mrhdream

Hi all!

Been loving my 2012 c63 coupe since purchase 2012.
Black ext, red/black int leather, lighting, navi, handsfree/keyless go, no LSD or PP. Perfect condition.

About 16500K miles, summer/spring driver.

Loving the new c63 205 coupe coming, thinking of moving to that.

Question is, worthwhile to purchase the extended 3 year warranty now in anticipation of trading/selling in 2016/2017?

I'm interested to know if I were to gain any increase resale value in the sale or trade in w/ a maintenance plan or not. Is it a difference if I were to trade in for new car or sell myself?
I'm seriously leaning to trade in for tax savings etc...

Any thoughts...? I am certainly planning on new vehicle in about 1-2 years time (so take a chance and go without extended warranty? ) and definitely leaning towards new c63 coupe.

thanks all

H

QWKSNKE

I don't see warranty adding value to the car.
But that is my opinion. Warranty has never impacted my decision on cars because I will no longer allow dealerships to work on my cars

computertom

A warranty is really for the present owner, not future. Regarding not getting one because you won't let a dealership work on your car, I've had a fair amount of work done by very solid independents via my 3rd party warranty. Happily paid my $100 deductible each time.

mrhdream

Thanks for replies.

Still curious about trade-in value.
Warranty for present owner makes sense in long term, but for my current predicament, we are talking about maybe 1 year extra after standard warranty has run its course.

Will I recoup the loss from the warranty w/ a trade in? Will that even be a factor? Wondering how much value overall a warranty adds to a car for trade in or for private sale?

Take the risk and go NO warranty for 1 year until new coupe is purchased?

thanks all
H

QWKSNKE

You have been very fortunate!
More than likely I will do my own work on my AMG just like I do on my other cars

rxavier1979

Isnt there an option for a 1-2 year warranty that you can get for yourself? Either way most warrantees are refundable Prorated to when you cancel. They are transferable if you sell to an individual. It won't raise your value with the dealership because they are probably reselling their own warranty to the new buyer so they don't need yours to do that. They make money reselling their vendors 3rd party warranty product.

I would just get a quote for a 1 to 2 year warranty and analyze the cost versus the risk of something happening before you traded in. I can see either side of the argument. Worst case if something does go wrong with it, you can eat the cost on the trade in value and let the dealership fix it up and prepare it for resale. I say this since it doesn't sound like it's your daily driver.

mrhdream

rxavier, thanks for reply buddy.

Sounds like doing a 1-2 year warranty to hold me over to new coupe is best option, for peace of my mind, and basically will have no expectations to recoup the cost of this in resale (trade in).

Now the waiting game for the new coupe!!!

ELITE_KOV

That makes no sense. You need to find a reputable dealer with experienced and reputable mechanics. Sounds like you had bad experiences with one dealer and blaming all others. I have one Mercedes dealer I've been going to for well over 5 years, on two E55s and will be for my C63. I'm on great terms with my service advisor and he knows I only want one AMG mechanic working on my cars. And the mech does a superb job.

I completely disagree that a warranty doesn't add value. It does. When I'm buying a used car, no matter how meticulously maintained and **** the owner was, you just never know with used cars.

The same exact car, same miles and condition, except one has a warranty and the other does not...damn well believe I'll be buying the one with warranty remaining for a period of time.

To say a warranty doesn't add value is just not true.

Please tell that to the E55 guys ... they'll laugh at you. Hell, any AMG owner.

mrhdream

thanks for post elite,

If I were a buyer I would certainly appreciate a factory warranty available and would probably pay more to have that. How much more, debatable....

So for peace of mind an extended warranty cannot hurt.

For sale, w/ a private sale I would expect the purchase price to be "better" w/ a warranty than w/o one, just not sure how much.

With a trade in to a dealership (say for a new coupe), it should be assumed that this will have no or minimal effect on trade in value?

thanks much all!
H

nycphotography

If you plan to keep the car, then the warranty is worth it. If you plan to NOT keep it (past the original warranty), then the warranty is not worth it.

I can get 1 to 3 years additional MB warranty on the SL. It's "listed coverage" but the list includes ALL the usual suspects, ABC, electronics, AC, etc.

And the price... MSRP somewhere is around $4400 for 24 months, unlimited mileage, tacked on to the end of a the 5 yr CPO warranty. Given what AMG parts cost and what dealership service costs, and that (in my case) it's a $180k car... I think it's actually quite reasonable. It obviously might be less reasonable if it's the same price on a $30k CLA.

I see lots of third party warranty's selling for a lot more than what this would cost, and they're a really useless unless it's a big enough repair to be worth dealing with the pain in the *** they make sure to put you through to get them to cover anything. Pre-inspect. Tear down inspect. Choose to cover one part, but not another, then pro-rate the labor some asinine way. Post inspect. It ads major time, cost and aggravation to any claim.

