Extended Warranty?

Hello All

My CPO Warranty is expiring at the end of the year and I am contemplating getting an extended warranty. I know lots of folks here will say stay clear of the dealer and DIY the services & repairs myself and with a good local guru.

I love love love my '11 SW. I got it with 38k miles and I'm at 59,750. I thought I would be driving more over the last two years, but my long commute has shifted to the train.

My local dealer has replaced the sunshade twice, replaced some electrical A/C components twice, along with some IC issues. There have been some other issues along the way, of which VW has covered almost everything, except the $50 deductible. I do not want to sell my car, nor do I want to trade it in for a new MKVII SW. I intend on driving my SW for a very long time.

That all said, I've gotten quotes from 1-5 years based on my current below 60k mileage and MY '11 for between 3-5k. Based on my average yearly mileage ~11.5K, would it be prudent to take the extended warranty?

I am reading through old threads and posts, but any additional experience would be appreciated.

My only comment: did the replacements you had done exceed the warranty costs?. Shoulda been a price somewhere on the form, estimated or otherwise. If they cost more, then the extended could be worth it. If you have no place warm & dry, no mechanical skills, tools or all the other stuff, it could be worth it. OTOH, if you are me, a cheap @$$, that takes everything as a personal challenge, then a resounding NO por donde Jose. YMMV an I cant give you a bettr answer

thx @piotrsko. The sunshade is going to be replaced for the third time. Over the summer there was a sunroof leak and water was in the cabin floor. A few other electrical issues have been expensive. I am going to run through my invoices to date.

Some of these repairs are definitely beyond my means. I do have some tools, am keen to learn, but limited space half of the time. I can and will do the minor fixes and repairs, but can't do the bigger jobs.

The prices were listed along with the range of VW coverage levels - I'll speak to them again and see what the firm prices may be. If anyone here opted in for the EW - I would be curious to know how good the vehicle coverage has been for you.

Read the contracts carefully regarding DIY, most require a licensed repair shop for maintenance invoices. Even VWPP extended warranty.

So you plan on driving the car 100,000+ miles? How much is your long term peace of mind worth? $2,000? $3,000? In many cases, one major part failure will amount to more than the cost of an extended warranty. In many cases there won't be any major component failures at all. It's a gamble really - So if you don't have the time, space & tools to DIY, you're probably better off keeping a decent credit card or purchasing a new warranty. In my opinion, It's really that simple.

Then extended warranty purchased with our '13 Golf brand new, extended the original 36k bumper to bumper out to 100k miles little or no deductible (can't remember exactly) for $1200, negotiated separately from the car's price. YMMV as yours is CPO. I don't feel as though $3-5k is a reasonable asking price. Seems like there must be some better deals out there. Look into coverage for drivetrain & electronics only, you save some money that way.

Read the tiny print on the extended. Mine has a $100 deductible and depends on what the issue is diagnostic and labor may not be covered and heard horror stories about them only wanting to warranty the failed part so if your hpfp goes and fills the motor full of shavings, the only replace the pump leaving you with the rest to pick up. I went in to make an appt to get my clock spring replaced since its keeps throwing a non cel lighting code but after finding out its a $75 part and I'd have to pay $100 for deductabke, $100-200 for diagnostic and labor. I just ordered the part and will do it myself. Its scary how much the fine print discloses and I was an idiot not to read past the 6th page. But I also hear it depends on the shop and adjuster so if the shops good and the adjuster is good they cover more. Me I may cancel it because no one will answer emails or calls to the warranty people, because it says in have to take it to selling dealer. Well what if you are no where near it or on bad terms with that dealer? Thankfully my new mechanic should I need it for major stuff said he knows the loopholes but cannot do any vw electrical stuff.. Dammed if you do and dammed if you don't with these extended warranties.

people make a lot of money selling extended warranty contracts.

who do you think pays for that?

thx guys for the added viewpoints. I really love my TDI, though I dropped it off a week ago today. My dealer's service dept is good, I do trust them to handle most of the fixes. Now I'm not sure if I trust the reliability of the pano roof, electrical systems , a/c, intercooler, and hpfp, but having some level of coverage on those items would make me sleep a little bit better.

I know I need to read the fine print and find out everything that they will cover if I were to get the coverage. I don't have a reliable space to learn how to do some of the work myself, yet. But hopefully soon. I'll keep digging tonight and report back after I have a conversation with the service guys tomorrow. thx everyone.

Everyone's situation is different and every extended warranty on the market is different, so what's right for one person may be totally wrong for another.

