Extended Warranties

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khixxx

Senior Member
Location
BF PA
If anyone has an opinion about extended warranties for the 250 Truck, Sprinter van or 2500 Truck 4x4 diesel trucks I would like to hear them. It seems with this truck it might be worth buying the extended warranty.
 

ceb58

Senior Member
Location
Raeford, NC
When I bought my Dodge truck it still had some factory warranty left so I opted to buy the extended warranty which only added $1200.00 to the price but gave me 100,000 full warranty with only a $100.00 deductible. It is good any where with any shop that is ASC certified. I did the same when I bought my wife's Volvo except it was cheaper for the same bumper to bumper coverage. I think it is a good idea because one major repair could well be over the $1200.00 price. I know it is worth it on my wife's car when a set of windshield wipers cost $85.00:mad:
 

charlietuna

Senior Member
I am a believer in that if you take care of your service trucks -- they will take care of you---ford-chevy or dodge. Service contracts are for those who don't maintain their trucks--it cheaper for them. Those who service and maintain their trucks it is a waste of money. that theory has worked for me.
 

ceb58

Senior Member
Location
Raeford, NC
An extended warranty on any Dodge would be a good idea!:rolleyes: No !! maybe not since the government will soon own Dodge!:mad:

I have had good service out of my Dodge and Ford trucks.

I am a believer in that if you take care of your service trucks -- they will take care of you---ford-chevy or dodge. Service contracts are for those who don't maintain their trucks--it cheaper for them. Those who service and maintain their trucks it is a waste of money. that theory has worked for me.

That blanket statement would be true for the older models. My vehicles are in the shop for service every 3000 miles but with all the electronics controlling every thing it would take one computer failing to well pay for extended warranty. The previous car my wife had was serviced regularly, well maintained the whole nine yards. Computer in transmission failed which caused extensive damage. $3200.00 out of my pocket later it was back on the road. It's not a lot different than carrying liability insurance for the job. If you are careful, diligent and do a good job you may never need it. But there is all ways the chance some thing will go wrong or you miss something then you are screwed with out it.
 

norcal

Senior Member
The folks selling the extended warranties are betting you are not going to need it & your betting you will. Guess who has the data to back up their theories? :D
I bought a F150 many years ago & paid for the Ford extended warranty it was good to 75000 miles & by the time it was needed it had expired, since then I decline them.
 

active1

Senior Member
Location
Las Vegas
Depends who's offering the contract and the terms.

A manufacture warranty is not bad.
But many of the warrenties ars thru private companies or the selling used car lot.
They range form no different from buying a new vehicle, an effort to a point, to an all out rip-off.

Look at the following:

Who stands behind the warrenty.

What is covered. While it could be said the engine is covered, it can be a huge difference between power train and internal engine and trans. Internal engine may be limited to parts like pistons, rings, bearings, rods, valves, cam, rocker arms, chain, oil pump, crank. Power train might cover items like cracked plastic intake, oil leaking out of engine, sensors, fuel injector, alternator. More often the smaller items fail like sensors, belt drives, fuel pumps, small gasket lesks. What about stearing, brakes, suspension, accesries.

What is not covered. See what they concider wear and tear items, abuse, comercial use, modifying.

Who can repair the vehicle. The orignal new car dealer have a great advantage of having replacement and test parts, factory repair tools, repair information, latest tec bulletins, and most likely experiance with the same problem. The problem with the deals where you have to bring it back to the same place you bought it from is your at their mercy. You could wait weeks befor it's in the shop. They may not be able to repair it correctly and you cant go elcewhere.

The deductable. Sometime the repair would cost less then the deductable. I remember one time someone paid the deduct, mabe $200 to get a $70 tire replacement. Many times the repair cost just over the deductable on a fair price.

What parts will they use to make the repair? A factory warrenty will use new factory parts or factory remanufactured assemblies which tend to be top notch. Some warrenties don't specify. Most offten it is the cheapest replacement parts or rebuilder. In many cases they will use salvage car parts. The milage and history of the parts are questionable. The salvage yard will always say (or lie) it is from a low mileage car. Sometimes it's from an older or diferent vehicle. Or the parts were thru a crash, fire, flood, etc.

Do you have to wait to get reinbursed or do they pay the shop directly. Some shops don't want to deal with these warrenty co. just like some EC don't want to be involved with home warrenties. They don't want to wait to get paid, risk no payment after waiting, deal with long phone calls on hold, paperwork, or have the warrenty company dictate how much they will pay.

Do you get a loaner vehicle or rental credit?

The worst story I remember is a guy with spun rod bearings. He paid to have it towed in. He paid the $250 deductable. Then he was told the warrenty company wanted to see the inside of his engine. Then was told he needed to front the cost to remove and partial disassemble the engine, and would be reinbursed by the warrenty co. Paid another $500. Warrenty company looked at the parts and denied the claim as customer abuse. Put all the engine parts in the trunk and they towed it away to a customer pay shop. I'm guessing he put out around $2,000 for the warrenty, tows, and disassembly. At the time that would have been close to the amount for a shop to put in a rebuilt engine. My guess is the next shop did not give hive a good price to finish it.

The one problem I seen with a factory warrenty is they don't want to aprove some claims just after you made the purchase. The reason is, it should have been inspected and problems repaird by the dealer before the sale.
 

aline

Senior Member
Location
Utah
My father in-law buys extended warranties for everything.

Myself I take the amount the extended warranty would have cost me and invest it.
That's my warranty fund. If nothing breaks I still have the money. If something does break I have the money to pay for it.

I think if my father in-law would have tracked how much he has spent over the years on extended warranties compared to how much he got in return from them he would find he would have been much better off investing that money elsewhere.

If nothing breaks during the warranty period you get to keep all that extended warranty money you would have spent plus the interest it earned. If you put the amount of money the extended warranty would have cost you into an investment each time you buy something it can add up to a lot of money over the years. In other words create an extended warrany investment fund. Track how much you would have spent on extended warranties and how much you made by investing the money instead.

When someone offers an extended warranty for $100 decline it and instead take the $100 dollars and invest it. Do this everytime and over the years your bank account will thank you for it.

If I'm that concerned that something isn't going to last or have a lot of problems, I don't think I want to buy it.
 

gndrod

Senior Member
Location
Ca and Wa
thin air

thin air

Not to digress, but diesels are ok in flatland usage, but practically die in altitude trips. Thought I'd pass that on if you plan to do any high country work. rbj
 
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