Should I buy an extended warranty?

[Jim Becker]

Some of the newer cars use on board micro computers for systems and they are all linked together via a cabling system. Joe down at the corner gas station does not have the know how or the equipment to fix.

Not "some" of the newer vehicles...virtually all of them.

[Mike Henderson]

I know that "military grade" semiconductors are specified to essentially never fail and to operate in wide extremes of temperature. And the semiconductors they use on those satellites they send to Pluto are obviously designed and specified to essentially never fail (they do have backups for most of the electronics).

I'm sure the auto manufacturers have a specification that is designed to very rarely fail. The parts that go into cars are not "state of the art" parts. They're generally older parts. I supose one reason for that is it takes several years to design a car so even if they used "state of the art" parts in the design they're be several years old by the time the car was released.

Mike

[Dick Strauss]

It's not really a time of design issue that impacts which chip technologies are used by auto manufacturers. Car manufacturers tend to use chips made with processes 3-4 generations of technology behind current state-of-the-art because they are cheaper. In addition, traditionally autos didn't need the circuit density (there are lots of nooks in cars to locate lots of chips) or power saving features of state-of-the-art technologies (cars have large electrical systems to power everything). So why buy expensive chips when you can get away with cheap ones. I assume this is/will be changing quickly as more autos incorporate more "self-driving" features.

Most large chip manufacturers don't dedicate a whole lot of capacity to older technologies because the margins are usually smaller. Some small boutique chip foundries specialize in older technologies.

The auto manufacturers got in trouble because they cancelled orders and didn't reserve future capacity during the huge sales slowdown related to COVID instead of taking delivery early and having stock ready to go once the market recovered. The bean counters and JIT manufacturing caused the current auto supply issues.

[Dick Strauss]

The chips used in autos used to be of very similar but slightly higher reliability versus run of the mill chips. This may have changed with the advent of semiautonomous cars.

Defense, intelligence and space applications had lots of techniques to ensure extremely high reliability in all kinds of environments. Often the final systems were designed with built-in redundancy just in case 99.999999...% wasn't good enough.

[Ronald Blue]

The only extended warranties worth having are from the manufacturer. The one's advertising on TV are no better than the scammers robocalls or the bogus emails hawking your antivirus is expiring. I have always been told the dealer loves selling the extended warranty because they get most of the cost as profit. Here is another thought to consider. I don't know if all brands or if it's still an option. In the past at least some brands allowed you to purchase the factory extended warranty if you were still covered by the original factory warranty. I've never purchased an extended auto warranty and only once did I wish I had. I'm not sure I would today either. I don't trade often. My pickup is 9 years old and 93XXX miles. Just put front brakes on for the first time a few weeks ago. Tires twice now. Vehicles are much better than they once were.

[Jim Becker]

Ron, most, if not all Manufacturer extended service contracts must be purchased while the vehicle is still under the typical 3/36 OEM warranty period. (there are some minor variations) In many cases, having the contract may add additional benefits that are not part of the OEM warranty, such as a rental/loaner benefit for covered work. (many dealer no longer offer loaners)

[Ronald Blue]

Ron, most, if not all Manufacturer extended service contracts must be purchased while the vehicle is still under the typical 3/36 OEM warranty period. (there are some minor variations) In many cases, having the contract may add additional benefits that are not part of the OEM warranty, such as a rental/loaner benefit for covered work. (many dealer no longer offer loaners)

This is copied directly from the Chevrolet Protection Plan details. A used vehicle can have it added to it after the purchase date. It's not even necessary it have the factory warranty still in effect.

IF THIS AGREEMENT WAS PURCHASED AFTER THE TIME-OF-SALE OF THE COVEREDVEHICLE AND THE COVERED VEHICLE WAS NO LONGER COVERED BY THE ORIGINAL MANUFACTURER’S WARRANTY WHEN YOU PURCHASED THIS AGREEMENT, THEN A MANDATORY WAITINGPERIOD OF THE LESSER OF 30 DAYS OR 1,000 MILES, WHICHEVER OCCURS FIRST, WILL APPLY BEFORE YOUR COVERAGE BEGINS. HOWEVER, AN ADDITIONAL 30 DAYS AND 1,000 MILES WILLBE ADDED TO THE AGREEMENT’S SCHEDULED EXPIRATION. THEREFORE THE WAITING PERIOD WILL NOT REDUCE THE ACTUAL TIME/MILEAGE DURING WHICH YOU HAVE COVERAGE.

Here is a dead link to the page.

chevrolet.com/content/dam/chevrolet/na/us/english/index/owners/warranty/02-pdfs/chevrolet-protection-plan-sample-contract-10-2022.pdf

[Jim Becker]

Yes, the manufacturers often have contracts available for vehicles out of warranty. I didn't say they don't. But there are sometimes caveats or differences in the contracts. The GM plan you mention states there is a waiting period. The MOPAR plan is a separate contract from what's sold for vehicles under 4 years/48 months from original in-service and is priced differently. Some plans for out-of-warranty require inspections, sometimes at the cost of the owner in addition to the cost of the contract. The cost for plans on older vehicles can bring pause compared to the plans for in-warranty vehicles.

My personal opinion is that the best extended service contracts from both a cost and coverage perspective are those offered during the in-warranty period and are "exclusionary", meaning they cover everything other than a few specific exclusions.