Extended warranties are a big profit center for car dealers; the "business manager" (or "finance and insurance person" or whatever the job title) will typically twist the customer's arm to get them to buy an extended warranty. Because it's a good deal for the consumer, or because the dealerships makes a healthy profit on it? Or maybe both?

My wife was an extended warranty buyer for years; I didn't say anything, because if she had a major expense without the extended warranty I'd still be hearing about it. I was so proud when she finally bought a new car and responded to the salesperson's horror stories of expensive repairs by telling him that he made it sound like she was likely to have problems with that car so maybe she would buy another brand.

Nice story S2000. Kudos to your wife, she did the right thing. If I were buying new, this would be a different matter. I did sit in the new 2015 Golf and Jetta. The fit was not as comfortable and the finish was not as good as the MKVI. Maybe they had lower specs in these showroom models.

update: I went to the dealer today to pick up my car. All fixed up and after reviewing the bill and all of the issues with the Pano & IC, I am glad I have the CPO warranty.

Went to talk to the finance rep and she slashed over 2200 off the warranty prices. I didn't have to push that hard either. Really. I plan to run the numbers again tonight, and go back in tomorrow to push a bit more on the prices. If she gives me a good 3 year coverage plan under 1500, I would take it.

I've read so many of the threads here, and it does come down to how good your car has fared so far. if you have had a lot of issues, your car *may* be more likely to have more problems down the road. this is somewhat conjecture, but given the fact that my pano screen has been replaced for the third time, I believe the probability of it happening again may be higher. Thus, an extended warranty would pay for itself in one visit to replace the pano screen.

While I believe in heavily investing and saving your money, my car may be better off with a warranty extension. If my car were a bit more solid with these little electrical and pano issues, then a savings/investment account would be more prudent. Make the decision based upon everything you know about the car. e.g maintenance data and driving habits. If the data supports more coverage, then do it. Otherwise invest your money in a separate account and only use if necessary. If you don't end up using it, you'll have a DP for your next car.

Everyone's situation is different. For example, from '94 to '13 we had a third car (two drivers in the household). That takes the pressure off if a car is down; if we needed it to get to work the next day things would have been different. Not everyone has that luxury.

It sounds like you're doing the right things: studying the fine print and not just accepting the first price they offered. Good luck to you with your JSW; I'm really liking my '14 JSW so far.

msantram said:

My local dealer has replaced the sunshade twice, replaced some electrical A/C components twice, along with some IC issues. .

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What's an IC issue?

Extended warranty coverage is just an insurance policy. All insurance is a bet by gthe insurance Co that the cost of repair will be covered by the whole pool of insurance fees. Of course the Co's money ,they would be out of business if they didn't. BUT for those who have a policy and have a disaster with the car,they have coverage. We all buy insurance for a fire in our house and most of us never have a fire, this doesn't mean we shouldn't have had insurance.

Get your policy,read the fine print and sleep well.

I got one for both our VW's when we first bought them. They were 'purchase price refund' warranties. It's my understanding we can cancel them before they are up as long as they are not used, pay a $50 processing fee, and receive the full purchase price of the warranty back. Although I just read the fine print and there is a maximum refund which means we loose $400 if we never use the warranty on the Touareg. Somehow I feel that warranty will get used up

I have just about another 25,000 miles to go on the jetta before I'm outside of that warranty. I'm actually on the board reading about a sensor that I have a code for. It's about a $150 repair if I do myself, I'd rather not blow my warranty on that since it's a $100 deductible anyways. I picked up VCDS just to avoid the BS "$100 diagnostic charge" at the dealerships. I hoping to just cash the warranty out in a year after not needing to use it.

For fuel peace of mind, I try to fill up at BP anyways and they have documentation that I've found that if BP diesel causes damage that they will cover damages.

higgledy said:

What's an IC issue?

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Intercooler?

showdown 42 said:

Extended warranty coverage is just an insurance policy. All insurance is a bet by gthe insurance Co that the cost of repair will be covered by the whole pool of insurance fees. Of course the Co's money ,they would be out of business if they didn't. BUT for those who have a policy and have a disaster with the car,they have coverage. We all buy insurance for a fire in our house and most of us never have a fire, this doesn't mean we shouldn't have had insurance.

Get your policy,read the fine print and sleep well.

Click to expand...

Insurance makes sense because it protects against catastrophic losses -- that is, things that might bankrupt you or otherwise cause severe hardship. That is, things like your house burning to the ground, an extended illness, or an auto accident in which there's significant property damage or personal injury. Yes, insurance may also help out with a fender bender or pay for a flu shot, but that's not why you buy it.

