Extended warranties

[TAKPAK]

Just curious as to how many (if any) of you have bought an extended warranty for your tow vehicles, be they Dodge, Ford, or GMC/Chevy? The dealer is after me to buy one to cover my rig, since it is getting close to the 3 year/50,000 mile time frame the factory warranty provides. The "powertrain" is for 5 year/100,000 so the extended warranty is for "everything else!" It's not cheap.....but neither are repairs! So, is it worth it?

[camper4]

I don't buy them on anything.

[CamillaMichael]

We purchased the Ford ESP when buying our truck new...would not be without extended coverage on any vehicle.

[richfaa]

We have the Ford 7 year ESP . We buy them on on high dollar items... I would look at other sources to purchase the warranty.

[mlh]

Is it worth it? That depends on a lot, your financial condition, now and what you think it will be in the future. Do you like to take risk. I'm a risk taker. I paid for the truck. I can pay to have it fixed, I don't even care. To have a ESP would take away part of the fun of owing the truck. I'm sure a lot if not most people would disagree. I think Rich at least would disagree, if not very strongly disagree, and thats OK. I respect that.
The car companies plan to make money on a ESP.
Is it worth it for you? I don't know.
Lynwood

[Carl n Susan]

I normally don't buy extended warranties on anything. But I do have one on my 2008 Ford. Given the problems with my 2004 which resulted in Ford exchanging it for a 2008, I do have an extended warranty on it. But from what little trouble most have with a Dodge or Chevy, I would probably not buy one for them.

[drknapp]

I bought one for mine. It is my first diesel, so to give me piece of mind I bought the six year contract. I have already used it once for a leaking transmission cooling line.

[Hooker]

Didn't get one for the truck...I figure GM's 5 year 100k warranty on the drive train should cover the big parts.

[richfaa]

I understand the position of mlh.. we do not have now or never had the kind of money tucked away to pay for a major failure. We would have to take out a loan or put it on credit catds all of which have high interest rates. Again.. We choose to pay a affordable number of dollars (premium) to protect against a unaffordable loss. Our truck and camper are paid for and we have little debt. We would like to keep it that way. In terms of the truck ESP not having a large reserve of dollars we could draw on to pay for big dollar losses we could afford 271.00 a month spread over 7 years or @23.00 per month to insure someone else paid out the dollars if needed.. It was the best we could do considering our financial situation.

We do the same for our home (homeowners insurance) Health Insurance, Rv, truck and auto Insurance. the premiums are affordable ....the possible loss is not. I guess we are not risk takers.

We all do what we feel is best for us and our particular situation.

[PapaBeav]

I have never bought an extended warranty on anything, and I don't think I ever will. I will just take my chances, but that is just me. So far I am way ahead of the game, knock on wood. If something breaks I will just pay for it.

[thor]

remember these companies offer these packages for one reason .they make money on them.that being said if it makes you fell more secure then buy it.sometines you can set that amount of money aside in another bank accounr in case something happens.then use it.if nothing happens you have saved that money.

[gypsies2]

I agree with thor. They make money on these things. Put your money aside for that emergency that might or might not occur. Besides, look closely at what the package does and does not cover, not the advertising material, but the exact contract that you are signing. They cover a lot less than what you think.

[Ozz]

I am a fan of the extended warranty, bought the ESP for my 2008 Super Duty, just had over $3500.00 worth of work done, 0 deductible, all paid. It is a debatable subject, but you asked for feedback, and I hope you come out good with your decision.

[ragdoll]

I have an 03 f-250 one of the 1st made and it had bad injectors from the start. I take very good care of my truck however I just didn't believe what Ford said such as if it didn't blow up in 3000 mi. it wouldn't ever! So I shopped around and bought my 1st extended from Century out Oklahoma for $2350. in Nov. 07. My truck had 42,000 mi on it. well may 09 my engine blew w/55,000 mi. In the contract they are allowed to use used parts to repair your vehicle. So of the $15,000 bill for a new engine I paid about $1500 for that fix. they also paid $2200 for other things so my last point is they only will pay up to the value of your truck at the time of your break down. so read the fine print when you buy an extended warranty. Jack

[richfaa]

I am like OZZ.. Please read carefully any contract you might purchase. Ask the company to send you the contract BEFORE you purchase. Understand what is and is not covered. understand the terms of the contract like prior authorization. You may be surprised what many of these service contracts offer and buy a cheap product and you get a cheap product.

yes these companies make money on the warranties.. They are a business and every business makes money on the service or product they provide. What is not right about that....???

