We just bought out my buddy's lease on a 14 Odyssey. Of course on the way home I stop at another friend's house who tells me about his 15 dodge minivan that he just got for $15k from a dealer with a LIFETIME bumper to bumper warranty.... argh. too bad swmbo already drove this loaded honda and i'd never pry it from her hands :)
anyway, the question is actually about the warranty: Technically, my buddy turned the car back to this dealer and I bought it from the dealer. As such, they offered a 6yr/100k warranty for $2500. (Car has 33k). I have NEVER bought a warranty. I ALWAYS do my own work and have never looked back.
But with a loaded honda with more computers on it than the apollo program, and with odysseys munching trannies at 80k, I was torn. I finally decided against it.
30 minutes later, I am signing a mountain of paperwork (even though we paid "cash" - wrote a check - we still had to fill out all of this paperwork) and the finance guy, different than the salesman, asks if we want the warranty. I said no, and he said he could do it for $1750. Hmmmm, this is much more interesting.
I waffled and finally told him the most I'd pay was $1500, not even sure if I wanted it at that.
He countered with $1600. My buddy slyly told me the guy would do $1500, so I told him i couldn't do more than $1500, and he took it. So I took it. Was I taken?
Later he told me that it was only about $100 more than their cost. Whether true or not, I am hoping I made a good decision.
Interestingly, I can back out and get a pro-rated refund. Would you have done the same thing or something else?
Warranties are generally a scam, but you have peace of mind for 6 years. That is worth the $1500 IMHO.
The usual question is - was it an OEM Honda warranty extension or an aftermarket one? Aftermarket ones usually aren't recommended due to the high number of fly-by-night operators.
I dont do warranties but i dont do new cars either. Id say thats $1500 well spent and hope something breaks to get your moneys worth or just be happy with the piece of mind. Like you say if the trannys are known to go south, i can bet one would be possibly double the $1500 you spent. Id call it money well spent even if you dont need to use it in the next 67k
I am pretty sure you can buy the extended Honda warranty for much less. Search online. You can buy it at any point as long as the car is still under warranty.
Of you decide to keep this one, check and see what it covers and whether it has a deductible.
I had the extended warranty on the Passat. It had paid for itself after the alternator took a dump ($600) and the AC stopped cooling ($1200) so when the timing chain went away ($9500) I was in the black and they had lost money.
On newer and expensive cars I think they are a wise investment.
I hope it is not this product know as Warranty Forever®
Warranty Forever
My girlfriend bought an extended warranty on her (at the time) three year old '09 Nissan, from the Nissan dealer. I don't know if it was Nissan-backed, or how much she paid, but she was very glad she had it back in January. The steering lock module, for the PBS, puked. The repair bill would have been $1156.
I don't buy them on my cars since either they're old and not from a dealer or I'm planning on modifying it as things break or I get bored.
The wifes '06 Xterra has the Nissan backed one on it. It's paid for itself a couple of times over now. The transfer case exploded on it then the rear axle developed a leak which required the replacement of the entire rear end apparently. There's been a couple of of other minor things in there too. I only bought it for her because I travel a lot for work and she wanted to make sure everything would be taken care of if I were away.
The only item that was not covered was the timing chain guides which wore away. I caught the sound of something going wrong and had her take it in. Since it didn't cause any damage they wouldn't cover it.
I got an extended (non oem) warranty on a used Volvo 850 wagon I bought some years back. I paid
$1500. I got back about $1000 on repairs before the warranty ran out. Some repairs weren't
covered, so, I was ok with it.
Well, I normally don't buy them but when I bought my first E36 M3 I paid about $2k over market for the CPO car to get the warranty. I was using the car to instruct for the BMWCCA and it was doing over 30 days a year - some years 60 days at the track. That extra $2k paid for a new transmission, new wheel bearings, rotors, a couple axles and cats. Money well spent IMO. The service advisor was well aware of the way I used the car - I ran into him in the paddock a few times. They never once balked at honoring the terms of the deal.
So, I guess it all depends on if you expect to get your money's worth and if the company is good about not making it a hassle. I just declined to buy one for my wife's Outback because I can't see any parts that typically fail between the stock 36k, 3yr B2B deal in excess of $2500 before she will be done with the car.
Sounds like I didn't make a gross mistake but I need to learn more about the warranty. It is a $50 deductible but I assumed it was a Honda warranty, whatever that might be. Sounds like it could be another entity...
You'll want to have a look at the contract. I've seen all sorts of nasty gotachas in some of them:
- Tying you to one dealership's service department
- Spelling out a long list of exactly what parts they cover - and leaving most of what actually breaks off that list
- Requiring massive amounts of documentation on every bit of maintenance
- High deductibles that are more expensive than most repairs, although you've avoided that one at least
The Warranty Forever thread is a good example of a really bad extended warranty contract.
There are typically 2 different types; one that lists out everything that is covered (inclusions) which is less-complete, and one which lists everything that they DO NOT cover (exclusions). You are better off with the one showing what it doesn't cover, as the "Inclusion" ones can be sneaky with what they choose to cover.
Example, if some random ECU or knob breaks that isn't listed on the policy, no coverage. We've had good luck with the exclusion-type policies with a couple of our cars in the past. If you keep it for the full 6 years I find it hard for it to not be a good thing, as it wouldn't take much for it to pay for itself (and you get 6 years of piece of mind regardless).
