Extended warranty on new car

[buzz2400]

What is everyone's opinion on extended warranties. Parents just bought 2013 Chrysler town and country. Chrysler covers you for 36 miles 3 years. An extended warranty for 4 more years will cost about 900. Car is very fancy with a lot of electronics. Do you thing we should go for it

 

[scrapquitler]

What is everyone's opinion on extended warranties. Parents just bought 2013 Chrysler town and country. Chrysler covers you for 36 miles 3 years. An extended warranty for 4 more years will cost about 900. Car is very fancy with a lot of electronics. Do you thing we should go for it

I don't know if its the smartest financial move or not, but we always buy the 100K mile extended warrantee FROM THE MANUFACTURER when we buy a new car. We have always gotten our money's worth out of it with some kind of repair at the 80-100k point. We would not buy one from a third party.

 

[jrw118]

IMHO $900 is a steal. Had a 2005 Pacifica that I paid $1600 for the warranty. It was always in the shop after about 76k miles. You can't go wrong for that price. Just make sure it is a reasonable deductible our was $100 but even that started to add up.

 

[tvguy]

Well, my independent mechanic says he tells his customers not to buy anything these days from Chrysler, so I guess based on that I would.

I have purchased extended warranties on used cars, from the manufacturer, and they always seem to know which components are going to fail and exclude them from the extended warranty. Water pump on one car, heater core on another. My last two used car purchases I got an extended warranty, and it was a waste of money on both. 2006 Taurus, no repairs yet.
2007 Taurus, fuel pump went out, but there was a "program" in place from Ford because of fuel pump failures, so repair was free under the original warranty, so that warranty was a waste of money.

You play the odds with warranties, manufacturers would go out of business if they didn't charge more than they would likely ever have to pay out in claims. I'd just bank the $900 just in case there are problems.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I have heard it is a big waste of money.

 

[2disneycruzrs]

I've bought extended service contracts in the past from a third party each time and didn't have to use them but once or twice, however 100k were not an option. Look at it this way, even if the car is 99.9% working, there are still 30 parts that could fail since there are 30,000 in the avg car. The one thing to note w/ third party is you can go to any certified dealer or rrputable repair facility whereas w/ manu you usually have to go to their dealers. It ends up being a matter of if you want to take the chance or not, and you can have it built into payments. Just be sure to read through policy and have understanding of what is covered and what's not.

 

[buckeev]

Absolutely!
The average car owner can barely get to an oil filter on most newer vehicles nowadays, let alone change an alternator or AC compressor. At $1000 bucks or more for an AC replacement, we feel its worth it.
Look at it as peace-of-mind. Make sure to read the fine print though. They hid a deductible in my last one. (My fault though, it's in there, just in VERY buried fine print!)

 

[LadyBeBop]

Yes, I would pay $900 for a warranty like that. Assuming the dealership is fairly close to your house.

We once got taken on a warranty. We bought a car from a dealership about an hour from our house. The fine print on the contract stated that we would have to take the car back to the dealership for servicing if the dealer was less than 30 miles from our house. Since we were so far away from the dealership (over 40 miles), we were told that we could take the car to any Ford dealer, and they would fix it.

With our first repair, we submitted the paperwork to the warranty company.

Who refused it.

Because we lived less than 30 miles from the dealership.

We argued that wasn't so; it was over 40 miles, and it took us over an hour to get to the dealership.

The warranty company said no, it was under 30 miles.

It's 40 miles to the dealership using expressways. It's 28 miles to the dealership using back roads at 25 miles per hour with traffic lights at every corner and going through neighborhoods that you wouldn't want to drive through during the day.

Anyway, enough with my rant. Make sure you can get your car serviced anywhere...or at least, live close to the dealership. I would always get a warranty to cover the life of any loan you have (e.g. if you took out a five year loan, you should have, at least, a five year warranty).

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

No disrespect intended, but that van is not known to have high reliability. If they plan to keep it past 3/36, then yes...........get the manufacturer's extended warranty. The labor rate that most dealer's charge for out of warranty work is about 100 dollars and hour. The retail cost of Chrysler repair parts is high. It is an economic gamble worth taking. Just make sure the extension of the years and mileage figures match their projected use. Then just drive it, enjoy it, and have the routine mantenance performed at the proper time/miles.

