Extended warranty?
 

I want some opinions & experiences - particularly from higher mileage owners:

I bought an '13 Limited with 44,000 miles.
The car has had every required maintenance performed by a single (local) subaru dealer, including the recalls - so it has been well maintained.

But, being a first year car, I'm alittle concerned about the future unknown of the car. So - I am a AAA owner, and they are offering an extended warranty on the car a couple options - no deductible / platinum coverage:

4 yrs / 60,000 miles - $1600
4 yrs / 75,000 miles - $1700
5 yrs / 75,000 miles - $1820
5 yrs / 100,000 miles - $1875

The warranty is transferable to another owner, or, if I sell/trade the car I will get a prorated refund for the remainder of the policy.

Would you purchase the extended warranty - I'd like to hear from owners who have had the car for awhile and are getting up there in mileage to help me decide.

Thanks!
Dom

Are you plan to modify it ?

Those warranties are waste of your money IMO. Not worth it in my book..

100% agree! Spend the $1500 on modz :D

^^^ yup.
Nothing a hello kitty band aid and zip ties can't fix

not planning to modify at all. Planning to keep stock as is.

I bought a AAA extended warranty back in 2003 when the new Forester came out. It went to 100k. The car ran perfectly, until 96k at which point I developed an oil leak and had gasket issues. Cost of job over $2500 to fix. It paid to have the warranty in that case.

In another case, for my Outback, no warranty and it was fine..no issues to 150k.

I'm only concerned because my car is a first year production car, and so far, has experienced the chirping, the water in the tail lights (reported by the prior owner & fixed), and the rearview mirror falling off (which happenned to me).

I wonder long term if it isn't just worth it to pony it up given the risk being abit higher to start with that something will go wrong.

I was hoping to hear from people who have higher mileage BRZ's to help me decide... :)

Most extended warranties are not worth it, anything that is warrantable due to manufacturer defect or design error will fail quickly after it hits the road, not 100,000 miles into ownership. Items that fail after the 60k powertrain warranty (and many that fail well inside that) are typically called 'wear items' by the manufacturer and as such are not warrantied so you'd end up paying for them anyway.

In the rare case that there is a problem with this car's design (as, again, manufacturing errors are usually apparent quite early) many years and tens of thousands of miles on the road it is likely that the mass amount of people complaining and potential class action lawsuits will mean you get the fix for free, see VW's HPFP, Porsche IMS, Mazda Renesis, etc.

Edit: Oh forgot about Subie's head gasket issues, I have a buddy who swears up and down Subaru's aren't meant to last over 60k miles if they're performance oriented, cheap garbage blah blah blah. I think he was a cheap bastard who didn't want to spend a few grand on his WRX on stuff that needs replacing every ~5 years that wasn't in the maintenance booklet. In any case, I'm surprised that the warranty covered the head gasket leak, you can't put a price on peace of mind.

tl;dr extended warranty is unlikely to save you any money.

43k and I haven't taken my car back to the dealership once and unless there's a catastrophic powertrain failure that I'm positive will be warrantied, I don't plan to.

Also from experience... dealer maintained does not always equal well maintained. Lots of pieces (mainly clips) straight up missing or installed improperly on my mother's Acura after years of it only seeing dealership hands, first time my father got under it his jaw dropped and he threw a fit.

It really depends for some its a waste but for me I got a extended warranty for 1,500 for 7 yrs / 70,000 miles and peace of mind. My car is my daily and I drive alot so the extended warranty made since for me since I do nearly double what normal people drive in a year. I would go with the highest one 5 yrs/ 100,000 miles if your commute is far.

i echo this post, i'm at 40k after a bit more than 2 years of ownership and 2 winters garaged. she's been to the dealer twice and the second time they didn't re-install most of the clips/screws that hold the undertray in place. lucky for me I had a visit to my tuner shortly after my last dealer visit at 30k and they were able to point it out and use extra's they had on hand otherwise that bad boy was coming off on the freeway at some point.

these aftermarket warranties also have very strict policies in place as far as how you maintain your vehicle and love nothing more than to try and get out of actually fixing your car. For me its more cost effective to put away 100$ a pay into a bank account and save it for auto repairs vs paying up front for a warranty that may or may not cover what is about to break.

You can decide by reading the fine print.

Without the fine print, it's like saying "should I buy this $350k house since it's within my price range?"

-alex

Warranties IMO are not worth it. I had one on my Sentra and never used it.

If you just have to have an extended warranty, go somewhere like your credit union. I got one for about 1/3 as much as the prices you quoted for 100,000mi. Be careful though. Read what's not covered, they will sometimes not cover dumb things like fasteners and gaskets and oil refills.

Like I said, I wouldn't buy one and just put the cash away in case of an issue. $1875 will pay for lots of small repairs. If you can work on the car your self $1875 can do transmissions, clutches, coil packs, injectors - you name it.

dont get it. save that money to repair when needed. usually wear & tear parts dont get covered. also you'll also get super angry when they say "oh this doesnt cover, so you have to pay for it" from dealership and you start wasting time fighting with nothing gets fixed. you lose your money + time + frustration

This is what we do. $x.xx in the bank account each month. (virtual account kept in a spreadsheet). Major repairs, minor repairs, oil changes, etc. If the account reaches Y (for example, $3,000.00); you stop putting money in. Now you are insured against repairs even if you switch cars, and the money can be put in a CD, index fund, or any other semi-liquid storage.

