Off to fly and buy, should I consider aftermarket warranty?

So I am doing it, cashiers check in hand plane ticket purchased. I jump on a plane later this afternoon to fly to Arkansas to pick up this.

http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicledetails.xhtml?ownerId=69996743&searchRadius=0&listingId=405410643

While the car itself is super low mileage, and has been maintained well it is outside everything but the corrosion warranty from the factory due to age. These cars are known to be reliable as far as I have found but are there any big gotcha's or other things that would make me want to look into aftermarket warranties?

What are the good options if any for those? I know people were lauding the Carmax ones for a while to cover depreciation special expensive cars.

If you go for it, read the exclusions list. So far anything on my VW (that came with an aftermarket warranty) that wore out or broke has not been covered, i.e. front wheel bearings. However, the warranty does cover the engine parts (turbo). Also, find out what they pay for shop rate. It is usually less than the average rate. And if a bearing in the engine fails, they will only pay to replace that bearing and maybe assoc. parts.

TL/DR, just read the fine print.

I don't know about the warranty but it looks like beautiful car.

I spent a few years working in dealership garages, and bad experiences with aftermarket warranties outnumber the good experiences by 10-1. I wouldnt buy one ever. You pay up front, so what incentive do they have to take care of you?

Any warranty with a huge list that goes into detail on what it covers is garbage IMO. You'll see a huge list of things that are covered meanwhile there is a gigantic list of things which are not covered that all relate to the things that are covered which they then used to justify not covering anything.

Usually, these things are not really worth it. You're just really playing a guessing game even with the CPO warranties that the manufacturers give out, which IMO are a bit better on coverage than the aftermarket guys.

Pretty much all of these warranties cover nothing wear related, which is the majority of the things that will break before the warranty expires. Sure they cover large component failure, like the engine or transmission, but that's because those items are usually very unlikely to break during the warranty period.

I've bought several and never gotten my money out of them and then just stopped buying them.

Yeah, you want to get a policy where they list the EXCLUSIONS (if you get one at all). Those that only list the INCLUSIONS generally screw you over more. If going through a CU for loan, they usually offer decent bumper to bumper coverage for cars newer than 7 years with less than 75k(?). We opted for one with the wife's C240 and it paid for itself within one visit (motor mount, valve cover gasket and something else I can't remember).

Interesting, the car actually is financed through my credit union so it would be easy to ask them.

cdowd wrote: I don't know about the warranty but it looks like beautiful car.

Thanks I am pretty excited, diesel up to 40mpg highway, room for my 2 car seats and has radar cruise and all the goodies.

I could have paid the same for a new Honda Accord so it seemed like a no brainer.

I'll tell you, We definitely used our warranty for our German car. I wouldn't look at one with out it. Paid for itself in one visit. CU's usually have good connections for service packages. I got mine through the CU. Like it was said, look at one with an excluded list and not an included list. Usually that is much better quality.

If this was really a concern, why did you wait until hours before you left to check into it?

Get one with "technology" coverage. Modules, control units, solenoids, and relays failing are going to be the most common problem on a car like that. Most warranties only cover basic mechanical failures, which is pretty much useless on modern luxury car.

Also-buying the extended warranty while the factory warranty is still valid drops price considerably.

Make sure the barstards are going to hold it for you before you get on the plane.

I would never buy a warranty from any party that is not the vehicle manufacturer.

Sky_Render wrote: I would never buy a warranty from any party that is not the vehicle manufacturer.

This. These companies will use the cheapest parts possible and not give 2 E36 M3s if it takes 5 visits to fix the same problem. NEver ever ever buy one of those things.

The Carmax warranty is the only one I'd trust as I have a lot of experience processing them. Damn near everything is covered. Tail lights melted on an E90 BMW, covered. $1000 C350 alternator and $400 PS pump(plus mucho labor)- covered.

You need to have someone who knows how to submit to the warranty group. They will occasionally say "need better diag and better failure description." Many shops will just tell the customer its not covered at that point. They want to know why something failed and how you came to diagnose the failure.

Needs wheel bearing will not suffice.

Should say "test drove vehicle, confirmed noise. Ran on lift, used stethoscope to pinpoint noise in RF wheel bearing. No perceptible play, but noisy due to loss of internal lubrication, not user serviceable."

I've gotten many stupid things covered, and submitted a lot of things expecting a rejection to be surprised. Like a Mini that the customer ignored a noise on. And a coolant light. Blown turbo, blown head gasket, no coolant, water pump about to fall out, etc. No oil on dipstick. No service records except one 15k ago just a receipt at a store. This is the exception to the rule but you need to know how to submit something.

As someone who has worked in the German car repair business for 20 years, I know a good warranty is worth every penny.

I had one regular customer that bought a top of the line warranty for his 2004 VW Passat. We charged out over $10K to that company over the lifetime of his ownership. Not bad for an initial $2K investment.

Plat the odds.

More likely the warranty will end up costing more.

Or put a monthly payment into a separate savings account.

Nice car..............I wouldn't buy a warranty.

Looks like before I buy a warranty I will do a lot more research and find a reputable one and also check with my trusted mechanic to see if they know how to work with any.

iceracer wrote: Plat the odds. More likely the warranty will end up costing more. Or put a monthly payment into a separate savings account.

This^ Buy a warranty but be the warranty company. So if the warranty was going to be 2k, stick that in an account and let it sit for the warranty period. Odds are in your favour, that is how the insurance company gets rich.

If you do go this way, when you DO have a repair, read the warranty list from the Warranty company and ask yourself it it would have been covered. Most of the time it is not. I don't know how warranty companies deal with the electrons portion of the car, but if it involves a part that moves, its a "Wear Item" so while technically the engine is covered, the bearings and lifters and pistons are not.

Ad is gone. So what is it?

IME, the aftermarket warranties that are worth buying are only for sale while the car is still covered under the factory warranty. The assumption is that if you buy it while the factory warranty is still in effect, then the car is in mostly-working order because anything that's broken got fixed under the warranty. If the factory warranty has expired, however, then the assumption is that there's a big pile of stuff on the car that's already broken that you want them to pay for.

Put that money in a jar/account someplace instead.

I bought the car and drove it back this weekend. Here is my build thread. I don't plan on buying a warranty at this point I have enough savings I can afford to maintain/take care of it anyway I have not read of any grenades that this car seems to be sitting on the W212 chassis mercedes seem to be much improved over some of the earlier 2000 stuff

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/2011-mercedes-e350-bluetec-a-palladium-silver-rock/104524/page1/#post1865145