I’ve been hearing a lot of offers for auto warranties after the manufacturer warranty expires. Does anyone out there have any info on how legitimate these operations are ?
long time ago I got them for a couple of older cars i owned. Too expensive, and when I put in a couple claims I found out they did not cover seals and gaskets. which is a large part of breakdowns. my claims was for transmission leak, and head gasket replacement,I never bought one again.
Extended Warranties Offered By The Car’s Manufacturer Are The Only Ones That I Would Consider.
Many of these manufacturers’ warranties (service contracts) do what they are supposed to do . . . extend one’s original warranty.
All the others fall into the “caveat emptor” category.
Read the comments made by Romeo1311. I have found that the fine print on after-market warranties backs this up. Most of these warranties are carefully crafted to avoid covering anything substantial. It’s not so much what is listed as “covered” items, it’s what is not listed (and not covered) that matters.
CSA
There have been a slew of “auto warranty” companies phoning and mailing the public. And they have a long list of complaints against them.
One poster wrote of his experience in this newsgroup a few months back.
Basically, he reluctantly paid for a policy under their promise that they would send him the details and they promised a full refund if he didn’t like the terms.
They sent nothing and he never heard from them again (even after repeated attempts to contact them).
Much has been written about these 3rd party companies that solicit your business. It seems that paying for your car repairs is at the bottom of their list.
RUN! They are difficult for you/mechanic to collect on.
There have been numerous exposes on these after-market (independent) extended warranties, and the horror stories of how much was paid for the policies and how little was reimbursed by those policies were very informative–for those who paid attention to the information.
If you want an extended warranty for your car, the ONLY one to consider is an extended warranty directly from the car’s manufacturer. Any other extended warranty is just an exercise in giving your money to cheats who will refuse almost all claims and, at best, might pay about 10% of a claim or two, but only when they are pressured repeatedly.
Don’t do it!
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 people 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 cost 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
In these tough economic times these offers seem to have proliferated.
Self-insure instead. Take the money you would have spent on these warrantees and put it in the bank. Then if you need some it’ll be there in your “warranty account”. If you don’t, you can use it for a nice vacation in the gulf coast.
Why give it to them?
We had a poll about what was the most expensive repair you ever paid for. The winner by a large margin was automatic transmission repairs. Some of the figures quoted were from $2000.00 $3500.00 for a rebuilt or replacement and there were a lot of people that need a transmission.
Take a look at the cost if your AC compressor explodes (internally) and they do and they do it a lot.