Glad I bought the extended warranty for my car

[dennis thompson]

I bought a new car last year and, given what appeared to me, to be an extraordinarily complex car, I bought the only extended warranty I’ve ever bought in my life.
Today I was reading the car column in the Wall Street Journal and he mentions that car repair costs rose 20% last year!
Glad I bought that extended warranty.

[George Bokros]

I bought the extended warranty for the truck I bought in 2021, also the first extended warranty I ever bought. I did so for the for the same reason, the extreme complexity of the electronics of the new cars.

[Rich Engelhardt]

We bought the extended warranty from Lowes on our LG refrigerator back in 2018.
According to Lowes, we could get filrers for half price with the extended warranty.
It died - the compressor went out - in 2019 right as everything was shutting down.
They tried for over four months to fix it. Finally they gave up and refunded our purchase price.

We learned our lesson.

We get the extended warranty now on all major purchases - including automotive.

Matter of fact, my 2019 Hunyadi Kona's warranty is up come August. I'm looking into the cost and advantage of getting an extended warranty on it so I can keep it a couple more years.

[Chris Schoenthal]

Long gone are the days when you could fix something yourself cheaply and easily. With so many electronics and control boards, there isn't much you can do anymore.
I too, bought the extended warranty on a 2023 hybrid, primarily for all of the electronics and batteries.

[Bill Howatt]

Is my old brain remembering correctly? This thread (so far) is giving a positive spin on extended warranties - didn't the one a few months ago have the overall opposite tone?

[Dave Fritz]

This makes me think of my dad. He was a mechanic and came home one day in about 1965 and said he quit. He was tired of going to transmission school. I can't imagine what he'd think today.

[Mark Wedel]

Extended warranties are something of a gamble. Some people will come out ahead by buying one (an expensive repair covered by it which would otherwise be an out of pocket expense), most people will end up behind (no benefit seen, as no failure within that time frame, or the cost of the repair would have been less than is being paid for the warranty). The company selling them comes out ahead, as they are big money makers for them, and they know how to price them so that they will make money.

I've never bought one. I've had maybe 1 or 2 appliances (not really expensive ones) that might have been covered by one had I bought it, but no way knowing that those 2 specific appliances are the ones I would need to have bought a warranty for, so the only way to cover that case is buy a warranty for every appliance I've bought, and in that case, I would have ended up behind financially.

[Jim Koepke]

This makes me think of my dad. He was a mechanic and came home one day in about 1965 and said he quit. He was tired of going to transmission school. I can't imagine what he'd think today.

Sometimes, the times change rapidly.

I used to own a 1957 VW Transporter (aka VW Bus). During my ownership that vehicle never went to a professional mechanic for any kind of service. Many people told me how the engine was going to blow up and other woes of how a 40 horse engine was going to fail. The original engine was a 36 hp and replaced by a previous owner. I had that thing for many years and always drove it in a conservative manner. I rebuilt the engine, replaced the brakes and drums as needed and changed the oil regularly. After about 75,000 miles the speedometer cable broke. I drove it a lot after that before selling it to someone who didn't pay attention to maintenance and froze up the engine for lack of oil.

One funny thing about it was the rear lights were not original but the person who changed them didn't know how to wire them properly. There was a single brake light in the center which was legal in California for cars made before 1958. There was a loose wire that would occasionally short out and blow a fuse. I was pulled over a few times for no brake lights. I would explain the situation to the officer about why my 1957 vehicle was legal with only one brake light and as they walked to the back of the bus to look I would replace the fuse and be allowed to go on with a comment about how it might be a good idea for me to do something to get more brake lights back there.

After about the fourth time this happened I fixed the wiring.

After that I worked on my cars as much as I could. Some things were work in which I didn't want to be bothered doing.

I purchased an extended warrantee on my 2021 truck due to having no knowledge of diesel engines or all the electronics controlling it and everything else.

One note though, we purchased a freezer at one of the Borgs with an extended warrantee. We have received offers from the maker for an extended warrantee. Apparently the maker doesn't honor the one sold when we purchased the freezer, it is covered by the Borg, hmmm.

Also, the "fulfillment crew" that delivered the freezer didn't inspire confidence when they kind of balked at switching the door from right hand to left hand to work in our kitchen. I ended up having to help them.

