Only manufacturers warranty and the dealer you purchased the vehicle from will be happy to bend you over a table. Find a forum for the make of vehicle and look around for the best place to buy a warranty. I've bought Toyota, Honda, and GM from dealers that sell online and typically it's a third of what my local dealer price. My Tundra just had a fuel pump replaced, the cost was just over 2 grand and the extended warranty cost me 1100.

Independent shop owner here. These warranty companies are scam artists and crooks. It is a rare occasion that a customer leaves happy after the job is done. The warranty company wants to dictate what the job will pay, and I have to make a living, so the customer is left picking up the rest of the tab, if the scammers will pay in the first case.

The worst example I have run into lately was just a couple weeks ago. Customer brought in a ford escape with a head gasket seal failure. Ford has a TSB for this vehicle that basically says that if you are getting coolant into the cylinders (he was) that you replace the block and recondition the cylinder head, as there is a corrosion issue with the blocks. The warranty company did not care about the TSB in the slightest. Their requirement to determine coverage was for the customer to agree to have the engine torn-down, and an adjuster would come and determine if they felt the head gasket showed signs of failure. Modern engines with MLS head gaskets nearly never show a visible sign of the failure, so it is an easy out for them. A denial leaves the customer holding the bag, so after a couple days of weighing options, the customer decided not to repair the car, which only had about 100k on the clock.

These guys are basically insurance companies, except there is no real regulation, and they are free to set any conditions they want. Its the wild west of legal scams for sure.

quote:

Originally posted by rainmaker5505:
These guys are basically insurance companies, except there is no real regulation, and they are free to set any conditions they want. Its the wild west of legal scams for sure.

They exist simply to squirrel out of any responsibility whatsoever. Whenever and wherever possible. This is business as usual.
They are crooks, regardless of how much some folks wanna believe otherwise.

I have fairly extensive experience with Extended Warranties on vehicles.

In my experience, most of the third party warranties are questionable. I stay away from these.

For the past 25 years or so, I purchase primarily new vehicles from Toyota or Lexus. Depending on the vehicle, I can buy a 10 year, 125,000 mile Platinum zero deductible warranty from Toyota Financial Services for around $2,000, plus or minus a couple hundred depending on the complexity of the vehicle. Given the complex nature of today's vehicles, the extra piece of mind is worth it to me.

Ask yourself one question - If you ever bought life insurance, and didn't die, would you consider the expenditure wasted money? If so, an extended warranty for a vehicle might not make sense to you. But I am particularly fond of the Toyota extended warranties for the following reasons:

1) You can cancel the warranty at any time, and get a pro-rated amount of money back. I have done this a couple of times - once when I sold a vehicle privately before the warranty expired, and another when I traded a vehicle in.

2) No authorized Toyota dealer will refuse to honor the Toyota warranty.

3) If you sell a vehicle privately, the warranty is transferable to the buyer - which means if I sell the vehicle to a private buyer, I can offer them the remainder of the warranty backed by Toyota - a major selling point when selling to a private buyer.

4) Zero deductible if anything covered by the warranty fails.

5) The Platinum warranty covers practically everything except wear items.

6) If you buy a used Toyota or Lexus, you can still buy this warranty as long as the vehicle has less than 36,000 miles or 3 years on it - so if you aren't sure whether to purchase the warranty, you can wait until that time to purchase it.

On my currently owned 2019 Tundra, the warranty has already paid for itself, plus some. On my 2017 Lexus, with one year to go to expiration, it has not paid for itself. Experience varies.

Dealers will try to charge around $4500 for this warranty, but you can buy it from other Toyota dealers online for half the cost.

Overall, a positive experience for me. I do not know if other OEM extended warranties are as good, but I definitely would stay away from third-party warranties.

My $0.02.

Is your current vehicle currently under the factory warranty? If so now is the time to buy. What brand vehicle to you have? You can buy manufacturer warranties online for a fraction of the price a dealer would charge.

Put the amount that you would pay for a monthly premium into an account that you could then use for auto repair expense. You would more than likely come out way ahead in the long run.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This!!

The only extended warranty I've ever had was on a 2006 Colorado I bought used in 2011 and the warranty was purchased through the dealer at closing. I'm pretty sure it was with Endurance though. Paid for itself in the first 6 months due to the fact that this truck had more electrical issues than my wife had shoes. Traded in the truck in 2013 the day after the warranty period ended on a 2013 Equinox with 28K miles that just came off lease. Still driving it.

Anytime something is heavily advertised, its means its insanely profitable for the company. They are a scam. They know the exact number of likely failures, the cost, and build that in to the price.

I have a Fidelity Warranty Services warranty for a high end sports car and I am very happy with the warranty company.

I had a tail light "system" go bad and they paid the $3,500.00 fee (all manufacturer parts) without question and within 3 days of payment request from the shop.

The high end car enthusiast websites all speak very highly of them and as far as I can tell they don't advertise much and are very picky about what cars they offer for.

Ford protect has been good for me - I extended the factory B2B warranty. Got it online from Ziegler Ford for half what the local dealers charge.

DEEP, stick to the manufacturers warranty. I have extended warranty from Ford on my 2018 Expedition, it has paid for itself 3x over plus get an equal rental car for free every time and $100 deductable. They NEVER give me an issue covering anything.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

quote:

The clause “Like kind and quality” translated into normal speak means that at their discretion instead of getting a rebuilt engine or transmission you might be getting a used junkyard part.

Parts quality is enough of a problem without adding used parts of unknown provenance to the mix. After all, what's the number one reason non-wrecked cars are junked? Engines & transmissions.



I've been given worse engines to install.

I said many times when accepting one of those used and abused engines or transmissions that was destined for a “warranty” repair, “Well this one certainly didn’t get scrapped out because the ashtrays were full!”

I have had good luck with extended warranties paying, but I always bought them from the dealer where I bought the vehicle and usually negotiated them as part of the deal.

Car Shield, however, is a different animal. Monthly subscription plans target the low, fixed income demographic. Those folks see the monthly and figure they can afford it. If they pay for two years before having a claim, claim gets denied and then they drop the subscription, Car Shield keeps the money already paid. At least with whole life insurance, you can get some cash value refunded when you surrender.

And their commercials are especially insulting.

"Due to a decline in the economy..."

Oh, you just opened the business when things got bad? Do you close the doors when times are good?

"An open phone line has been established...."

WTF is that? Is there such a thing as a closed or non-established phone line?

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:


Parts quality is enough of a problem without adding used parts of unknown provenance to the mix. After all, what's the number one reason non-wrecked cars are junked? Engines & transmissions.



I've been given worse engines to install.

I have that very Porsche motor in my 2001 C2. There's no way in hell I would buy that motor without an oil analysis from a running motor and pics of the cylinder bores.

To the OP, my first Honda Odyssey had a transferable warranty that the original owner purchased new from the dealer. I was able to transfer it for $50 and it was a 3rd party vendor honored by all Honda dealers. Soon afterwards, the dealer diagnosed motor mount failures and it was covered under warranty, minus my $50 deductible.

I would avoid these extended warranty companies. Do you think you're gonna be ahead on your 2019 F-150 when the rear differential acts up?