for all your answers. Very much appreciated
You’re welcome. I hoped we helped you come to the decision that is right for you. At least once a month I receive a letter, telephone solicitation or an email trying to get me to purchase an extended warranty on my 2011 Toyota Sienna. The only repair it has had in 80000 miles was a stuck gas door. It was repaired for $42. I could afford that without a warranty.
My other experience with an extended warranty was for a Sears canister vacuum cleaner. I had an upright which great for carpets, but the suction for the tools was not good and the upright wasn’t great for cleaning out the car. I was walking through Sears and they had a canister vacuum marked down from $59.95 to $19.95. The problem was that the tools had been lost–all that was there was the canister and the hose. I reasoned that the tools from my upright vacuum would work and they did. A week after I bought the Sears vacuum, I got a call from Sears offering me an extended warranty on my vacuum for the low price of $20 a year. I declined this bargain.
I also bought a new AM transistor radio on sale for $2.95. It was guaranteed 5 years. If the radio needed repair within 5 years, it would be fixed for free. The only charge would be $5 for shipping and handling. Great warranty!
I have to admit buying an extended service contract for my Dell laptop. At that time I was travelling overseas regularly and the contract covered everything, including an elephant stepping on it according to the Dell rep. The computer stood up well after visiting Iran twice, Colombia twice, India twice, Mexico, and Malaysia and Singapore, Algeria, Qatar twice, and was disposed of when it became obsolete. Dell machines were well built; mine took several tumbles at foreign airports.
I have a little different view and I have to admit that I have never bought one. I am half considering it though for the Acura because we are putting so many miles on so fast. Transmissions are $6000 plus labor and electronic nearly as much. I’ve been pretty much repair cost free for the last five years or so and like it.
At any rate they should be viewed as insurance products, not a service plan. You don’t expect to get your money out of a home owners policy, or gasp, health insurance, or car insurance. But they are there to protect against catastrophic losses. Catastrophic losses only happen to a small percentage of the insured, otherwise they would be out of business. I guess I’m not talking about a $500 or $1000 repair, but if you drop a transmission or a rod through the block or even major electronic issues, you can be looking at a $5000-10,000 bill, and probably just before thinking about trading. So just depends whether you’d chalk those kinds of unlikely expenses up to fate or whether it would be really upsetting. It should always be the manufacturers policy though and no third party plans, and it should have a reasonable list of items covered similar to a bumper to bumper warranty. Otherwise it for sure would not be worth it.