Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Halo on May 07, 2007, 11:31:11 AM
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Have you ever gotten your money's worth from paying extra for an extended warranty?
If so, how?
I've bought some, declined many, but have to admit I can't remember ever getting my money's worth on an extended warranty. That's good testimony for the products, smart profit for the merchants, and money I could have saved.
Like most insurance, an extended warranty is only possible if enough people who won't need it pay enough to cover the costs of the comparatively few people who will need it.
Particularly if you add up the costs of ALL the extended warranties you've purchased, have you ever received enough benefits from the extended warranties to cover your costs of paying extra for extended warranties?
Peace of mind -- it isn't priceless. :confused:
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I bought an 84 Chevy with extended warranty and at 38,000 miles the engine took a dump. I paid $700.00 for the extended warranty and the new short block cost 1800.00 with labor back then so I guess I got my money out of it!.
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I never got my money's worth out of a car related warrantee. I did make out OK on one for an RV. A couple months after I got the warrantee the fridge went out. A rebuilt cooling unit cost over $900.00 so the $300. I spent on the warrantee worked out well there. I may do it again on the current rig since it's been a little house of horrors with problems so far. I have until July to decide.
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Yes but it was more of an in-house deal. My father bought the extended warranty on his '00 Silverado which took it up to 100,000 miles. I bought it from him at 99,750 or so. We decided he'd take it to a dealership to have them find every tiny little thing wrong with it. When we got the laundry list of nothing real major except a minor item requiring replacement of a universal joint :eek: and some items related to the 4WD system we took it back to the dealership where he bought it and just bought a shiny new '05 Silverado at the time.
They fixed everything under the warranty free of charge and even threw in an oil change because they noticed that he was entitled to a free one he never collected after originally purchasing the truck 5 years before. I'm still running the original brakes from 2000 and they're not even halfway worn yet. It's amazing!
The warranty is expired and at 115,000+ miles I have a great running truck that burns entirely too much $3.00+ gasoline :cry
Back to the point in this case yes we did see the return on the investment with the warranty. Like you kind of said...piece of mind isn't priceless but I wouldn't want stuck with a big bill later when I could have paid a small one early on.
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I bought one for my current vehicle. Usually comes with 3 year warranty, bought 2 extra years and they service everything for the total 5 years. That's all the standard oil changes, services, etc. for 5 years.
It only cost $2500 if I remember correctly. That's more than I'd spend per year on oil changes and standard service, but if one moderate repair was needed during the 4th or 5th years, it's worth it.
We got a 0% loan for the car, so I figured since we were paying no interest, just to pay the extra $ for the warranty.
It's a Murphy's Law thing: You buy it...nothing will break. You don't buy it, something major will happen right after the warranty expires :D
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For cars, there's a consensus here so far in favor of extended warranties.
But electronics... I'm going to go for 'Not worth it' most of the time. Electronics usually fail right in the beginning or after a looooong life, in my experience. Plus, the state of technology advances fast enough that after 3-4 years, buying a flat out used replacement is usually a lot cheaper than the original extended warranty, and a better, subsequent version might be priced so competetively that you wouldn't even WANT to keep the same model as before.
For discussion....
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I've purchased 6 new vehicles and 2 new motorcycles since 1980 and never bought the extended warranty (and never needed them even if I had)
(4 Fords, 1 BMW, 1 Toyota and 2 Kawasaki's)
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Bought one on a '99 Suburban; it slung a bolt through the differential housing at 41k miles. Rebuilding the rear axle was $2500; paid $650 for the warranty. (BTW, most of the dealers make at least 40% on extended warranty from their "list" price. Don't be afraid to negotiate that as part of the car deal. They originally wanted $1200 for the Suburban warranty.)
The Suburban warranty went up to 100K; my son drove it from 65K to 132K. He had a few covered repairs that easily totaled over $1000. Electric window motors and a transmission item IIRC.
I bought an extended 72k warranty on my wife's '02 Explorer. Paid 50% of the asking price for that one, I've got it all back twice over. Seems there's this little clutch pack in the rear axle that Ford hasn't got figured out yet. I've been through two of those since it ran out of warranty, @$800 per repair. There have been some minor things out of warranty as well but I'm glad I had it.
I also have an '03 F-250 Crew w/60K on it. No repairs to that dude at all, so far. No warranty on it either as I didn't think I'd be keeping it that long.
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Extended Warranty on a Birth Certificate is always a good deal if you can get it.
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I've only needed an extended warranty when I didnt get one
Typically if somethign breaks on me though.
