Warranty for a used car... does it exist???

There is ONLY one safe type of used car warranty to buy. One sold by the manufacture for their used cars. Go see a dealer and negotiate a price, WBMA

mike hunt

VMI wrote:

Run, do not walk, from private warranty insurance - the only policies worth a damn are offered through the automakers themselves. They want you back as a customer when you finally decide to buy a new car, so their policies are written and run fairly.

The aftermarket policies are "Mechanical breakdown" insurance, and even for new cars it is overpriced and they insert enough huge loopholes to be able to weasel out of most claims. Read the wording carefully with your mechanic, he'll be rolling on the floor laughing inside of 30 seconds, because he can see how carefully they are worded to deceive.

I read just the brochure back cover fine print and started laughing at the dealership - and then consider that the dealer gets at least

50% of the first price you are quoted as a direct commission, and the salesman that gets your signature on the form will get a piece of that. They have a vested interest to push the hell out of these policies.

Or they make getting paid for a claim virtually impossible - tricks like... Your car breaks while you are in the middle of your vacation. You call the warranty people, and they say you have to wait for them to get an independent adjuster out before even starting the repairs, and that will take two weeks. And if a mechanic even touches the car till then, they "can't tell what went wrong" and will deny the claim.

So you rent a car, pay storage for your car (all out of your own pocket) and wait for the adjuster - who is being paid to figure out a way to deny the claim. If the device has any electrical connection to the car, they will deny it under the 'no electrical devices' clause - even if you can prove the electronics had nothing to do with it.

And other dodge is to run the company selling policies to new and used car owners - till the claims start coming in hot and heavy. Then they quietly disappear and "go bankrupt" - and start up the next week with the same people and a new corporate name and paperwork that they had all pre-prepped when it looked like it was time to "disappear".

You want insurance? Set aside $20 a week (or whatever you think it's worth) in a bank account for either car repairs or a new car. If the car breaks, pay for the repairs out of the 'car insurance fund'. If the fund gets big enough, you can go buy a new car if you want. And you earn interest as it sits there quietly compounding.

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Bruce L. Bergman wrote: || On 24 May 2005 13:32:59 -0700, "VMI" wrote: || ||| Is there such a thing as purchasing a warranty for a used car with ||| an expired manufacturer warranty? What good companies in the US ||| offer that? Hopefully, one of those companies will offer a warranty ||| in Puerto Rico. || || Run, do not walk, from private warranty insurance - the only || policies worth a damn are offered through the automakers themselves. || They want you back as a customer when you finally decide to buy a new || car, so their policies are written and run fairly. || || The aftermarket policies are "Mechanical breakdown" insurance, and || even for new cars it is overpriced and they insert enough huge || loopholes to be able to weasel out of most claims. Read the wording || carefully with your mechanic, he'll be rolling on the floor laughing || inside of 30 seconds, because he can see how carefully they are || worded to deceive. || || I read just the brochure back cover fine print and started laughing || at the dealership - and then consider that the dealer gets at least || 50% of the first price you are quoted as a direct commission, and the || salesman that gets your signature on the form will get a piece of || that. They have a vested interest to push the hell out of these || policies. || || Or they make getting paid for a claim virtually impossible - tricks || like... Your car breaks while you are in the middle of your || vacation. You call the warranty people, and they say you have to || wait for them to get an independent adjuster out before even || starting the repairs, and that will take two weeks. And if a || mechanic even touches the car till then, they "can't tell what went || wrong" and will deny the claim. || || So you rent a car, pay storage for your car (all out of your own || pocket) and wait for the adjuster - who is being paid to figure out a || way to deny the claim. If the device has any electrical connection || to the car, they will deny it under the 'no electrical devices' || clause - even if you can prove the electronics had nothing to do || with it. || || And other dodge is to run the company selling policies to new and || used car owners - till the claims start coming in hot and heavy. || Then they quietly disappear and "go bankrupt" - and start up the || next week with the same people and a new corporate name and || paperwork that they had all pre-prepped when it looked like it was || time to "disappear". || || You want insurance? Set aside $20 a week (or whatever you think || it's worth) in a bank account for either car repairs or a new car. || If the car breaks, pay for the repairs out of the 'car insurance || fund'. If the fund gets big enough, you can go buy a new car if you || want. || And you earn interest as it sits there quietly compounding. || || -->-- || || -- || Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop || Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700 || 5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545 || Spamtrapped address: Remove the python and the invalid, and use a || net.

