Is an extended warrantee worth it?

There is no way to ever cost-justify an "extended warranty".

First of all it's not a warranty. Rather it's a mechanical breakdown insurance policy. Most of these come with a per-occurrence deductible and a extremely expensive. They are also very profitable for the seller. As much as 50% of the high up-front cost goes to the seller.

Next, read the fine print, or have an attorney explain it to you. You will be sadly disappointed to learn that many things you though were covered may actually not be covered or else have "weasel clauses" to let them off the hook.

Then look at the repair history of the fine automobile you are driving. As long as you keep up the required scheduled maintenance, you probably have a greater chance of being struck by lightning than experiencing the type of breakdown that the warranty would cover.

Finally, a transferrable "extended warranty" does not in any way embellish the resale value of your car. What affects the value is two things; mileage and condition.

just my 2¢ worth on the subject.

I had an extended warranty through 1stSource on my '98 Audi. The last year I had the car 1stSource coughed up almost $5,000... not bad for a warranty that cost $1,500. Many of the repairs were suspicious from Keyes Audi (parts mysteriously going bad while they were working very close to the other end of the wire they were attached to) and they still forked over the funds without hassle.

I still had 5 years left on the warranty and they refunded a couple of hundred dollars when I traded the piece of #*&! in on my IS300 Sportcross.

I did purchase another warranty through 1stSource on the IS. I don't do a lot of driving and the 10 year, 100,000K total "covers everything but the exhaust system and gas" warranty was about $1,500 ($50 deductable). Since I bought the NAV system which depends on the original Lexus radio I figured that one jammed CD would eat up $500-800 alone (I checked, it's covered).

Yes. Don't do it.

My technique:

Find out the cost, but don't buy it. Put the identical amount into a bank account you open (expressly for this purpose) and draw on it at your leisure, whenever you need to. Use it for service, tires, brakes, RainX, etc., whatever.

Just don't give it to the salesman. Please.

I agree with the person who said put it into a bank account, the Is300 does not have enough mechanical breakdowns from 50k-80k to justify the cost. Then you can take your bank account money and put it into the deposit on the new IS330. Yes the IS300 is going to a V6 3.3L and should eventually have a Hybrid model.

Audis are notorious for breaking down... if I were to buy a Euro I would buy extended warranty...

I had the extended warranty pay off once, when my nav died... there was no deductible and Toyota replaced it no prob... it would cost 1500 or so if i were to pay for it myself, and the warranty was 700...

An extended warranty is nothing more than an insurance policy. If you can afford to self-insure, you should not buy it. If an unexpected $1500 bill will sink you, then you should. The exception to this is if you're buying a warranty on something that is likely to break a lot (like a video camera for example). It all boils down to probabilities and economics. If it's not likely to break (like the car) and you can afford it if it does, then don't buy it. If it's likely to break, then even if you can afford to fix it, you're better off with the warranty.

My 2 cents.

I've never bought an extended warranty on anything and have never regretted my decision.

Actually there is a way to cost-justify an extended warranty. Just go through what I went through without one -- I could have purchased an extended warranty for $900, but I didn't. My regular warranty had expired and the engine failed and was a total loss.

So in the end I dropped a new engine in the vehicle to the tune of seven thousand dollars. At Christmastime, no less.

I will never again drive a vehicle that doesn't have a warranty. I have read Consumer Reports opinions on the topic and they do feel that getting an extended warranty from a company other than the manufacturer is a good idea, and is usually cheaper. The guy who says he got his warranty from 1st says it all, I guess they're a good company and their prices are reasonable.

wdg@[206.180.145.133] (New Owner) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

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Oh come on. Details on the item that was weaseled!

I bought the Honda extended warranty on the strength of Honda's good name. The warranty covered a Mercury Mountaineer. The new Mountaineer was purchased from a company that owned side-by-side Lincoln-Mercury and Honda dealerships. After the Mercury warranty ran out, my heater/ac (temp) control would not work. No matter where I set the mechanical control, I got hot air only. The warranty covered a long list of specified parts that appeared to be comprehensive. As I recall, heater/ac controls were among the items covered, but the warranty weasel maintained that the contract covered the mechanism or knob on the dash only, not other parts of the control linkage that froze up or rusted in place. I've forgotten the name he used to identify the failed part, but it was definitely part of the heater/ac control system. A repair required removal of the dashboard, and took a couple of days, at a price over $1,000. The Honda warranty weasel claimed that the failed part of the control assembly linkage was not precisely specified as a covered component, so the warranty claim was denied. This type of contract is vulnerable to weasel-like language interpretation ... something I would not have expected from Honda.

Interestingly, a friend of mine purchased a virtually identical vehicle as "used", and had the very same problem. His aftermarket warranty was not from Honda, and his repair was covered.

I have heard that some warranties specify what is NOT covered, and that may be more workable. A buyer does not expect coverage for "wear items" like belts, hoses, tires, etc. However, the Honda extended warranty was clearly full of holes because no matter how many hundreds of items are listed as "covered", there are hundreds more that are likely not specified. So, it becomes a matter of trust and good faith to a large degree. My trust in the Honda name dropped sharply after this experience. Perhaps other companies are no better, but they should be.

I must admit that Lexus balked at repairing a bad trunk release mechanism on my ES300 under terms of their extended warranty, but they did agree to the repair after I grumbled about it. I was frankly surprised when they initially told me that it might not be covered, but pleased when they did accept responsibility.

That is what I like a Lexus the most is they take good care of you!

Whenever I buy a Ext. Warranty, I always buy the plan listed "What is NOT covered" that is the way to go, got my last one for $695.00 from a Toyota Dealer on a 99 Camry XLE V6.

Bummer is I haven't had to use it! At least I think that is a Bummer.

It's like I buy a term life insurance policy, it's nice if I need it, BUT I have to die to use IT!

Bad. Somebody in this or the related thread said to only buy an extended warranty that was *not* offered by the manufacturer. In my experience (I bought 2 in my life) the one offered by the third party was the most hard to collect on. But I *did* collect, the bastards.

BenandMarhsa/Harmar,

How have your Nokian tires held up?