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
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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.
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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.
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