Buying Extended Warranty worth it?

[ZippyGaloo]

http://www.saturnfans.com/adserver/adclick.php?bannerid=45&zoneid=1&source=&dest=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.saturnextendedwarranty.com%2 F

[wolfman]

Well....mine is covered with the Saturn extended warranty from bumper to bumper for the full term of the loan....60k/60months. And I argueably taint afraid to work on it. An extended warranty is basically like gambling, you can win or lose either way. But considering an A/C compressor replacement would run probably in the $800+ range, an alternator around $600, transaxle $2k+, etc etc and the warranty is around $1k (spread out over the loan in my case, so it costs me a whopping $17 bux a month), I call it cheap insurance. It costs me (required) nearly 9 times that to insure it "just in case" it gets damaged... despite the fact I am accident free for over 10 years....

[SESLight]

I am a former service manager at a Saturn facility and I can tell you that having an extended warranty saved me from many uncomfortable conversations with customers when expensive repairs came a knockin. Like Wolfman said that it is a gamble, it is, but the payout if you will is more likely to be in your favor. I saw it so many times where people would decline an extended warranty and I would have to tell them how much the repair would cost. Slight arguments would then ensue and I would have to let them know that the cost of the extended warranty was less than the repair and this is just one repair, that the extended warranty would continue on. I tried to see what type of vehicle you own, but I couldn't figure it out. Regardless though although vehicles are getting better, manufacturers continue to put new things in vehicles that could break. When I go shopping at Best Buy or other retailers and the service plan is recommended, I ALWAYS get the extended contract. Hope this helps :)

[DWS]

automobile extended warranties are the only ones I get, and my 'luck" has been that they more than paid for themselves beyond the manufacturer's original warranty period.....

[Mr Joe Handyman]

I'm with Wolfman on this one. Its a gamble. I have purchased it on three cars previously and never used it. So that was a waste.
But on my Vue, it has saved me over $5000 so far, and I consider that money well spent. Just wishing now that I had chucked out a little more on the extended warranty and not gotten it with the $100 deductible.

[spencerb]

Like Wolfman said that it is a gamble, it is, but the payout if you will is more likely to be in your favor.No it's not. If companies lost money on extended warranties, they'd go broke.

It's a gamble that's not in your favor, but it's a decision you have to make. Since the odds are against me, and I have money in the bank, I declined the warranty. If you can't afford unexpected repairs, or just want to feel warm and fuzzy about it, then go for it.

[Ritz]

No it's not. If companies lost money on extended warranties, they'd go broke.

It's a gamble that's not in your favor, but it's a decision you have to make. Since the odds are against me, and I have money in the bank, I declined the warranty. If you can't afford unexpected repairs, or just want to feel warm and fuzzy about it, then go for it.

My thoughts exactly. However, I'm in the (probably unusual) situation where I can repair my own vehicles once they are out of warranty so I've never really cared to "gamble" on an extended warranty. If you don't have that ability or if you like to buy cars with a propensity for expensive repairs, then it might be a more worthwhile gamble for ya.

Cheers,

[rickpa75]

It's a machine....everyone will eventually break something. Looking @ the cost of an engine or tranny replacement made it easy for me. Not to mention all the electronics....peace of mind.

-Rick

[Uzzy]

I've already used over $400 on a $1200 2-year extended warranty. I've only had the car 6 months. I WILL make my money back. :yes:

[SylenThunder]

if it weren't for the warranty, I would have alerady paid out what I still owe on my Vue to the service department.

[fotovue]

Absolutely!!!!

My BCM fried and was replaced (under extended warranty) at only 37,000 miles. That's not something you would want to pull out of your own pocket, I can assure you.

[Ritz]

if it weren't for the warranty, I would have alerady paid out what I still owe on my Vue to the service department.

Unfortunately, that's more of a reflection on the VUE than it is on the utility of buying an extended warranty. A vehicle with that type of mileage shouldn't suffer from any non-normal-maintenance or usual wear-and-tear repairs. So I'm glad that you've found some benefit. The vast majority of folks out there don't benefit or the warranty company would be out of business.

Cheers,

[YIN]

I have an extended warrenty....and I predict I'll be needing it.

[wolfman]

No it's not. If companies lost money on extended warranties, they'd go broke.

It's a gamble that's not in your favor, but it's a decision you have to make. Since the odds are against me, and I have money in the bank, I declined the warranty. If you can't afford unexpected repairs, or just want to feel warm and fuzzy about it, then go for it.

Every company is in business to turn a profit, (the exception of non-profits withstanding, and even they have to break even) That being said, OF COURSE warranty companies make money off those people who buy an extended warranty and never use it. The "gamble" is with the consumer, gambling whether the cost of repairs under the term of said warranty will equal or exceed the cost of said warranty. Often it does not, sometimes it does, and far exceeds it.

It is really a question of whether you would prefer to gamble that you won't have a single or multiple out of pocket repairs for over $1200 or so while you own the vehicle, or don't mind an extra $30 a month or so to KNOW you won't.

