I bought a Pontiac Montana in the early 2000’s. Luckily my mechanic convinced me to pay for an extended warranty. The original warranty was only for 3 years, but I extended it two more years, and luckily I did. The car was a Lemon, and without the extended warranty I would have junked it much earlier.
As I chronicled a while back, I bought two more years warranty for my Van. This was under the advice of my regular mechanic (who makes no money off this van when it’s under warranty, so I respected his opinion). Last winter my wife ran into issues on a long road trip to Toronto. Thanks to the warranty, she got a loaner, and the Van was repaired on the weekend, all for no cost. I believe that part of the money I forked out was recovered in that incident.
The Van was leaking coolant (and overheating while sitting in traffic jams when the external temperature was only about 20 Celsius, so not good). We took it into the dealership yesterday and it is still there. The radiator leak has now begotten an oxygen sensor glitch, and possibly other issues, so we now have another car as a loaner while the Van is fixed. I am hoping that all this work will be covered by the warranty (it should, but you never know), so I assume that with this incident the extra money I forked out for the warranty will be covered.
Now yes I had to fork this money out about a year ago, so there is present value of money to remember, but I am grateful (so far) to my mechanic for telling me to get the extended warranty.
Now, does this mean you should get one? Well, you need to consider how much you are paying for it and whether the device or vehicle will need repairing (you need to research that first). In my case for this vehicle, I seem to have made the right decision (I'll update the blog if this is not the case).
Moral: Think about why you are spending your money and figure out the value of the service you are purchasing with your hard-earned money!
Warranties
- Warranties? why would you get one? Maybe you just need a good support structure?
- Warranties (Part ii) for cars? Are extended warranties worth the money? Yes, in my case.
- Warranties (again) are they worth having? More discussions on that topic.
- Warranties and Computers - should you really pay for this? I don't but I can usually repair it myself, except Apple products.
- Warranties a Final Thought - what parameters should you consider in your decision
- Extended Warranties: An Update explains why the extended warranty on my van saved me.