It usually breaks on me either within a month after the warranty expiring (extended or not) or not at all
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Just a note on the Dodge manufacturer extended warranties I've had:
If you never use the warrantee service, they will refund you the purchase price.
So if you get the "golden beebee" vehicle, that makes it through the warantee period with no problems, then you get your money back for the extended warrantee....
At least thats what my paperwork has said....
Terror
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I got the replacement package for an X45 joystick. Replaced it in 2 months, and now it's still doing great several years later (though I don't use it as much).
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Just bought a car for my daughter and paid a little extra for the extended warranty. Whether she ever uses it or not, I think it was more for my peace of mind since she'll be out East at school with it, too far for me to do anything if i breaks.
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Harley Davidson has a good extended service plan.
Recently I bought a '01 Fatboy that had 17k miles. I bought the extended < 5yr > service plan that includes all the bells and whistles, car rental, hotel, 100mile towing as well as a complete drive train and major component coverage with a $50 deductable per incident.
The other owners I talked to that have this coverage and have had to use it all are glad they spent the extra cash for it.
Hitting the road this summer with a bit of peace of mind.
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The Mrs. bought me a game for my Wii and got talked into buying the $3 extended warranty......for a game on CD. Sucker. I laughed.
I never buy them, except I did for my HDTV I got last year. We get lots of power outages and I figured with my luck a power surge would fry it. No problems yet except I had a tech do some fine tuning because of a partially blurry image.....no charge.
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Extended warrantees are great if you plan on abusing the product and your method of abuse is covered in the warrantee. They are also good if you absolutely must have a product that has a reputation for failure. Other than that they are a waste and are just another way for retailers to make more money; they don’t sell them just to be nice.
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If they're willing to bet money on it not breaking, then I trust it ain't gonna break.
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I check into the costs of fixing things before delving into an extended warranties. Things like the car and some pricey electronics, absolutely. I view that as insurance.
I even bought one when I purchased a snow blower from Sears. Turns out to have been a great idea. Paid $200 for it and broke even by year 2 of the 3 year warranty. Had some starter issues and problems with the joystick-like controller that points the chute.
When I worked at Sears, a popular thing was to buy replacement deals for things like MP3 players and even headphones. They replacement coverage was usually dirt cheap...and high use items like those got traded out effortlessly.
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I've gotten extended warranties on my past 4 vehicles. Now, I didn't pay for them. I made the deal on the cars first, then made them throw in the warranty. I simply explained that if they were not willing to back the product I wasn't willing to buy the cars.
Chevy conversion van, toyota camry, mustang and before that the bronco.
I came to that conclusion after I paid for an extended warranty for a New Nissan Stanza in 91. The car blew an engine within the Factory Warranty Period, after Factory Service, and I had documented 4 times that there was an engine noise I went in for, they heard and assured me it was no problem. Then, I spent months fighting them while the car sat at the garage as they stated it was Not Covered. End result was it Was covered, they Fixed the car and paid me for the time the car sat while I was making payments.
I don't buy warranties, they prove to me their product is worth it or I'm outta there.
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My next DVD player purchase will have a (usually cheap) extended plan on it. I have NEVER owned a DVD player in the last 3 years that lasted over 9 months it seems. The one I currently have does not play movies all that well....(freezes and such) and it's only 3 months old. I remember the kid at best buy offering me a 3 year deal for like $9. I'd have a new DVD player now if I bought it.
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Originally posted by Flatbar
Harley Davidson has a good extended service plan.
Recently I bought a '01 Fatboy that had 17k miles. I bought the extended < 5yr > service plan that includes all the bells and whistles, car rental, hotel, 100mile towing as well as a complete drive train and major component coverage with a $50 deductable per incident.
The other owners I talked to that have this coverage and have had to use it all are glad they spent the extra cash for it.
Hitting the road this summer with a bit of peace of mind.
I agree BUT it definatly depends on the dealership you take your baby too!!!!.
The story:
bbudy bought a '03 fully decked out used electra glide. 1 month into ownership the cam bearing goes south. he takes it in. they give him the ussual runaround of "if" its covered blah blah blah. takes them 1 1/2 weeks just to tear down the engine another week to get harley warranty to come out to look at it ( only 1 harley warranty guy in DFW) they then take another week to ship it to Arizona to have it rebuilt...( this is after they mistakenly informed my freind they would replace it with a new motor)
He get the bike back a week after all this and 2 weeks later hears a loud clanking noise :furious ...turns out the didnt install the oil pump correctly ( ie the gears didnt mesh correctly and most harley owners know what im talking about here)
sooo back to the dealership and a long talk with the owner with me there to "protect" the owner from any accidental falls :rofl
addendum: they did get it all fixed finally, they did reimburse him the $500.00 for a bike rental ( they dont give ya one you rent it and they reimburse you)
and the owner fired the service writer who blatantly misinformed my buddy and went WAY beyond his authority + didnt get the bike worked on in a timely fashion due to being to busy not knowing WTF he was doing.
