone nuts. Hardware, nails, screws .. $9/box? We've already done the medical costs threads. The greedy overlords have priced the people out of being able to afford the basics and then hiked insurance prices to obscene levels. That wasn't enough to rip us off, so they imposed unreasonable exceptions and exemptions to covered items.

 

[dragoneggs]

I lived that way for a lot of years. Figured things out on spreadsheets, comparing premiums to potential losses. Only bought the insurance that was required for the cars, dropped everything else. House was a gamble, but the rates were/are all based on some pie in the sky McMansion false guesstimate of 'replacement cost' that is 2-3 times what is realistic.

Then prices on even simple things started getting stupid. Lumber is silly high. Even simple things like copper wire have gone nuts. Hardware, nails, screws .. $9/box? We've already done the medical costs threads. The greedy overlords have priced the people out of being able to afford the basics and then hiked insurance prices to obscene levels. That wasn't enough to rip us off, so they imposed unreasonable exceptions and exemptions to covered items.

Yep!!!

 

[bunyip]

I knew the answer would be that... Just poking...

I know but bear poking is a bit of fun:laughing:

 

[dnw64]

I know but bear poking is a bit of fun:laughing:

You're a bear? I thought you were a bunyip.

 

[Muhammad]

Remember, these are insurance companies and they're going to try to deny as many claims as possible. I had an extended warranty deny an $18,000 engine replacement over a technicality in their warranty as well. Eventually the dealer wound up negotiating for an engine rebuild instead of replacement and they bought the car from me so I could wipe my hands of it. I don't think I will buy another extended warranty---I'm either leasing cars new or buying cars that I feel confident in driving without a warranty (which is what I have now, a cheap car that is out of warranty but has a good reliability record and is somewhat cheap to maintain).

 

[ovrszd]

Remember, these are insurance companies and they're going to try to deny as many claims as possible. I had an extended warranty deny an $18,000 engine replacement over a technicality in their warranty as well. Eventually the dealer wound up negotiating for an engine rebuild instead of replacement and they bought the car from me so I could wipe my hands of it. I don't think I will buy another extended warranty---I'm either leasing cars new or buying cars that I feel confident in driving without a warranty (which is what I have now, a cheap car that is out of warranty but has a good reliability record and is somewhat cheap to maintain).

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

 

[PILOON]

LOL, I only once purchased an extended warrantee.
On an Audi Turbo 3000.
Shucks they had to pay out over $3000. to honor it.
But since then I never purchased another and so far I guess I'm way ahead.
The biggest problem is to ward off the sales rep that is selling them. (they obviously get a commission)
Failures will generally occur within the first early hours of any merchandise and generally you are covered under law.

 

[Muhammad]

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

Yeah, good way of thinking.

 

[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.