Anyone ever bought an aftermarket warranty?

I've heard of these warranties you can buy for your used vehicle, will they really fix your car if it fails? Is there some crazy fine print? Will they cover major repairs, like say, a blown head gasket?

 

The warranty will pay to "fix" your car, and you can to use the money you saved to buy some land on the moon. Now, that is a solid investment.

 

You gonna buy one of these for the hotrod? I think this might be fizzling out, haven't seen as many commercials for it lately, you?

 

Maybe only worth it on a new car loaded with electronics & computers & even then its a crapshoot.

 

It's all a shell game. Smoke and mirrors.

 

i work at a dealership and i would not reccomend buying an aftermarket but factory extended is just like normal warranty

 

Good for the customer, bad for the repair shop. Theyre like insurance companies. They will try to get outta paying for anything. Ive dealt with several different companies. Been a few years but I doubt things have changed

 

Those warranties only cover vehicles upto 10 years old with limited mileage. Also, I bought an extended warranty for my '96 Dodge Ram a year after I bought it. It was for 7 years, what they didn't tell you was it was from the year you bought the car. I had a problem in the 7th year of the warranty but the 8th year of the truck. They wouldn't cover the repair and it was a factory extended warranty.

 

Depends on the vehicle, underwriter, and level of coverage you get. I write and sell vehicle service contracts right now and have for the past 6 years. There are tons of bullshit companies out there, and honestly, most dealership sold policies arent worth the paper they're written on. If you want some info, PM me.

 

We used to get them in the tranny shop I worked in, some were very good I called with a total and pics of the damage, they paid, others would fight me at every turn I remember that one would not pay for new fluid, they insisted that I reuse the old burnt fluid (I had to charge the customer for it no way I was putting that into my fresh rebuild) it got to the point we had to insist the customer pay us up front and let them fight with the ins. co. for payment. Keith

 

Protection money.....where have we heard that before?

 

Run Forrest run. Most of them are a racket whose only purpose is to separate you from your money.

Doc.

 

When I managed a large engine rebuilding company in MA - every car that came in with one of those warranties was a nightmare. The same guy denied a dozen or more claims saying that the engine was overheated.. when I asked how he knew that, he said cause the insides of the exhaust manifolds was blue... what!!!! - they are blue on all engines! and of course an engine is going to overheat when it blows.

I did see a few people get paid, but 9 out of 10 were denied for stupid made up reasons.

AB

 

Absolutely not!

 

Those policies are worth their weight in gold........to the guy selling them!

 

The wife got an extended warranty on here Silverado when she bought it new. it is for all intents and purposes an after market warrenty. It certainly isn't a GM warranty.

They have paid off so far on the piddley stuff that has gone wrong. But you do need to read the fine print. Her's has things like change the rearend lube @ 58,000 miles, flush the injectors etc. If this is not done by a repair shop or dealer so you can prove it is done it voids the warranty.

 

The real problem with those waranties is getting any shop to recognize them. When and if you buy, first determine what the policy covers, where it is accepted(which, if any shop), and how much will you have to pay out of pocket, and what is the recourse.

for information before you buy, enlist the aid of your state's insurance commisioner's dept.

 

Another problem would be the company itself. Are they even going to be around by the time you need them? Collect the premiums for a few years and when the claims start mounting up, they simply go bankrupt.

 

why not just send that money to me? I won't pay to repair your car either, but at least you will know that going in.

I'll give you a discont because you are a HAMBer.

 

They will do the absolute minimum repair to get the car back on the road. Notice the abscense of the word "safely"

Left front caliper locks up? You'll get one caliper, maybe pads. Probably no rotor. Yeah, thats good stuff.........

 

They are bullshit.We finally had to insist that the customers pay us then they could fight to get it back.I once had to wait a week with a transmission dis-assembled on the bench for an inspector to come and assess it. Asshole didn't know shit from shinola and tried to deny the coverage.No more dealing with after market warranties after that.....

