I am purchasing a new 2012 VW Diesel Touareg. Not a particularly cheap ride. The dealer offers an extremely comprehensive (Gold Plus in VW nomenclature) wrap around warranty taking the base 3yr/36mi warranty to 5/100. My experience with a couple cars at this price range is that most any repair can easily crest $1,000 and I have footed the bill for several multi-thousand dollar repairs overs the years on Land Cruisers, BMWs, an older Mercedes that was gifted to me.
For $1800 the warranty seems like an investment I can not lose on. What do you guys think?
The dealer is offering that insurance policy (they are calling it an extended warranty) for one reason only. They are making money on it.
They know what the average payout will be from that insurance and they are not going to sell it for less than it is going to pay out. They sell that insurance as a way of making more money from you.
Some drivers will get more back than they put in, but most all who buy this product will spend more than they get back. They sell it because they will make money selling it to you.
A is the warranty from VW directly, or is it from another company?? Double check.
B Would you drive 100,000 miles in 5 years?? If not aprox how many miles do you drive??
C it sounds like, but I just want to make sure that it covers everything, not just the drive line.
I do think that these warranties are offered to make a profit, but some buyers get some very expensive repairs covered while others do not. I got a similar extended warranty on my '03 Civic and never had any claims. If your experience is with expensive repairs to exotic cars then this program would look like a good deal. The price isn’t too bad, the terms look OK, and this is a car that I’d consider has lots of stuff to go awry (I don’t have much faith in VW transmissions for instance). Only you can decide but if your budget handles $1,800 better than big repair bills.
There is no crystal ball, but 2 more years of coverage and 64K more miles is worth it if it gives you more peace of mind. Lots of people go to Vegas and buy lottery tickets and lose money on games with worse odds than this. You are gambling with $1800 on a significant problem hitting you after 36K miles and before 100K. Tough to figure those odds. The seller of the warranty has actuarial experts to figure their odds in favor of making a profit overall, but sometimes they lose on individual policies.
The cost of an extended warranty is generally far over the average payout. Some buyers will win. Many more buyers will lose. It’s your call if you think you’ll beat the odds and end up as one of the lucky ones.
“For $1800 the warranty seems like an investment I can not lose on.”
You know that’s wrong, of course. Otherwise they’d go out of business doing this. Probably an 80% chance you’ll lose money, but if the peace of mind is worth it (and ONLY if it is a VW factory warranty), then go ahead.
According to the VW web site the Touareg comes with 10 year/ 100,000 mile powertrain warranty so the most expensive components are already covered (engine/transmission).
The only sure thing is that the dealer will make money and the underwriter will make money. You will likely never see any of the $1800 again. There is a less than 50% chance that you will need that extended warranty. It does help some people, but not most people.
Car sales are a game, If it were me I would offer $1100 for the extended warranty to close the deal, you can figure the cost per month as an insurance policy you will not have any major repair bills for the hopefully life of the loan. The majority opinion here is it is a net loss, but so is house insurance or any other insurance I think. For me the thought that I will have no major repair costs for the life of the loan is worth them making a little profit overall, and my personal safegaurd against major costs while having a loan payment. One of my life experiences was a friend who had a transmission blow, took him 3 months to save up for the repair of a nondriveable vehicle, and had to keep up on payments of the nondriveable vehicle.