The MB warranty? Any MB dealership. "Just fix it."

But only if you expect to keep the car for the duration.

QWKSNKE

Nope, 3 dealers. Granted, they were not Mercedes dealers. It's OK though, I prefer to do my own work.

Like I stated in my post it is my opinion. Warranty adds 0 value from a cost perspective when selling/purchasing a car.

But it is obvious that most members here are not true hobbyists that work on their own vehicles like other branded automotive followers.

Besides why does any C63 owner feel they must spend the 4-5k on a warranty. These cars are solid. Only item that is a known failure (although rare) are the head bolts on the early cars or the occasional cam wear. Both can be fixed for less than the cost of a warranty.

deadlyvt

I never let anyone work on my cars either, dealers are pretty terrible in my opinion

ELITE_KOV

It's your opinion, doesn't mean that because you think warranty doesn't add value from a cost perspective makes it true. Opinions are like .....

And how the hell does me not working on my own cars make me any less of a hobbyist? The elite and snob nature of your post is pathetic at best.

you like to work on your own cars, great. Good for you. We are talking resale. The majority of the market are buyers looking for records, and seeing records from a Mercedes dealer is gonna be a lot better than any Joe Schmoe working on their own car because they are a "true hobbyist". Get real.

nycphotography

I dunno what is obvious and what is not. I would expect that the vast majority of MB owners are not lifelong grease monkeys.

I myself spent my life fixing all my own stuff... because I was able to and couldn't afford not to. Now I would PREFER not to work on my own cars. I would very much prefer not to. I just don't feel like it any more.

For ME, the extended warranty decision comes down amortized cost. Say I have a $30k CLA. I finance it 5 years, ballpark $650 /mo, hoping to drive it 7. If i can get 3 years warranty for, oh, $3000, that's an easy one to justify. 5 months against 24. But as the cost of the warranty goes up, maybe it's better to plan to trade the car at 5 yrs and take a 12 months pucker that last year.

Even doing my own work... I've had 3 vehicles let go at 5 - 6 yrs with heads, and 1 with the transmission.

Only once was I a few miles from home. The other three were hundreds of miles from home when they went. Cost to repair in each case would have been about what the car was worth, but then I have to deal with the distance thing, and end up driving a question mark. I was doing a lot of long trips, so being stranded would be a real problem. Different story from a commuter where I can tow it for $100, call for a ride, fixed it at my leisure. So in all four cases, I dumped them to whoever was willing to take them as is where is.

I dunno what numbers and thinking SHOULD apply to someone else's situation. Don't think I'd want to be so presumptuous as to assume I did either.

nycphotography

I didn't sense elite / snob... rather I sensed someone like I myself... good with hands, short of funds, and always knows how to do it himself for less.

I have to admit I myself have struggled with the transition from automatically spending time to save $... to having enough $ so trading $ to buy back some of my time.

QWKSNKE

Look dude, I stated twice that it was my opinion. Records, warranties, whatever. It's a crap shoot finding someone when you get ready to sell a car who gives a **** about them enough to pay extra for them.

I will tell you what is guaranteed to impact the price, mileage and overall condition.

The intent of my hobbyist comment was not to be snobby. You are correct, whether you work on your own car or not does not make a difference.
However, customizing, tracking them, showing them, and driving the **** out of them does. Seems like to many people on this forum like to keep them put up in a garage instead of driving them as they were meant to be driven because they are afraid they will break

QWKSNKE

Nycphotography,
I agree, now that I am in my mid 40's I have slowly transitioned some of my auto repairs on my other cars to a very close friend of mine who owns an Indy shop. Stuff that isn't fun like power steering/ac compressor replacements.
Internal engine work I still do myself though. Like you mentioned its hard to justify paying someone else to do it when you have the know how. After all, that money you would spend on labor can go towards more go fast parts

red60R

i think the only way you see benefit of the warranty is if you go private party on the sale. Buyers might be attracted to know that the car has coverage on it beyond the standard factory warranty. Peace of mind per say. The dealers won't care and they won't give you anything for it, matter of fact, you're better off just cancelling it if you trade and get the pro-rated refund for the unused months left on it.

realjones88

There's no way a warranty adds more value to the car than the cost of the warranty itself so it's break even most of the time. Only way you come out ahead if is something expensive gets fixed (covering the cost of the warranty) and then you sell the car with the added value of whatever warranty is still left. Given the low mileage I wouldn't bother.

If you trade the car to a dealer they will CPO it and would likely have you cancel the your warranty to get your prorated amount back.