Buying Extended Warranty for 15 TDI

I picked up my Passat TDI 15 last night. We thought about the extended warranty offered, 5 year 100k for $2500. First offer was 3k. Could have rolled into into the 0% finance deal, but we passed. My husband usually doesn't go for extended warranties, (except for our business truck fleet) but now we are rethinking it.

We never had one tiny problem with my TDI Jetta in 6 years.

Anyone have an opinion? We can still get it, we would buy it outright. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Love my new passat, getting used to the 6 speed. Only stalled it out 3 times today. 30 years since I drove a stick, it is fun.

Why would you buy an extended warranty (insurance product) before the factory coverage expires?

Since most of the $$$ items are covered, you are not getting much for your $$$.
Sure... the tranny, electric and suspension is not covered....but you can self insure I'm since they are low risk compared to the $$$ for the warranty.
Just me.....if a car is good enough to buy, it's good enough not to buy extra warrenty coverage unless the coverage is GREAT and the cost very low.
If I start having lots of unexpected issues, I would sell....why keep a problem? THE Hassel even if the fix is free is the issue.

Ask to see the exclusions. I did, and found that nearly every part of the manual transmission, including nearly all of the DSG which is considered a manual by the warranty company, were not covered. What is actually covered is no where near worth the price on the one I was quoted. The pamphlet makes it sound like everything is covered, but the exclusions in the contract tell the true story. If they won't show you the exclusions, then you know for sure it's a rotten deal.

Do those VW extended warranties require deductible? One dealer person told me there were various warranty price points and coverages, has anyone seen this?

I was told VW does not offer ANY extended warranty on a new car. All extended warranties are third party. I even tried to buy CPO but was told no way

Thanks everyone.
The extended warranty is less expensive if you bought it early, vs waiting.
You are all spot on, what we were thinking, hence not buying it when we bought the car.
Thanks again.

If you read consumer reports and according to many experts, they all recommend not buying an extended warranty. Also you have the 36,000 mile and the 11 year emissions warranty, so I agree with ZippyNH, you aren't getting much for an extended warranty. I bought one once on a Jeep and the exhaust manifold cracked, known issue with he Jeeps at that time, and they did not covet it. I an 63 years old, and besides that one time, I have never bought the extended warranty and would have never need it on any of my vehicles. Must be pretty darn lucky or it proves consumer reports point, very, very few people ever use them and they are a cash cow for the insurance company. But if you happen to be the one needing it for an expensive repair, then is works out.

I had one for my '12 TDI. Was frettin over never using it . Till, just about 4K miles before its expiration, the "rear" EGR went. Got me money "back", right then and there.

I Also considered the extended warranty for my GSW 6MT, and the finance guy was pushing it pretty hard with a big discount, but I declined. My thinking is similar to above. Also the fact that all of the emissions/exhaust stuff already has a 162,000 mile, 11 year warranty.

VWMark said:

I Also considered the extended warranty for my GSW 6MT, and the finance guy was pushing it pretty hard with a big discount, but I declined. My thinking is similar to above. Also the fact that all of the emissions/exhaust stuff already has a 162,000 mile, 11 year warranty.

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also included in the warranty... "the engine long block ( heads, crankshaft ,cyl. head,camshaft and valve train) also the obd system and ANY malfunctions detected by the OBD systems..other than transmission related", that's alot of electrical!... doesn't get much better!!

forrest resto`s said:

also included in the warranty... "the engine long block ( heads, crankshaft ,cyl. head,camshaft and valve train) also the obd system and ANY malfunctions detected by the OBD systems..other than transmission related", that's alot of electrical!... doesn't get much better!!

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Exactly.
That's why they want to sell you a warrenty....it can't cover much!
The $$ items on a TDI are all covered.

Picking up used 2015 GSW SE 6MT. Third-party extended warranty runs seven years beyond VW CPO warranty, and the emissions warranty brings the price down to $2k. $100 deductible can be bought down to $0 for additional $400. Very short list of exclusions.

Electronics fail and aren't cheap. Infotainment center and pano roof, for starters.

Pays back in peace of mind and resale value, if not hard dollars.

vee-uu said:

$100 deductible can be bought down to $0 for additional $400..

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Doesn't that mean that you would have to make a warranty claim on five separate occasions in order to come out ahead?

cyclopropene said:

Doesn't that mean that you would have to make a warranty claim on five separate occasions in order to come out ahead?

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Four to break even, yes.

Keeping mine at $100 deductible.

A while back, I had GEICO's Mechanical Breakdown Insurance (MBI) and it was very good. It has a $250 deductible, but it's very inexpensive. In other words, it covers you for the big expensive stuff so you don't have a bad financial hit. That's what insurance is supposed to do, right?

