What do you think about an extended warranty on a 3 year old vehicle?

Colleen

Colleen

Senior Member
Location
Pennsylvania
We got an email a few days ago from our car dealer that our warranty will be up in Feb., 2020 on our 3 year old car and they want us to purchase an extended warranty. We have 12,000 miles on the car and my husband is reluctant to buy an extended warranty.

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
 

Hi Colleen. We recently bought a used car with 46,000 km (maybe 30,000 miles). The dealer was real pushy for us to get the extended warranty for $2,800 CND. We refused. The next day we were given a special offer of $500 less or $2,300 CND. We still refused to get this because of our research with the Consumer Report magazine that says this about car extended warranties:
1. Less than 50% of the warranties were ever needed.
2. Often the warranty is with a 3rd party & not with the dealer directly.
3. Research shows that often you have to "climb mountains" to get any service under the warranties. The insurance people do their best to "weasel" out of helping you.
Everywhere they are trying to sell you an extended warranty. Even Walmart tries to push an extended warranty on a $50 DVD player. It's almost all profit for them & money wasted for you. DON'T BUY THE WARRANTY. YOU HUSBAND WAS 100% RIGHT!
 
Extended warranty's are very aggressively marketed because they are very profitable to the people that sell them. Nine times out of ten you would be much better off setting aside the money you would have spent for the extended warranty into an emergency savings account to cover any unexpected repairs to your vehicle.
 

I'm glad to see that most people aren't falling for extended warranties. Just as with home warranties, the only way they can offer them is if they make more money on the monthly premiums than they pay out for repairs. That's also why they're so aggressively marketed.
 
Still get offers to extend my warranty on my 2008 Corolla. It only has 27000 original miles on it and never any problems. Will probably be the last car I will have bought. Into the trash the offers go.
 
I pay as I go, it hurts when a big repair/maintenance item is needed but I would rather do that than pay out money every month for something that might happen.

Before I purchased an extended warranty I would look into switching to leasing a new vehicle every three years.

Good luck with your decision.
 
Colleen said:
We got an email a few days ago from our car dealer that our warranty will be up in Feb., 2020 on our 3 year old car and they want us to purchase an extended warranty. We have 12,000 miles on the car and my husband is reluctant to buy an extended warranty.
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We pretty much follow the Dave Ramsey advice which is to NEVER buy and extended warranty. So far we have not regretted passing one up.
 
Collen, you didn't mention the make of your car. I'm not up on what automaker warranties what, but only 3 years and only 12,000 miles seems a very short time. I'd check into it, but I'd guess you've got awhile to go yet on your manufacturer's warranty. And about those dealer's letters, I have a 2009 Hyundai and I still get those letters for an extended warranty. Check that manufacturer's warranty, please.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
Collen, you didn't mention the make of your car. I'm not up on what automaker warranties what, but only 3 years and only 12,000 miles seems a very short time. I'd check into it, but I'd guess you've got awhile to go yet on your manufacturer's warranty. And about those dealer's letters, I have a 2009 Hyundai and I still get those letters for an extended warranty. Check that manufacturer's warranty, please.
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We have a 2017 Nissan Rogue, and, yes....we average about 4,000 a year. Actually, we had our car at the dealer in Aug., 2018 for oil change or recall on something...I forget...and it only had 10,000 miles on it then, so we've only put 2,000 on it in a year. My husband said he'll look at the mfg. warranty just to be sure. He's always been good about keeping up with what we need (or don't need) for our car and truck. I trust him to make the right decision on this. He's very particular about maintenance :)
 
Aunt Bea said:
I pay as I go, it hurts when a big repair/maintenance item is needed but I would rather do that than pay out money every month for something that might happen.

Before I purchased an extended warranty I would look into switching to leasing a new vehicle every three years.

Good luck with your decision.
Click to expand...

We've leased vehicles in the past and had good success with that. We are always under the mileage limits and never any wear and tear on our vehicles so we've never had to pay anything extra when we turned them in.
 
Don't even think about an extended warranty, all the
advice above is true, new cars rarely break down, find
a local repair shop and stop using the main dealer, they
are the most expensive, I have found out over the years.

