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