Hello,
I am looking at purchasing an 06 Pontiac Vibe with 11,516 miles on it. The standard warranty is 3yr / 36,000 miles.
The dealer wants me to add another 75,000 mile warranty to the existing 11,500 miles for a total of 87,000 miles but it’s $1,371! That seems A) a bit high and B) I’m not sure of I need it!
Opinions please!
Anserman
. NO…put your money in a money market account. I have never seen one posting that said extended warrantees are worth having. However if it makes you feel better it is your $. I just bought a new Toyota and they are so desperate to sell extended warantees that they are now offering to give you your money back if not used …no interest of course. I didn’t even consider that gimic.
Short answer: Don’t buy it.
Do a search of this forum for extended warranty to see the many discussions of this topic.
About half of the extended warranty is seller profit. That means that on average, all cars like yours will have $650 or so in unexpected repairs during the life of the warranty. I’d save it and self-insure. Pay it out if you need it. I never have, and you probably won’t either.
Well any car can have major expensive repairs.
The profit to the salesman and company is usually over 50%. So for every $1,000 you spend the insurance company has less than $500 to pay for repairs or they will loose money, something insurance companies do not do. Some peop;le will get nothing back and some will get a lot more than they pay. Most will get far less. In addition you need to keep in mind that the insurer has worded it to eliminate as many expensive things as they can.
Remember that the seller is out to make money and they get to write the rules and set the price. They are not going to sell them at a loss so one way or another they are going to have you pay more than they will pay out.
Would you gamble with a car dealer who gets to set all the rules and knows all the odds?
Your decision has to do with the value of the piece of mind it gives you. If that is worth the $500 then buy it. Don't expect it to cover everything however, most are written to keep cost down and exempt what they know will cost them money.
Good Luck
You’ve basically bought a Toyota. Ask them that if the car is so bad that it needs an extended warranty, why are they allowing the car to 1: continue to be made or 2: be sold at all.
Maybe that is why they don’t spring this one on you until after you have signed on the dotted line. 
also remember that if you do not follow the maintenance schedule perfectly they will often not honor your warranty. So take into consideration whether you plan to follow their schedule or not.
J
You get no money back if you get promoted and buy a different car. Think about it for 25,000 miles because it’s never too late to extend the warranty, even after the first one has run out. There are also many ways to not pay for repairs when you need them. Warranty companies know all of them. Think about it. They make so much money that they can afford lawyers! If we could afford lawyers, we’d move to Maine and sue for handicapped access. Then we could afford more lawyers…
If I bought a car that needed mechanical repairs before 100k miles…I’d NEVER buy one again.
The more you rely on financing to make the purchase, the more sense these warranties start to make.
Let’s say you’re strung out all the way on this car. Minimum downpayment, rest financed. What are you going to do if the thing breaks down and needs $3000 engine work? Now you need to scrape up $3000 in addition to your monthly payment. In the meantime, you have no car to go to work.
The people who can afford to absorb a major catastrophe will always avoid this option because they can.
If you wait to purchase, the price goes up as mileage accumulates simply because the risk goes up.
Will if you had put that money in the bank, you would be ahead in the game.
I doubt that you can name one care that does not on occasion have repairs needed during the fist 100,000 miles