Outside of totaling a car in an accident (which of course is covered by your auto insurance), few auto repair scenarios involve truly catastrophic losses. Sure, you might have to pay $500, $1,000, or even more than that for some things, but it's extremely rare that a problem will even approach the value of a car -- at least, not until it's so old that it has almost no value. Furthermore, repairs in the first three years (and more for some subsystems) will be covered under warranty. After that time, the car will be worth far less than its purchase price.

Another way to think of extended warranties in general (not just for cars) is to aggregate them. That is, if you never buy one, you will run into situations in which you'll need to repair or replace an item. You don't know what will fail, though -- will your refrigerator die, will your car need a new transmission, or will your TV need to be replaced? If you buy extended warranties on all of these items, and everything else in your house, you'll almost certainly pay more for the warranties than you'll pay the fix or replace the one or two things that break. Thus, you're better off setting aside the money that you might have paid on extended warranties into a "rainy day fund" to help pay for repairs or replacement items.

Statistically speaking, there are winners in the extended warranty game. The trouble is that the winner is almost always the seller of the extended warranty. On rare occasion, the consumer will win, but if you set aside the money for all your not-purchased extended warranties as I just described, it's very unlikely that the fund will run dry.

FWIW department:

1. Geico - for under $7/month - offers what they call MBI.

2. This may prove useful in an extended warranty sense.

ez

"For instance, Geico offers MBI only to its auto insurance customers, and only if the vehicle is less than 15 months old with fewer than 15,000 miles and the owner is the first title holder. Customers pay a flat $250 deductible, can renew MBI coverage for seven years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first, and the policy is not transferable."

Read the fine print and talk to the warranty rep on the phone (or claims adjuster). The VWPP warranty that is endorsed by VW but administrated by LGM (in Canada at least) has lots of interesting stuff in the fine print
-NO emission coverage, meaning no DPF coverage, exhaust temp sensors, O2 sensor
-must be maintained by a licensed repair shop
-no salt damage coverage like ABS tone rings from cracking/swelling and wiping out the sensors
-no HPFP coverage-the way I understand it they will claim bad fuel and basically deny any claim on the fuel system due to contamination
-there is a value limit on the policy to market value on the vehicle just like car insurance, if the HPFP goes and wipes out the fuel system or the intercooler ices up and wipes out the engine and they wish to cover it, chances are you will be out of a car.
I spoke with he claims agent before going in to speak with the "closer", I was not impressed with what he had to say. Now the dealer was REALLY upset when I mentioned this, claiming he said things that were out of line. Basically the selling dealership makes all the calls when it comes to covering the extended warranty since it is a VW endorsed one, but I wonder...I think it is just two layers of denial instead of one! We did not buy it they would not negotiate on price at all. My Mom bought at another dealer and they offered $700 off without asking...

SRS5694 said:

Another way to think of extended warranties in general (not just for cars) is to aggregate them. That is, if you never buy one, you will run into situations in which you'll need to repair or replace an item. You don't know what will fail, though -- will your refrigerator die, will your car need a new transmission, or will your TV need to be replaced? If you buy extended warranties on all of these items, and everything else in your house, you'll almost certainly pay more for the warranties than you'll pay the fix or replace the one or two things that break. Thus, you're better off setting aside the money that you might have paid on extended warranties into a "rainy day fund" to help pay for repairs or replacement items.

Statistically speaking, there are winners in the extended warranty game. The trouble is that the winner is almost always the seller of the extended warranty. On rare occasion, the consumer will win, but if you set aside the money for all your not-purchased extended warranties as I just described, it's very unlikely that the fund will run dry.

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Exactly. My first reply is congruent with this. Most owners will be well covered with $2000 - $5000 in available cash or credit set aside for that rainy day scenario when something expensive fails outside of the original 36k mile warranty.

Had I not negotiated such a discounted on an extended warranty I would have most definitely foregone the additional coverage and took a chance paying out of pocket for whatever repairs will be needed during +150,000 miles of ownership.

For those however that are out of warranty and still want some peace of mind, the fact that 3rd party providers offer financing is a compelling compromise.

[QUOTE
For fuel peace of mind, I try to fill up at BP anyways and they have documentation that I've found that if BP diesel causes damage that they will cover damages.[/QUOTE]



VWOA, as of now are covering all HP failures. I know a guy that had a 2010 Jetta fixed without issues. No cost to him.