Y for me is set to 7500 ... what i need to turbo it and have extra left over for the just in case. :D

I've considered this (putting money aside each month) too :)

+1 on that. Extended warranties can be a good deal on very-low mileage vehicles because they are reasonably priced, but like any insurance policy, the premium increases with age. I can't speak from experience, but a car-dealer friend recently told me that the bulk of claims are for electronics, rather than for drive-train problems.

Dealers will not valid your warranty, so basically is wasted money. Buy parts instead

Teseo,

Not true with AAA extended warranty.
AAA pays dealer directly for repair.

In terms of doing my own repairs, I dont own tools to repair my car. Nor, do I have the space (I live in a condo no garage).
I'm not mechanically inclined, nor do I have the patience to become so - and thats ok - fixing cars is just not my thing. I like to drive them :)

I read what the extended warranty covers, it was not worth it. You still have to pay for labor, and dealer labor fees are about the same price as the parts. At lest the coverage I was given.

A normal shop would still be cheaper. And wear items are not covered. So it's a waste to me.

Mr.ac, AAA covers parts & labor.

That's a toss up. Almost exactly like you I bought a 13 with 43 on it and I did buy the warranty because I like the peace of mind and it didn't cost much. They gave me dealer employee rates on the warranty so I got it for almost a grand for the 60thou. So my car is protected for 103. It will cover the car just like a new waranty, its transferable, I can use any certified mechanic, it came with road side if I trade the car in, or sale it whiten the warranty period, I get refunded the difference.

I guess If I do any heavy mod it will void. Dunno. I don't plan on doing any modifications. I'm to old and did all that krap and I just want the car to get back and forth to work with a good MPG and be fun on the weekend

My last scion finally went south at 189,000 miles. The repair would have not been worth the car

After reading the sample contract off the AAA MidAtlantic site, I would not get it.

http://midatlantic.aaa.com/~/media/F...015.ashx?la=en

Extended warranties are not added on to your base, you have to read the fine print.

Usually it's up to the mileage or year limit listed on the contract, this is not added on to the end of your base warranty coverage.

5 years 100k means you get 3 years 36k warranty from the manufacturer, plus 2 years and another 64k of mileage coverage after your bumper to bumper warranty expires.


-alex

Alex,

I know for dealer warranties particularly with Certified Used cars, that is common.
BUT - for the AAA extended warranty, the warranty covers from whatever mileage the car is at today PLUS the mileage you are purchasing coverage for.
In my prior warranty with them, they actually have the starting & ending mileage specified in the agreement. I had 100k coverage starting at 35k ending at 135k! :)

Dom

Hence my comment about reading the fine print... the one I referenced said it expires at the end of the term, not added on top of the odometer.

Your contract may be different, or AAA MidAtlantic just sucks at posting the correct information online.

See below:

nope nope nope nope. Best warranty is your own treating your car like a baby, giving it elbow grease when it needs it and keeping up with maintenance.,

...or sell it at 75k like a few of my family members do. They get a new car every 1-2yrs

Well, occasionally someone walks out of a casino with a pocket full of money, but most do not. Same with warranties...there are occasional winners, but all those other losers are paying for it.

And I assume you rolled the cost of the warrant into the payment, so you paid interest on top of the warranty cost. So I'll bet that even a $2500 bill was barely more than break even compared to the total cost of the warranty. If you would have just put about $25 in the bank each month, you would have done just as well, and that money would have been there, no matter what.

We always own 3 vehicles, a family grocery-getter (currently '14.5 Camry), my work truck, (currently '11 Tacoma), and my toy (currently '13 FRS). We drive approx 45k miles each year, and keep vehicles 5-7 years, or 100-120K miles.

I have not spent more than $1000 COMBINED TOTAL for repairs in the past 15 years.

Its a AAA extended warranty - its not available to roll into my auto loan. I haven't even purchased it yet. I posted to get other peoples experiences with the BRZ as it started getting up in mileage to help me decide if this is something I should consider for myself (or not). After all, I am not buying the car new - its 3 years old.

Unfortunately, this thread is not answering my question on people's experiences with their long term/higher mileage experiences, but, has turned into a debate on whether a person thinks an extended warranty is worth it or not. :(

Mav: I didn't read the fine print online. I actually called and spoke to them and specifically asked the question. They stated only on platinum coverage.

I looked into getting an extended warranty since my 36k warranty is up. i however have a supercharger, custom exhaust and tune and some other mods.

i asked my local subaru dealer about my powertrain warranty. they told me any component that affects the engine and is caused by the supercharger itself, then that problem would not be covered under the powetrain warranty.

i then looked into these third party warranty companies. i find it funny they all say cover 'superchargers' on there website. but so far, after reading the contractual language for 3 of these providers. in all the agreements it says , 'any component that's modified, or not in conform to the manufacterers design, would not be covered.

i then emailed a few of them and they all said that any aftermarket component would not be covered under these warranties.

seems like a scam to me, with all the contradictory language in these contracts. i say just save the $2k and put it into a savings account. dont get taken for a ride with these shady companies. they all have terrible online reviews. not one single one of them has any good reviews. buyer beware.

That refers to OEM factory-installed superchargers, NOT aftermarket.

OK, so that time you were one fo the folks that left the casino with some money in your pocket.

And my post does share my long term (15+ years) and higher mileage (100K+).


Just like casinos, warranties are a bet against the house, and betting against the house is a loser's game. Put your $2000 (or whatever), in the bank. That's a sure thing. It will be there, whether you need it or not!

correct

i agree. sometimes you will win and maybe come out and recoup youre costs with what you paid into the warranty and then some, or you may not, maybe its a 1 in 4 chance. i don't like those odds.