Originally Posted by Rob M
I agree with Ed. I've never understood why people pay in advance for repairs that aren't even that likely to occur. If I thought a vehicle was going to be a burden in repair costs, I would never buy it in the first place. I'm at the 6.5 year point in Crossfire ownership. Total repair costs $0. It's a little like gambling in a casino. A few people are "winners" and get more out of their service plan than they pay in. But the majority are losers. If you are financially able to self-insure against unforseen repairs, you are practically guaranteed to come out way ahead over a lifetime of owning vehicles by not buying these plans. If extended warranties were actually a good investment, they'd offer coverage for 150 or 200K miles for $2-3K. But there aren't coverage plans for when things are likely to break. In addition to keeping an emergency fund to self-insure you can also learn to perform repairs yourself (virtually every repair is documented on the internet somewhere) and keep an eye out for any "hidden warranty" repairs that the manufacturer may perform for
PR reasons (i.e. Toyota engine sludge). Plus, if your powertrain is covered for life what is likely to break that will result in a large repair bill?
I agree with you for the most part. I owned a repair shop and some warranties covered VERY little, and you do have to read the fine print. Most plans for appliances, electronics, etc---are a NO-NO! But when I purchased my SRT I bought the plan.
I had a 04 for three years and "self insured" it, it was only 2 years old when I bought it. I dodged a bullet when the alarm went bad, as it was under the cost of the warranty, but only by half. If I had kept the car to 70k, I would bet that my out of pocket expense would have been over the $1200 the warranty would have cost me, but we will never know since I sold her at 58k. I ,like you, did better.
My SRT is over 5 years old when I bought it with only 3000 miles on her now. At my cost of $2035 for the warranty, I will be covered for 70,000 MORE miles for 2.9 cents per mile. I do not think this car will be the burden that you stated, but a AMG built motor and trans can run up a bill quickly, so YES it's a bet, but as many SRT owners have stated a good one. Warranty on a Limited---well, a coin toss, and I can say this having owned both.