extended waranty timing

Thinking about extended warranties. Tried to research on the web, but there are a few questions I haven't been able to answer.

First, it would seem like buying the warranty a bit before the end of the factory warranty would be a reasonable plan. For one thing, I can see how the repair records on the new models evolves. Also doesn't tie up the money. This is reasonable, isn't it? Do the same dance, asking a bunch of dealers in the area to quote a warranty in a couple of years? People seem to say this works, though I'm not sure I've seen a sube owner say so.

Second, if one does this, is there any difference in price? Do they adjust price of the warranty based on age/milage?

If this makes sense, I'll wait a while, then do my research then about factory vs. third party. Don't need to decide on a company now, just whether I have an option if I put it off for now.

I have an '01 VDC. Being the first model year, I definately wanted to get an extended warranty, figuring anything that went wrong would be a fortune to fix.

I waited until I had about 30,000 miles on the car (a little over a year- I'm up to 93,000 since Sept. 2001 when I bought the car), found the cheapest price I could find on the internet, and ended up getting the Gold bumper to bumper

100,000 mile warranty (with a $50 deductible) for just under a grand. Payable out over 10 months via automatic credit card deduction with no interest on what I owed- the only thing was if I had to actually use it, it had to be paid in full first.

Since my transmission died at 86,000 miles, and was $3360 to replace, and I needed the Macintosh head unit fixed at the same time, I made out really well on the warranty. The total repair bill on that one was over $4400, less a $1200 core charge on the transmission.

I would also only go for the Subaru warranty and not a third party one. Have heard nightmare stories on other boards about third party warranties, Although the full story of the above mentioned repair was a nightmare also.

Dukephoto