 

[epsmith921]

That van also just ranked highest on the JD power survey. Just wanted that noted.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

Intitial quality is different from long term reliability. Although Chrysler has made progress the past few years, they still have some issues here and there. On page 153 of the 2013 Consumer Reports Buyers Guide the van was rated near the bottom and was given a black circle in the category of reliability. The black circle means worse than average reliability. The information can also be found on the most recent auto edition of the magazine (April 2013) and on page 34 it listed the predicted reliability as worse than average. This has been the trend with Dodge/Chrysler minivans for years and years. They certainly meet the needs of many families, but they are not the most reliable.

edit- went to the JD Power website. They gave it a 2 on a scale of 5 for reliability.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

The best extended warrenty we got was from AAA. We bought a 4 year extended warrentee that started the day that the mfg warrentee expired. It was $1100 fr the coverage. And if you never had to use the extended warrentee they refunded the full purchases price! We did not have to use the extended warrenty and we got all of our money back.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

BTW..............you do not have to buy the manufacturer extended warranty from the selling dealership. There are certain dealers throughout the country that have a national sales footprint and sell extended warranties. As with any factory warranty, you can select the deductible, the number of miles, the number of months, etc for the coverage. You can also select a basic, medium, or deluxe plan that can covers as little or as much as you want.

 

[Egdisney]

I will never buy another Chrysler in my life as it has been my experience, as well as the experience of family and friends that at about 80,000 miles problem after problem occurs. So they should definitely get the warranty and they should even more definitely get rid of the van before it hits 100,000 miles.

 

[lucyem]

Bought the manufacturers extended warranty for my past 3 new cars, all three different brands. First car it was just a warranty. Warranty paid for itself well before the 100,000 miles. Second new car the warranty included normal service. Actually in that case the cost of the normal service was more then the warranty. That one was a no brainer to buy. Though if you took the free service out of the equation the warranty paid for itself for repairs by 100,000 miles. Sadly that car at 100,000+ miles went downhill fast. Needless to say with my latest new car I also bought the extended warranty. Still within the original warranty so no clue yet if it will pay off.

 

[mommymeg]

What is everyone's opinion on extended warranties. Parents just bought 2013 Chrysler town and country. Chrysler covers you for 36 miles 3 years. An extended warranty for 4 more years will cost about 900. Car is very fancy with a lot of electronics. Do you thing we should go for it

I usually don't comment much on the boards but wanted to give my opinion on this one. When we bought our T&C it was the first time we did not purchase the extended warranty. BIG MISTAKE! Now granted, our T&C was bought used, it's an 03 but only has 70k miles. In the last 6 months alone we have had to put out 3K in repairs. I can't even begin to list the repairs individually but I am so beside myself with how UNreliable it has been. I'm trying to make it through the summer to pay the note down a bit more but we are planning on trading it in ASAP. Will never get another Chrysler EVER! I hope my experience is not the norm and I hope that your parents don't have to deal with what we have, but just in case they do, I have always gotten my money's worth and more out of every warranty we've purchased. Good luck!

 

[Dsnyfireman]

I worked as a dealer tech for years and I always by an extended warranty when I can. The extra price is nothing compared to service bills. One computer replace could run two thousand or more! Transmission repairs can be huge! An alternator on some cars cost over $500 just in parts! I had the extended warranty on my 2004 dodge Dakota and when I traded it in it was still under base, they gave me the money back I spent on the upgrade. So yes get it if you can!

 

[amcnj]

I think of such things as insurance. So you have to decide if the odds of needing it outweigh the costs. That will vary by make and model. But another consioderation is how many miles the 4 extra years covers, and will you definitely be below that threshold. I put on many miles commuting and so extended warranties never made sense for me due to the fact I would be through them in only a few years of mostly highway/highwayish driving.

 

[honeybunches]

We always get one and it has always saved us.

 

[CyndiLooWho]

We do not buy them for our Mazdas (Dh LOVES Mazda - we've owned 5 and never had to pay for anything except routine maint and one clutch plate replacement). I do buy them for the family car. The one on my old Dodge was worth its weight in gold, I kid you not. My Stratus was in the shop about 10% of its life, and the warranty got me a free rental car every time they had to work on it.

I bought one for the Traverse and have not used it yet. But I hit 36K in less than 2 yrs and this warranty goes to 100K. I fully expect to need it. We did buy it from the dealer, but it is a 3rd party plan and they will refund 100% of the purchase price if we don't use it by the time the car has 100K miles. The deductible is $75, and all the major systems are fully covered. After spending the unreal amount of money we ended up spending on my Dodge (b/c the tranny failed shortly after the extended warranty ran out), we decided this was worth it.