FYI: A BCM replacement, transaxle rebuilt, A/C repair requiring replacement of the compressor and many other seemingly "minor" repairs would get you to at or near that figure...(without even mentioning the vTI)

[WLKVUE]

Although I would not have bought my 2006 VUE if I thought it was a piece of junk, I did buy an extended warranty. I have purchased them on several vehicles (American and foreign) and have never failed to get my money back, sometimes several times over. I usually keep a vehicle 7 to 8 years and well over 100,000 miles. Also cars have more and more sensors and computer controlled parts that are expensive to replace, BCM for example, and engineers are designing cars more and more NOT to be user friendly to fix-it-yourselfers like me. Just read some of these posts. If it goes out before 3 years or 36,000 miles, it sure can later. Just the nature of the beast.

[fotovue]

I've always looked at the extended warranty this way, and I personally feel that in part, gm looks at it this way as well. Today, more and more people do not hang on to their vehicles anymore. They will lease, or even buy a vehicle, hang on to it for 3-5 years, and trade it in for something else. The average is 4 years.

With an extended warranty, it's more offered for those who intend to keep their vehicles, or intend to put a higher number of miles per year on the vehicle than average.

The one really nice thing about getting an extended warranty through Saturn, is if you should decide to trade in your vehicle before the end of your extended warranty, or (as is my current case) your vehicle is totaled, you will get a refund for the remainder of your extended warranty, minus a $50 contract cancellation fee, so it's not a waste of money should trade a vehicle that still has an extended warranty. The extended warranty also covers you for a rental car if your vehicle goes in for service over two labor hours.

[rvjer]

It's a machine....everyone will eventually break something. Looking @ the cost of an engine or tranny replacement made it easy for me. Not to mention all the electronics....peace of mind.

-Rick

I turned down the warranty offered by the dealer and took the extended warranty offered by my Ins. Co. Gieco. It was $49.00 a year and is good for the first 5 years of ownership, that works out to $245.00 for a 5 year warranty bumper to bumper. Not bad when you amortize that out.

[1saxman]

I bought one on my '96 Cherokee, which was known for high service demand, and it only got used once - for the air-conditioning controller, about a $200 job. However, considering the VUE, I'd say buy the warranty, even though I didn't. My rationale was that most things that are bad to begin with fail before the 3/36 warranty expires. The time to trade is before the warranty ends, but if you don't, you then have up to a four-year period to be 'on the bubble' about possible big repair expenses (most extended warranties end by 7/100, so you'll have to pay after that anyway). But, the 5-year car loan will be paid two years into the period, so you should start to save at least half of the car payment every month against major repairs - this would be like self-insurance. If nothing big happens before you finally decide to get a new car, you'll have some money put aside to use for that. The other consideration is how fast you put on the miles - if you rack up 100K in three years, I believe you statistically will be wasting your money on an extended warranty. These would almost have to be highway miles which are less wearing on the engine and transmission. I tend to keep cars a long time and not have major repairs, but got burned once on a '92 Eagle Summit wagon (Mitsubishi Expo) after about seven years it developed engine trouble, then the transmission went out. Once things like that happen, you have to fix it even to sell it, which we did, and bought the first Saturn, a 2000 LW1 that I still miss (after seeing the VUE, my wife decided to get one). Sometimes, as in the case of the Cherokee, cars that are replaced are not disposed of. These vehicles, old trucks and Jeeps, etc., don't get many miles on them so their main enemy is deterioration.

[06VRL]

I agree that if you don't intend to keep the vehicle longer than the stock warranty, then don't waste your money, years ago when I got sick of working on my own vehicles and when they became less user fixable friendly I decided to start buying the extended warranty if I planned on keeping it longer than the stock warranty, my 1st Saturn, a 2000 LS1 I bought extended warranty up to 50,000 mi. I ended up putting on more miles within the years period and shortly after the warranty was up the thermal control module went, leaving the radiator fan running overnight which also burned out, the repair bill was $364, luckily my dealer let me out of it and into my 2003 L200 and forgave the repair bill, I also believe the fact that I had the extended warranty that when the tires were shot @ 25,000 mi, they replaced them no questions asked, no pro-rate on the tire warranty, they just replaced them no charge, I considered my self lucky, something that hasn't been metioned here, the stock warranty is limited, in many cases when you add an extended warranty it also shortens the limited list, this varies of course, good luck on your decision!

[crj19]

Unfortunately, that's more of a reflection on the VUE than it is on the utility of buying an extended warranty. A vehicle with that type of mileage shouldn't suffer from any non-normal-maintenance or usual wear-and-tear repairs. So I'm glad that you've found some benefit. The vast majority of folks out there don't benefit or the warranty company would be out of business.

Cheers,

Its not any different than any type of insurance, the vast majority of folks out there don't benefit but when you need it then it's a lifesaver!:)