Why I bought the extended warranty
 

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65,000 miles. Stock NA drivetrain. Maintenance schedule followed to the letter, performed by dealerships to maintain the record trail. Used oil analysis done after every oil change, with no indicators of a problem at all.

Saturday afternoon, as I was pulling away from a light and shifting from first to second, I heard a startling pop/growl noise followed by a clattering sound. I was actually looking at the tach when it happened and saw the oil light come on right after the sound. I pulled into the nearest parking lot and called for a tow.

The local dealership opened it up this morning. Apparently the oil pump shattered, starving the bearings of oil and causing one or more of them to spin, all of which happened within the span of a few seconds. SOA has asked the dealership to inspect the bearings and heads to see the exact extent of the damage, but the dealership has already said I'm getting a new short block at a minimum and probably a long block. They're taking good care of me so far.

At the time I bought my car, I recall people on this board telling everyone who bought the extended warranty how stupid they were for wasting the money. I bought it anyway. I paid $1500. An engine swap would be what, about a $5K job? It looks like I'm getting it under warranty.

I'm glad I didn't listen to the people saying how stupid I was.

Well that's a new one!

You gambled against an insurance company and won, glad it worked out for you. And I appreciate the info as my car nears 60k.

:cheers:

Wow, is oil pump failure common on FAs? This is the first time I've heard of this.

i bought the extended warranty too brother.

The main issue with extended warranties is that you must have proof that you have done all scheduled maintenance or else it will be voided.

If you spend the money to take the car to the dealership for every oil change, services, etc then it will be fine.

Otherwise, you have to do all the maintenance yourself and keep receipts as proof.

The oil pumps on these cars are about as reliable as a 50 year old grenade. It may blow up if you sneeze at it, or you may be able to drop kick it into a wall with no problems. The others I've heard of breaking all broke randomly as well.

Yep, the mechanic said he hadn't seen it before, but he also said they didn't get many BRZs in. I put another post on the Issues board for the technical discussion.

Insurance is a hedge against future economic loss. You weigh the impact of the risk and the likelihood it will happen and make a decision. If I had been buying a vehicle with a long track record of going 300K miles without major issues, the lower risk might have led me to pass on the extended warranty. But when I bought my car in 2014, there were very few twins on the road with any significant mileage. It was a new motor, and it was unproven. Seemed like a no brainer to me to buy the extended warranty in that situation.

When people kept saying it was stupid, I remained fairly quiet and figured, "We'll see."

I have had very good luck wit extended warranties on products in the past. I would have got one for the car but although it seems counter intuitive with the number of miles I put on it so quickly the value just wasn't there.

I have 45,000 miles and the extended warranty.
I also pay the extra $$ to have the DEALER do my oil changes JUST so it is on record (in their system) as being done by a competent mechanic.
I am 100% competent (more-so than most of their techs) but I want ZERO questions if it ever comes up.

Depends on how you look at it. You're thinking cost over time. I'm thinking cost per mile. Remember, when I bought mine, I was driving almost as much as you were. I put 30K miles on it in the first 12 months before my job changed. Even racking up the miles that fast, the risk still seemed to justify it.

You could have used this as an opportunity to do a LS1 swap.


Now you are stuck with the stock engine for another 60k miles.

I was thinking more along the line of any warranty eligible issues showing up fast. Didn't help that the extended warranty was $3K here. If I could have got one for $1500 I may have went for it.

Extended warranties are basically an over/under bet, and the house almost always wins. @extrashaky, I'm glad the gamble worked "to your benefit" this time.

All I can add is my personal experience. I have never purchased an extended warranty, but have tracked it against issues. Maybe I'm the other side of the exception, but I have never had a repair that would have been covered under an extended warranty period on the 8 or so cars I've purchased where that would have been available. So, if we take the $1,500 cost that is $12,000 I would have "thrown away".

The one time I did have an engine completely disintegrate in a car it was under the standard warranty, and well within it. 1998 Chevy Astro threw a rod and made a hole in the crankcase the size of a baseball. New engine went almost 200,000 miles and was still running when I got rid of it.