Mike.
 
I personally would not get an extended warranty on anything 5 years or newer... Cuz the way warranties are today... But I did put a warranty on my 2006 Ford Truck because I feel that is when I am going to need it, and if they ask me again... I will renew it...
 
Extended warranties on vehicles and appliances are a Good Deal....FOR the insurance companies. If a vehicle lasts through the factory warranty, and receives proper maintenance, and is not driven more than a few thousand miles per year, it can likely go for many years without major repairs.
The same goes for home appliances....the cost of an extended warranty on major appliances would probably buy a new stove/fridge/etc., every 5 or 6 years.
 
Mike said:
Don't even think about an extended warranty, all the
advice above is true, new cars rarely break down, find
a local repair shop and stop using the main dealer, they
are the most expensive, I have found out over the years.

Mike.
Click to expand...


I agree. The only reason we use the "local" dealer (which is actually 75 miles away...one way!), is we've had 2 free oil changes and a couple recalls for replacement/upgrade of a computer something or other. Normally, my husband does his own oil and filter changes himself.
 
Don M. said:
Extended warranties on vehicles and appliances are a Good Deal....FOR the insurance companies. If a vehicle lasts through the factory warranty, and receives proper maintenance, and is not driven more than a few thousand miles per year, it can likely go for many years without major repairs.
The same goes for home appliances....the cost of an extended warranty on major appliances would probably buy a new stove/fridge/etc., every 5 or 6 years.
Click to expand...


We had a home warranty that came with the houses when we bought our last 2 houses and when we sold our house, it was required to have a home warranty included. However, we found out that these home warranties are no good. During the inspection on our house we were selling, something needed to be fixed, so we had it fixed and we paid for it. We didn't understand how these warranties work and our realtor was clueless about them, too, so we got stuck with the bill. First, you have to jump through hoops to find out from the warranty company WHO they have on their little list of repair people who can come out and do the job...at their convenience. Then, the warranty company has to see if that particular thing is in your contract to be able to be fixed/repaired/replaced. I can tell you...9 times out of 10 it won't be. You might as well take that $500 (or more) you spent on that warranty and put it away for when something does happen. They are a rip off.

So, when our home warranty ran out on the houses we bought, they were after us to renew. We said...no, thank you.
 
Home warranties stink, a friend who is 96 years old,
is having a new roof fitted because the old one was
beyond repair, the insurance company wasn't interested
because no maintenance was ever done.

Mike.
 
Funny, usually agree about warranties, but there has been one exception with us. Got a new inline fridge...did some research on it and as usual, the ice makers are the main issues (my mom, who was in the restaurant biz used to say "only two kinds of ice makers in this world, ones that are broke down and ones that are gonna break down."

So, there was a one year warranty on the fridge from the manufacturer, but the store selling it had a great price on an extended 5 year warranty - snapped it up as we have "ice heads" in this house. Our climate is humid in the summers, which can add another big load to it.

Well, two years after we got it, had an issue - got it fixed. Then last year (year 3), it stopped again. When the service man came out (from the manufacturer - hired by the store) he said " when these things start "stopping" it usually doesn't get any better, I'm just going to put a new ice machine in for you.

Thinking I've probably better than broke even so far. Got 3 years to go.
 
I bought a 2001 Honda Accord V6 back in 2003 or 4. It had 22,000 miles on it. We drove it for years including annual trips to Florida and Maine. When we purchased another car, we passed that Honda on to my college attending grandson. His dad had done any repairs over the years, that have been needed for us as well as his son. That car still runs like a top and now has 222,000 on it. Over the years it's had brakes, calipers, discs, etc., partial exhaust system replacements at different times, and parts of the A/C unit replaced. Also the usual alternator/starter replacement but the engine-transmission-drive line (or trans-axles) are still humming long.
Having someone take care of the repairs and eliminating the outrageous mark-up on parts has been a blessing, but that's what family's are for.
 
I get those by snail mail a lot. I put them in the paper recycle. My car is a 2012 with 27000 miles on it.
 

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