I really wasn't sure where to post this thread. I hope I got it right. The 3-year, 36,000 mile extended warranty on my 2007 CooperS runs out next week. I paid $1,800 and change for it. I got it all back, plus some. My first extended warranty when I bought my dad's four year old Audi allroad quattro with it's twin turbo V6 and air suspension, and knowing it was a fantastic vehicle that was also a ticking money bomb, I paid $3,600 for a three-year, 36,000 mile extended warranty. It turned out to be a bargain. They paid out over six-grand for covered repairs on that car. I paid about $1,800 for the same coverage on my 2007 MINI CooperS, and I don't have an exact total, but they paid over a thousand bucks just today. In both cars, I got more back than I paid in. I'm thinking that one possible reason I got more back than I paid in is because I am a car enthusiast, so I take maintenance very seriously. I notice things most car owners wouldn't notice. Just curious, has anyone else had experiences with extended warranties, and have they been as positive as mine? CD
I've only bought 1 extended warranty. It was for my 2005 Forester XT. For me it was a complete waste of money. Not one extended warranty repair needed. If I was to buy an R56 MCS I would buy an extended warranty for sure. I keep cars a long time & know I would most likely make out with the warranty.
I bought one for my S just after the 3-year ran out, but, since the car was still pretty new, I never got much out of it. This surprised me, because I had always spent the extra dinero for extended warranties and had gotten far more from them than what I had paid for them. When I bought my wife's current S, used, in 2012, I was able to buy another 3-year extended warranty [it runs out next March]. I has been well worth the money and my trust in them has been renewed [it's $100 deductible, but I have saved almost $3k since buying the warranty, so far]. Money well spent.
My wife's '06 MCSa has had multiple owners until us, but, when we bought it, it only had 26k on it in 2012. I had no idea what kind of misuse it had had until us, so I went with the extended warranty...good thing, as the car had never had any service warranty work done before us. The deductible has saved our arses over the last 2.5 years.
So far, so good. When I was at the dealer this week, they had to order some parts and they just came in today, so I get to make another appt. and will be delving into that warranty again. Earlier this week, 2 recalls saved me over $900, one on the passenger seatbelt/airbag, and the other on a bad O2 sensor, so that cost me nothing other than the time and gas to get there and back home again. Yeah, you can say I am satisfied with the money spent. As stated earlier, I still have until mid March of next year or another 6-7k in miles before the warranty runs out. I'm pretty sure some will be spent on a new bumper, because my wife seems to enjoy rearranging the front aero bumper on her car to where we are almost at a replacement. She just doesn't understand that they are low and crack when she runs the car against those concrete parking blocks. :frown2: :mad2:
The key to getting the maximum out of an extended warranty, IMHO, is to be really anal. If I see, hear or feel anything I don't like, I point it out when my car is in for scheduled maintenance. If the technicians find a legitimate problem, my MINI Service Advisor calls the warranty company, and files a claim. Another part of being anal is knowing what your particular model of car is prone to failure. My twin turbo, air suspension Audi allroad quattro had a reputation for certain problems, and I knew what those problems were, and watched for them. Same thing on my MINI. Over the last three years, almost every problem I had involved a fluid leak, which is common to my car. So, I looked for signs of fluid leaks. If you are not a little bit anal, and wait until you see oil or coolant on the floor of your garage, your warranty could run out before you seek repairs. I keep my engine clean, and look for seepage, which can start long before a leak drips on your garage floor. I just had two oil leaks repaired on my R56 CS that a lot of people would not have noticed, because they were seeping very slowly, so there was no oil spots on my garage floor. There was oil in places on my engine that oil should not be. The MINI tech found out why. The extended warranty paid for both leaks. Am I cheating? No! I paid hard earned cash for an extended warranty. I read the coverage, and paid the price they asked for my policy. If a gasket is leaking, it doesn't matter whether or not oil is dripping on my garage floor. A leak is a leak. Like everything else we spend money on, we really have to be smart consumers. CD
Sounds like she's got no skin in the game. No incentive to question her parking behavior. I think the trick would be to bolt something near and dear to her heart to the front of the bumper for a week. Something that will be destroyed if she pulls up too far into a concrete parking block. You decide what to use. Perhaps you could attach her phone there on the front bumper? I'd bet that would produce an immediate change in her parking habits.
Hahahahaha...she's pretty cautious...too much so. When I drive her car, I get about 30 mpg but when she has been driving it, the mpg dips to about 21 and her avg. mph is like 19.8! I keep telling her to at least go the speed limit to bump up the mileage...dunno what I'm gonna do with that woman! I'm just glad it has not been modded.
Along the same lines, my wife (now ex-wife) was a car killer. She hit things, ran over things, never got the car washed (I did that for her), curb-rashed the wheels... just trashed her cars. Then, one year, she was due for a new car, and she had always dreamed of owning a Mercedes. We had the money for one, and I agreed to getting one, on the condition that SHE had to take care of it. She took fantastic care of that car. She finally, "Got It." She just needed to needed to understand what it is like to "love" your car. CD
In the past 6 months, my Maxcare extended warranty paid for 17,000 $ American in repairs on my 2010 MCS with only 53,000 miles on it. I win!
Warranty companies are in business to make a profit. They take in more money than they pay out. Some customers will come out ahead, most won't. So it depends on your situation, history and reliability of your particular car, and your risk tolerance.
112K on our Clubby and only recently has it begun needing some work past the factory warranty*. I don't plan on getting the extended warranty on the Coupe... *Fuel injectors needed replacement around 45K
THERE IS A WHOLE THREAD SOMEWHERE.... Basically, the car over heated sitting w a/c on in April, right at 50k, 6 separate visits, twice the time in loaner cars as in my own last 6 months. I have it back a little over 2 weeks now, and it has a CEL on again. They replaced the entire top end of engine, charging system, most of cooling system and more, but they refused to do an entire replacement motor, which may be the next step. 4 prior cars w extended warranties I never used once, this time it was a boon. I guess it more than evens out suffice it to say, I'm a little bummed about the cars reliability, and the dealers service, but somehow I still love that little red piece of $h1T....