Experience with aftermarket vehicle warranties?

[Fogie]

Any?...seamless or a pain in the butt?
Looking at a significant repair and would rather not again without warranty. She called and for a small monthly sum and like deductible, can throw it at the dealership and say "fix it"...that the way they work or not?

 

[MAC702]

May limit WHERE and how long repairs can take. Read everything. But it's all a crap shoot. And the house always wins.

Do the math on your monthly premium and deductible. How much money is that over the life of the warranty? What's the typical and worst repairs you are likely to face?

 

[Tophog]

I've got Car Shield. Used it on my Cruze recently to get the turbo fixed. Rather painless.

 

[Fogie]

May limit WHERE and how long repairs can take. Read everything. But it's all a crap shoot. And the house always wins.

Do the math on your monthly premium and deductible. How much money is that over the life of the warranty? What's the typical and worst repairs you are likely to face?

Looking at a bad head gasket right now. $$$ Truck still will run all....never mind, you know. Compression down in #6 and etc.
$149 a month, whole vehicle coverage and $100 deductible...seems like a win if as advertised. Can use the plan in 20 days.?

 

[Fogie]

I've got Car Shield. Used it on my Cruze recently to get the turbo fixed. Rather painless.

Shops are eager to knock things out?..cause any complication other than normal compels me to not knock things out

 

[Tophog]

Looking at a bad head gasket right now. $$$ Truck still will run all....never mind, you know. Compression down in #6 and etc.
$149 a month, whole vehicle coverage and $100 deductible...seems like a win if as advertised. Can use the plan in 20 days.?

Most plans offer roadside, towing and rentals as well.

I had the Cruze fixed at the stealership, since there aren't any reputable private mechanic shops here!

My coverage is $100 per month and $100 deductible, but it's not bumper-to-bumper, just drive train.

 

[Gullwing]

Back in 2004 I got an extended warranty for my Audi which I knew needed a new transmission. Warranty basically cost me how much the transmission would have. In the end probably just came out ahead. Could have made out much better but Audi dealerships (that I dealt with) were absolute garbage.

 

[Clockwork]

Looking at a bad head gasket right now. $$$ Truck still will run all....never mind, you know. Compression down in #6 and etc.
$149 a month, whole vehicle coverage and $100 deductible...seems like a win if as advertised. Can use the plan in 20 days.?

Was afraid it might've been a bad head. It'll be like a new truck once fixed.

 

[Fogie]

Back in 2004 I got an extended warranty for my Audi which I knew needed a new transmission. Warranty basically cost me how much the transmission would have. In the end probably just came out ahead. Could have made out much better but Audi dealerships (that I dealt with) were absolute garbage.

The thing racks up les than 4k a year milage..might be worth keeping a policy on it. Mid-life crisis machine...will run the sucker another 10 years easy.

 

[Gullwing]

The thing racks up les than 4k a year milage..might be worth keeping a policy on it. Mid-life crisis machine...will run the sucker another 10 years easy.

ok so why do you think it will eat up several K in repairs? Look at any fine print, they only cover some parts, and only some part of some parts.

Bought the Audi in North East for the Quattro. Tossed on snow tires and it drove like it did in the dry.
Car was perfect on the interior and exterior, underneath it was a mess. Transmission, differential, half shafts, power steering............
Got the warranty because I knew it needed a new trans. First Audi dealer I took it to, "couldn't verify any trans issues" (if you drove it where it would shift at 4k, it woudl release and then rev up to 6k before slamming into the next gear) EVERY TIME. But they couldn't do anything about it.
Two years later, I took it to Audi on Sahara, same issue and more. Again I take it in and tell them what is wrong (as a Master Technician for MB). Took them 3 months to replace the A/C compressor and throttle body, since the throttle body goes out when you replace the A/C? Yeah they had it 3 months and drove it 3 miles and once again couldn't find anything wrong with the transmission. Indy shop had a new (used) transmission in within a few weeks. Sold the POS soon after, no snow out here.

 

[johnthomas]

My personal experience is, at least one call a day trying to get me to buy coverage. I just went on Car shield website, there are several levels of coverage. I myself do not have or will ever get it.

 

[Tophog]

I can't work on newish vehicles, so I'd rather know how much I'm getting ripped off monthly, rather than the surprise at the counter. This way, the warrantee company gets the surprise!

 

[Jay702]

From my experience, I believe most of the extended warranty companies require a bumper to bumper inspection before they give you coverage. That way they don’t have to warranty anything that needs repair before the contract is signed.

Like others have said; read the fine print. There are usually tiers of coverage plans. The more money a specific plan is, the more it covers. Most plans don’t cover wear and tear items either, so brakes, oil changes, yearly maintenance, etc.- are all going to be out of pocket things either way.

Also, just about every plan has a cap on how much coverage one gets per year, and they will deny a new repair if you have exceeded that allotment amount already.

This is important because there are a lot of shady repair shops that will find extra things wrong with a car (things that don’t really need to be fixed) because they know the warranty company will be paying and not the customer. Enough bogus repairs throughout the year add up; which of course will be an issue the next time a legit repair is needed.

 

[Bob R]

I bought one from Mopar when I bought our Grand Cherokee new in 2008. It is one they no longer have, it is basically bumper to bumper minus the drive train with a 100 dollar deductible. The drive train has a lifetime warranty from Mopar. I will keep that thing forever.

I have one on my 2008 Ford F350 from Endurance that hasn't been worth the paper it is printed on and it is too slick to use as (poop) paper.

Read what they cover and what they don't. They denied paying for a repair because there was carbon buildup on the valves..... really, show me an internal combustion engine that doesn't have carbon on the valves after 100K miles. Also denied me a high pressure fuel pump replacement, it isn't one of the covered things.

Read, research and then pay your money and take you chances. They are not in the business of fixing cars, they are in the business of making money.

bob

 

[tdyoung58]

Bought one when I bought my 2009 Subaru ... Suppose to cover everything till 100k miles. Useless POS, didn't actually cover ? unless you had all maintenance done at a dealership with documentation in "their" system. Will never buy another.

 

[Fogie]

Bought one when I bought my 2009 Subaru ... Suppose to cover everything till 100k miles. Useless POS, didn't actually cover ? unless you had all maintenance done at a dealership with documentation in "their" system. Will never buy another.

yep...the consensus among my queried seems to be that if you have the cash to fix em', just do that and save aggravation. Especially, since very few things come along that I can't do myself.

 

[Aswild]

I have a pretty good one with my 4 runner and also covers certain wear parts like ball joints witch o had replaced and sway bar links. U can take it to dealer for 100 bucks or off site choice for 200 I used Dan’s drive line an the dealt with them. Worked well I was definitely suprised because that’s not the norm. It’s the platinum one. It came with 4 runn when I bought from the owner.

 

[johnthomas]

I think the best would be, find the best aftermarket one you can afford and instead of buying the warranty, put that money in a savings account until you need it.

 

[turborich]

Most will usually find a way to decline a repair. The only decent ones usually are offered from the manufacturer or one of the big name new car dealerships. Even then there is fine print and normal wear and tear items that aren't covered.