Covers a lot more than most "extended warranties". It's only available for new cars and you have to sign up before the car has 15k miles. And I think you have to have GEICO as your car insurance.

vee-uu said:

Picking up used 2015 GSW SE 6MT. Third-party extended warranty runs seven years beyond VW CPO warranty, and the emissions warranty brings the price down to $2k. $100 deductible can be bought down to $0 for additional $400. Very short list of exclusions.

Electronics fail and aren't cheap. Infotainment center and pano roof, for starters.

Pays back in peace of mind and resale value, if not hard dollars.

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It's still a gamble. Likely it won't pay off. If you take this approach with every car you own, you'll almost assuredly be deep in the hole. Infotainment systems and pano roofs are expensive if you have the dealer do the work, but they're tons less expensive at independent shops and more so if you're willing to accept perfectly good used parts.

In the end you're got to do what makes you feel good about your purchase, but there's a reason extended warranties are such a heavily pushed profit center for dealerships.

PacCoastFwy923 said:

In the end you're got to do what makes you feel good about your purchase, but there's a reason extended warranties are such a heavily pushed profit center for dealerships.

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...and even if they weren't a huge profit center for dealerships, the underwriting companies are still going to make a profit. As with any insurance, on average, you lose. If it were otherwise, insurance companies wouldn't stay in business.

PacCoastFwy923 said:

Likely it won't pay off.

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In dollars, perhaps. With warranties, and insurance in general, if you're hoping to get paid off in claims, then you're betting against yourself. Like another poster who expressed "relief" that he had a major claim just before the warranty expired, thereby justifying his purchase. That attitude totally misses the point of worry-free enjoyment over the term of the policy. That's the payoff.

Most likely, I'll sell before the seven-year policy expires and recoup dollars then.

vee-uu said:

Like another poster who expressed "relief" that he had a major claim just before the warranty expired, thereby justifying his purchase. That attitude totally misses the point of worry-free enjoyment over the term of the policy. That's the payoff.

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Exactly !

I don't know about you guys, but I ALWAYS want my insurance companies to make money on me -- my auto ins co, my health ins co, my life ins co, my homeowners ins co. If I'm making money rather than them, that means bad things happened to me. I don't want bad things to happen to me.

Get it?

An extended warranty is insurance. As with all insurance, we buy it so that we transfer the financial risk of a future contingent event to a third party (i.e., the insurance company) and we pay them (i.e, in the form of premiums) to assume the risk that we don't want to assume.

So, it all boils down to how much risk are you willing to assume, and if it's less than 100%, how much are you willing to pay to have a third party take all or some of that risk off your shoulders. Then you have to decide if the cost of transferring the risk to a third party is worth it to you, or whether you'll just assume the risk yourself. Different people have different levels of tolerance for risk.

It's about as simple as all that.

PacCoastFwy923 said:

<snip>
In the end you're got to do what makes you feel good about your purchase, but there's a reason extended warranties are such a heavily pushed profit center for dealerships.

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Yes— I take "what makes you feel good" to = "peace of mind." If that's the only way that particular mental commodity can be secured, then by all means buy the extended warranty. But: for anything pertaining to fixing the car, they're pretty much a waste of money.*


* When we bought some appliances that had a nice warranty on the first seven years, I asked the salesman how about if we just made it on the second seven. He wasn't particularly amused.....

Rico567 said:

Yes— I take "what makes you feel good" to = "peace of mind." If that's the only way that particular mental commodity can be secured, then by all means buy the extended warranty.

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Right. For me, I get more peace of mind putting money into a rainy day fund that I can equally well use for fixing my car or replacing my furnace or buying a new bicycle, whichever I should find myself needing. And if I didn't already have a rainy day fund I'd buy a cheaper car...

cyclopropene said:

Right. For me, I get more peace of mind putting money into a rainy day fund that I can equally well use for fixing my car or replacing my furnace or buying a new bicycle, whichever I should find myself needing. And if I didn't already have a rainy day fund I'd buy a cheaper car...

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That's just it... and the cost of the repair will never exceed the value of the car. I insure my home, my life, my health, and my driving, because related expenses could ruin me and my family. But a phone, television, refrigerator, or car breakdown? No thanks.

It's along the lines of carrying a high deductible on my auto policy. I played with the numbers, and if my claims are no more frequent than one every three years, I'm saving money. In the event of a claim, paying a $1k deductible sucks, but in the long term, it costs me less than if I pay the extra monthly premium for a $250 deductible.

Of our three vehicles, there's probably $5k banked that's not paying for extended warranty, that could be used on any car repair (or anything else). If I factor the cars before them that we didn't purchase extended coverage for, that amount multiplies. Appliances, too.

Not to mention there's more angst expressed in posts on my various auto forums re: "which extended warranty?" and "won't honor my warranty!" and it's just such a relief to me to have the internal conviction to decline at purchase and not have to worry about the BS.