In my youth, my folks owned a furniture & appliance store. My older brothers actually had manufacturer training on appliance repair. If someone needed a door switched, it was often done before we took it to the customer. Often refrigerators and freezers would be plugged in well before delivery so they would be cold inside when they were installed.

Sometimes the changing of the times isn't better for the person at the end of the line.

jtk

[Jim Becker]

Extended Service Contracts (which is what they are legally) are a form of insurance. (Some states, like Florida, even regulate them that way) Some folks buy insurance to protect themselves from certain kinds of financial risk and some folks don't. Given the level of tech in my Subaru, I have zero regret at spending the equivalent of about $235 a year to have a zero deductible contract from the vehicle manufacturer for ten years or 100K miles, whichever comes first, especially since it covers everything other than wear items and cosmetics.

[Jerome Stanek]

Extended Service Contracts (which is what they are legally) are a form of insurance. (Some states, like Florida, even regulate them that way) Some folks buy insurance to protect themselves from certain kinds of financial risk and some folks don't. Given the level of tech in my Subaru, I have zero regret at spending the equivalent of about $235 a year to have a zero deductible contract from the vehicle manufacturer for ten years or 100K miles, whichever comes first, especially since it covers everything other than wear items and cosmetics.

Is your Subaru one of the Return To Dealer for repair and maintance work

[Brian Elfert]

Extended warranties are sort of like casinos. Overall, the house always wins. If every customer came out ahead on extended warranties the companies would go bankrupt. (Some extended companies have gone bankrupt.)

If newer vehicles require more repairs due to electronics and so on the cost of the extended warranties will have to go up.

[Jim Becker]

Is your Subaru one of the Return To Dealer for repair and maintance work

Any Subaru dealer in the US for repairs to be covered by both the OEM 3/36 Warranty and the Subaru Added Care Gold Extended Service Contract. Maintenance can be done anywhere, including by oneself, and many folks do routine things that way. They must document it for sure. Some maintenance is best left to the dealer...an example would be changing the CVT fluid in and Ascenty (or Outback/Legacy XT/WRX) because there is only one fluid in the world that meets spec for that particular transmission, it's only available from Subaru and the smallest quantity is 5 gallons. It must also be filled with careful electronic monitoring of both volume and temperature. Not something for most weekend warriors and a $12K mistake if you do it wrong. (Not the same situation with other models that have the lower capacity CVT)

I personally will only consider a manufacturer backed ESC...never a third party contract.

[Patty Hann]

We bought the extended warranty from Lowes on our LG refrigerator back in 2018.
...
It died - the compressor went out - in 2019 right as everything was shutting down.
They tried for over four months to fix it. Finally they gave up and refunded our purchase price.
....

So, just out of curiosity (about how people handle this sort of major annoyance) what did you do for a refrigerator for those 4 months, considering that after the first attempted repair ended in failure, you now had, by then, an unreliable fridge.
You can lose a lot of food that way.
Anyway, as I said, just curious.

[Ole Anderson]

Some time ago I purchased and installed a GE water heater from Home Depot for probably $450. It had a lifetime warranty from a third party (who does that?) 12 years later it started slowly leaking, so I filed a claim last year. They were unable to find an installer (at a reasonable price?) so they cut a check for the price of an equivalent water heater at today's price plus installation. $1600! Felt like I won the lottery. Used it to buy a new water heater (12 year warranty), with another 5 years of extended warranty and a water softener. I tape the receipts right to the new units so when it fails I have the paperwork to make a claim. Hoping I never have to pay for another water heater.

Been leasing cars for a long time, last car (a Jeep Cherokee) I bought outright. As with most US cars it came with just a 36K mile warranty. I plan on keeping it a while so I purchased the extended warranty. Like the salesman said, just a bad touch screen can cost two grand. I am just past the original warranty after 4 years, so far no problems. Paying for the peace of mild as much as anything. Neighbor always buys the extended warranty on his used cars and it has paid off every time.

[Bill George]

Time have changed folks its not 1957 any more where you just replaced spark plugs and changed oil... all was fine. People who do not understand cars and electronics and do not buy those factory extended warranty's are in for a big surprise.