In any case every choice is right for the individual who makes it. Do the homework.Information on this or any forum is just that...information to consider.

[CamillaMichael]

quote:Originally posted by ragdoll

I have an 03 f-250 one of the 1st made and it had bad injectors from the start. I take very good care of my truck however I just didn't believe what Ford said such as if it didn't blow up in 3000 mi. it wouldn't ever! So I shopped around and bought my 1st extended from Century out Oklahoma for $2350. in Nov. 07. My truck had 42,000 mi on it. well may 09 my engine blew w/55,000 mi. In the contract they are allowed to use used parts to repair your vehicle. So of the $15,000 bill for a new engine I paid about $1500 for that fix. they also paid $2200 for other things so my last point is they only will pay up to the value of your truck at the time of your break down. so read the fine print when you buy an extended warranty. Jack

$15,000 to repair the engine???? Like many others, I have heard/observed diesel engine repairs exceeding that. On the other hand, I paid around 3k for my ESP...seen others on this site posting numbers very similar. Comparing these numbers makes the "buy" decision for me...if I lived a charmed like where nothing ever went wrong, I too would scoff at ESPs; however, such is not the case for me. Of course, just buying an ESP without any kind of thought about what it does or does not do for the buyer is not the answer either. But when looking at what the seller's product offers, keep in mind that if a previously unheard of seller has an ESP that covers every possible problem that might occur in/with your vehicle, you might want to evaluate how reliable that seller really is and whether those lofty claims can acutally be fulfilled...research, as Rich says is the key.

[mlh]

As usual we have a good healthy honest friendly difference of opinion here. It just proves what I've always said, any time two people think exactly the same it just proves one ain't thinking.
Lynwood

[jmi]

I am in the predictable event camp. Given the complexity of these vehicles today I would not buy a vehicle without it. My experience has been with a 2003 Lincoln Navigator I own. Over all its been a very reliable vehicle but we've had some moments. Most repairs are over $700, doesn't take many to cover the cost.

Mine expired on the truck (7 years) well under the allotted mileage. Issue occurred, $800. Got them to sell me another warranty as I plan to continue to run the truck. Now its save up repairs so I only pay 1 deductible ($100) and maintain the truck without breaking the bank.

Do read the fine print on the warranty, my experience has been it covers repairs the engine/drivetrain warranty does not. I do not buy ESP on smaller items, automobiles you bet.

[Tom S.]

As former employee of the auto industry, I can purchase the extended warranty for a substantial discount - but I don't.

Do the math: In my lifetime, I have purchased 20 new vehicles. Most of these were either 4 wheel drive or all wheel drive, which raises the cost for the extended warranty. If I averaged the cost of the warranty at $1200 per vehicle, I would have paid $24,000 total. Only two of those vehicles had a big ticket item go bad after the regular warranty, which cost $1850 for one, and $750 for the other, so over all, I have saved $21,400.

There is a big "but" here though, so please read on! I can a lot of my own repairs and I do all my own maintenance. There have been a few other items replaced on these vehicles such as ball joints and wheel bearings on one, but I did it myself at a substantial savings. Still, I must be at least $19,000 a head of the game. If you can't do auto repairs and plan to keep the vehicle past the normal warranty, then an extended warranty may be a good option. Make sure you go with a trusted company (read: Factory), though because there have been a lot of these third party companies run for a couple years then go under leaving their customers holding the bag!

[Tom S.]

Oh, and let me add one other thought: If these warranties paid out often, how long do you think they would still be offered?