Moral of the story: extended warranties are great when ya need em. however KNOW where your taking your baby and make sure they know what they are doing. Its also good to know all the fine print and the process
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gotten 5X my money back on sticks at best buy back before i got CH stuff...
WISH I bought it for my 3 year old TV that died, would have been covered. :(
win some - lose some.
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We had a Cevy Corsica (god how I hated that car)
Literally 2 weeks after the warranty expired. teh oil pump went on it
the car was less then 3 years old!
After arguing with severl people on the matter I told them either they were going ot fix it for free. or I was going to stop paying for it(it was leased) and return it to them by driving it through the store room window..
They must have been able to tell I wasnt bluffing cause they fixed it for free LOL
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Originally posted by WilldCrd
I agree BUT it definatly depends on the dealership you take your baby too!!!!.
A search in the Harley owners groups helps with this. Lots of bad ones and good ones, just like any biz catagory.
My bike was originally sold and has been maintained by the dealer I bought it from, I got the complete maintenance and upgrade info before I bought it.
It's going to be 80 degrees and clear skys here all week, gotta go!
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Hey, "extended warranty" on electronics is there purely because the competition on sale price is so severe, they gotta make their margins somewhere.
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I think I've only ever gotten my moneys worth one time. It was on a digital camera I picked up at Best Buy. I was hesitant at first seeing that the warranty was $90 on a $600 camera, but it paid off.
Best Buy gives you a replacement battery once a year, takes it apart and cleans it whenever you want. I actually broke my camera (my fault) and took it in. They don't carry the one I had anymore, so they gave me a better one in it's place. Between the batteries, cleanings, and new camera, I figure that $90 saved me about $800.
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It's going to be 80 degrees and clear skys here all week, gotta go!
dunno where u live flatbar but here around DFW its beem prime riding weather for a couple months...i been gone lol
:cool:
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Bought a whirlpool duet ht(electrolux) washing maching a couple of years ago, paid 1400.00 at the time and figured it was worth another 100.00 to get a four year extended(Lowes).
Was worth it because about a month ago the main control board went and it is the most expensive part for the machine, just under 300.00. With labor i'm sure it would have cost me over 400.00 to have it fixed.
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Originally posted by Sixpence
Bought a whirlpool duet ht(electrolux) washing maching a couple of years ago, paid 1400.00 at the time and figured it was worth another 100.00 to get a four year extended(Lowes).
Was worth it because about a month ago the main control board went and it is the most expensive part for the machine, just under 300.00. With labor i'm sure it would have cost me over 400.00 to have it fixed.
Im starting to wish I had one on our Whirlpool but we got it from my brother in law when he moved.
The way my wife keeps insisting on running imbalanced loads Im sure its going to need something before long
today its one Feather pillow and a sheet
which kinda makes it hard to get a balanced load.
Like I keep saying.
"Her bright ideas eventually become my headaches"
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Originally posted by Dinger
Hey, "extended warranty" on electronics is there purely because the competition on sale price is so severe, they gotta make their margins somewhere.
I disagree on some stuff. SPecifically audio equipment is usually marked up about 200%. Extended warrenties are just icing on the cake.
When I used to work for best buy as a teenager I'd usually get stuff at half off using my employee discount.
I admit it might be a little different now
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When I lived in Alaska my friend’s father owned the Saab dealership. He told me that one day an old guy came in with a very old 2-cycle Saab and claimed that the engine was going out and the car came with a lifetime warrantee on the engine. He thought it was BS but called Sweden anyway. Saab immediately shipped a new engine and paid for the installation. The owner said he had already had it replaced a few times. Now that’s a good warrantee!
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Extended warranties are a racket. You're buying an insurance policy. They're making a commission on SELLING you an insurance policy.
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Originally posted by WilldCrd
dunno where u live flatbar but here around DFW its beem prime riding weather for a couple months...i been gone lol
:cool:
Been riding all winter. I live near Santa Cruz, Ca. Finding time in my work schedule is the problem. I'm taking 3 days off this weekend after working 32 days straight :(
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Originally posted by Captain Virgil Hilts
Extended warranties are a racket. You're buying an insurance policy. They're making a commission on SELLING you an insurance policy.
Well, it saved me alot of money.
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