 

...Only if you feel that you don't already pay insurance companies enough of your hard earned income!

 

I happen to be a lawyer, but this is only a story and not legal advice to anyone. A client/friend bought a new 4x4 vehicle with an extended warrantee and came to me with a problem.

He had added a suspension lift kit and larger tires (only about 1/4 inch larger diameter). After the factory warrantee expired, his starter and his serpentine belt tensioner failed. They denied the claim arguing that the vehicle modifications voided the warrantee.

I read the entire warrantee. While it was true that modifications that cause failures were not covered, there was obviously no relationship between the suspension mods and the starter, etc. They also claimed that the tire size modification rendered the odometer inaccurate so that the actual mileage may have exceeded the limit on the policy. This was ridiculous given the tire size and the odometer reading because he put minor oversized tires and was still 35K miles within the 100K mile coverage.

They did not back down, but when pressured they did refund the entire premium originally paid for the extended warrantee.

It also turned out that the warrantee company was the dealership in disguise (under a different corporate name). So for every car they sell, they pocket an additional $1200 or so for a warrantee that they deny claims on.

Now ask yourself: What car has not had some change in it over years of ownership that some a$$hole insurance company won't claim as a modification?

 

I sell cars at auctions for dealers .Stay away from after market warrantys .I never had anyone that sold a good one.

 

It also turned out that the warrantee company was the dealership in disguise (under a different corporate name).

I was Service Manager for a Hyundai dealer I won't mention the name of...Yes I will, it was MERCED Hyundai!
The owner was selling "Service Contracts" to customers, but not processing them...they went into a pile on the New Car Mgr's desk. The third customer that came in brought her attorney, who named me as the first party in a Big lawsuit.
The jerk-off owner hadn't honored my 90 day 'evaluation', he was 40 days late. When I asked him about the Service contracts, and my 40-day late 'appointment', he just said I would have to wait.
I had customers driving in the front door, 4 deep. I took my briefcase and walked to my BMW and smoked the tires leaving. (I was GONNA punch the lying bastard out!)

 

They were 1st initiated by P.T. Barnum. If you read it you'll find it covers all the shit that almost never breaks. Just like appliance companies and their extended plans. Most appliances are cover by the OEM for 5yrs or more. Pass.

 

this sounds like the best idea yet !!!!

those warraties claim to cover bumper to bumper and that IS TRUE !!!!
From the Front bumper all the way around the world to the Rear bumper , hence bumper to bumper

 

Wow! Another one of those threads where people get to bash something they know nothing about. What does this have to do with Hot Rods?

 

I had a GM extended warranty on my 'vette...it was absolutely an extension of the original warranty - which with GM means it sucked balls.

I'm currently in a BIG hassle with GM on my '08 Silverado with 60K on it. After dropping a valve and getting a new motor installed (while 3 hours away from home), the check engine light came on 20 miles from the dealership. Their answer - an emissions problem (emissions warranty ran out at 36K, power train to 100K), even though the codes pointed to an intake leak. Long story short - a lot of dollars spent, a lot of time invested, a lot of arguing with customer service in India and Mexico - when the valve dropped, the plastic intake got a hole melted in it and it wasn't noticed. The pass-the-buck game is still continuing, I've been offered a small sum for out of pocket costs, but I'm still out of use of the vehicle for over a month, had two vacations interrupted (once when it first blew, the second when I had to beg a second dealership to intervene and do the work on my dime and had to wait for a new intake with no truck to take on a 16 day camping trip). Once the vented intake was pulled, then Customer Service wanted to apologize!

I'm at the point now where I don't believe any warranty is worth the ink and paper it takes to print it. I've probably bought my last new car (definitely my last new GM), since the only reason to buy one is for piece of mind. I'll save the payment money for when I need to do repairs on something used.

 

I rarely bring up off-topic stuff, but this is the only place I knew to ask, plus it IS auto-related; I guess you could concieveably buy a warranty for a pre-'65 car?