Extended Warranty

[Quickbeam]

Am interested in your opinions on extended warranties. We will be buying a 2009 Mazda 5 this spring and am leaning towards not purchasing an extended warranty. Anyone have any experience with either wishing they did purchase the extended warranty, or having purchased it, found they wasted their money? I know it depends on the reliability of the vehicle, and from what I have read it would seem that the Mazda 5 is fairly reliable so that is why I am thinking I will not get the extended warranty. Any opinions or thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[x10dude]

Am interested in your opinions on extended warranties. We will be buying a 2009 Mazda 5 this spring and am leaning towards not purchasing an extended warranty. Anyone have any experience with either wishing they did purchase the extended warranty, or having purchased it, found they wasted their money? I know it depends on the reliability of the vehicle, and from what I have read it would seem that the Mazda 5 is fairly reliable so that is why I am thinking I will not get the extended warranty. Any opinions or thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks.

It is hard to say because the Mazda5 is a relatively new model to N. America and most are still under the standard warranty. But judging from the number of problems reported by owners in the past few years, looks like it is holding up pretty well. And also considering it has been around for a while in Europe and Asia (Premacy) it does have a good track record.

Extended warranties are debated over and over again. Even on a reliable car things can go wrong so it's really up to the buyer and their wallet vs. peace of mind.

If you end up getting one and something goes wrong after the standard warranty goes out, you look like a genius. But if it is reliable throughout then you end up looking like a fool.

(But just remember, everything is negotiable, esp. extended warranties.)

 

[stillageek]

I haven't bought a Mazda5 extended warranty but I did buy one for my wifes 2004 Toyota Prius. The dealer (part of the huge damn Gulf States Toyota Distributor...but thats another rant) wanted $1900. Wouldn't budge. I bought it from a dealer online which I found in the Pruischat.com forums for $960 all in. We ended up needing if for some AC compressor system replacement that ended up costing $1500. We paid $0. Okay we really paid $960 for it. Kinda irked me though as that AC compressor had been making an odd noise for over a year. Dealer said it was nothing. After it was out of warranty they brought it up during an oil change and told us the cost to fix. That's when I informed them of our warranty. Done.

 

[meackerman]

I bought one for my 08 Avalanche, but not from the dealer I bought my Av from. Found a longer warranty for less than half what the dealer wanted, even after the dealer's discount. Both warranties were from GM.

If you get one, I wouldn't buy one from anyone except the manufacturer. Too many extended warranty companies go out of bidness.

 

[remarquian]

My tack is going to be to wait until just before my warranty is up before deciding whether to buy one, and then if I do buy, price a Mazda warranty out online.

There is no reason to give a three year loan to the dealer and Mazda, right?

 

[Reyan]

if you buy an "extended warranty" your not buying a warranty. Look closely at your paper work and it will never say warranty, you will see something like service contract or maintaince contract, that is because only the original manufacturer can warranty an item, as per say that is why these extended warranties carry a deductable of 50 - 100 before any work is performed on your vehicle.The best time to buy one is just before your original warranty expiries because your mazda warranty is 3-36 bumper 2 bumper / 5 -60 powertrain, you really don't want to buy something you don't need. and at 20 for every 1000 you finance, buying and extended warranty for 2000 will add 40 to your payments per month, at a term of 60 months you will have paid 2400 for the warranty.

 

[AO928]

An extended warranty is like buying a lottery ticket. The insurer/underwriter has done their homework and knows within a few percent the anticipated average cost to maintain a car for the balance of the factory warranty through to, say... 100k miles.

The insurer has the advantage of selling several contracts at a price they have determined to be cost advantageous to them. If they have to pay more than they anticipated on one contract, they'll make it up on the others. Int he end, the average payout should be less than what they received in premiums for the warranty.

You, on the other hand, have the disadvantage of being a single consumer. The law of averages dictate that you will end up paying more in premiums for the warranty than you will receive in payouts. You might be one of the lucky ones, that hits the powerball and wins the lottery, but mostly... you loose.

SO, IMHO extended warranties are a waste of money.

 

[remarquian]

An extended warranty is like buying a lottery ticket. The insurer/underwriter has done their homework and knows within a few percent the anticipated average cost to maintain a car for the balance of the factory warranty through to, say... 100k miles.

SO, IMHO extended warranties are a waste of money.

I, in general, agree with you, but I think there are a few things one can do to improve your odds. They are:

1. shop around.
2. wait until the last minute to decide to purchase the extended warranty (ie right before the factory warranty expires). By waiting, you can make an informed the decision: if the car has been reliable, it'll tend to be reliable; if it hasn't it probably won't.

 

[schokie]

Does anyone know where I can get a good price on a manufacturer extended warranty these days? I had http://www.mazdawarrantys.com bookmarked and the site no longer exists.

Answered my own question after searching around some more. Here's the link that I first found that has actual pricing...http://www.authorizedfordwarranties.com/mazda/index.html

 

[jagass]

Actually I don't have idea about this called Extended Warranty...lol