Run, do NOT walk, also from the DEALER/MANUFACTURER offered warranties. They are most PROFIT for the manufacturer...even Toyota has to admit that most of the premiums is PURE PROFIT. Extended warranties are sucker bait...that's why the closer ALWAYS pushes them strongly.

No, for the manufacturer backed warranty plans you laugh, then politely offer them half what they originally stated as an opening response. See what they say...

And it doesn't take much of a problem to trip coverage. I bought the policy only because I was getting a 'new' model after some big changes, and I paid 70% of what they asked, IIRC. (First year 3F-E) Toyota bought me one new alternator (not a rebuild) which made the policy a wash.

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90% of the time they jump at it. :)

repairs of any kind are so expensive that a few items will add up to equal or more than the few hundred the policy cost you(plus there's the piece of mind issue)

Note - this only applies to factory extended warranties. All of the others are very hit and miss by comparison.

That's why you go factory warranty via the maker directly. Then you can stop by any dealer and get it dealt with quickly.

Somehow I don't think Toyota or GMAC are going to go under anytime soon.

Exactly. Toyota or GM's extended warranty arm isn't going anywhere, if you have a problem that is covered, it's covered.

But "Premier Super Service Insurance Inc." can easily go BK and disappear tomorrow morning, and "Super Premier Service Insurance Inc." start up next week, with "no knowledge" of the former company. Even though the receptionist's voice sounds vaguely familiar.

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ravelation wrote: | snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.invalid (Bruce L. Bergman) wrote: | || But "Premier Super Service Insurance | >Inc." can easily go BK and disappear | >tomorrow morning, and "Super Premier | >Service Insurance Inc." start up next | >week, with "no knowledge" of the former | >company. Even though the receptionist's | >voice sounds vaguely familiar. | | I sure hope you're wrong (in my case!). We bought a used Hyundai | Sonata that still had active warranty (like 4000 miles) for my | in-laws who live on a fixed income. I didn't want them to have to | worry about car repairs, so I bought an extended warranty from a link | that Edmunds offers. IIRC, it's a company called Warranty Direct. All | of the info from their website, and Edmunds offering the link with a | special for 'free add on of exhaust components' included in the | warranty, and I was sold. I think it was $1600. for 5 years or | 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. I hope it's still a viable | company when they need it.... So far, the car's been a good one for | them.

$1600?? You got sucked in but good. Most of that coverage is ALREADY included in the ORIGINAL warranty.

Extended warranties have their uses, but the important thing is what they exclude. Extended warranties are NOT the same as new car warranties, in that anything that goes wrong gets fixed. If you read the details on the warranty document, you'll find that all sorts of common maintenance issues are excluded.

Specifically, most extended warranty exclude a) timing belt failures. Timing chains, if internally lubricated by the engine, are usually covered. b) failures related to any external belt. This includes water pumps and alternators. c) transmission failures other than catastrophic internal failures that cause a crack or break in the casing caused by internal action ie the transmission has to basically jam and explode. Common automatic transmission failure requiring a rebuild is NOT covered. Running the transmission into a rock and knocking a hole in it is also not covered. d) anything related to clutch, flywheel and starter are not covered. e) engine bearing or ring failure is not covered, neither is failure caused by running out of oil. However, if there is a lubricated bearing failure that cause catastrophic failure that puts a rod through the side of the block, this IS covered. I've seen plenty of performance/race engines fail this way, but road cars, almost never.

The customer is required to pay for the repairs first, and gets reimbursed by the company. There are limits on the amount and number of claims that will be paid. For example, suppose the engine does explode, and jams the transmission so it explodes too, the cost will likely exceed the value of the car, and you are not covered.

Put another way, extended warranties for the most part cover all the things least likely to happen, and are a wonderful cash cow for the companies. In my view, only the most basic extended warranty ($100 or so for 6 months) is of any value on a used car.

Stewart DIBBS

This part, apparently varries by extended warranty supplier. A friend had a Jeep that had ring failure. They gave him another engine (A remanufactured engine) under the extended warranty.

lubricated bearing failure

This also varries.

Heh.

Uhh, the original warranty was due to expire within a few thousand miles. We bought the car used. The way their policy works is if the car is still under warranty, they will extend it for that amount of time. So, they got 5 years or 40K miles of warranty for that price.

I agree it was a bit steep, but the price of the car was low to begin with. So, for under $8K, they have a fully warranted 2001 car for the next few years.