Extended warranty

[porbox]

I have a '00 E430 that has had quite a few common repairs covered under the warranty ( MAS, both rear window regulators, radio, dash pad, ABS/ESP controller, and probably a couple of other things I can't remember at this time). All the repairs have been handled quickly and efficiently by the dealer under the new car warranty. When I bought this car, I foolishly thought that at that price it would be bulletproof, and did not elect to get the extended warranty. Since it is still under factory warranty I am getting mail from the dealer about an extended warranty, however, I think it is after market warranty and not provided by MB. My local indepent mechanic, who I trust implicitly, advises me to get an extended warranty (BTW he does not sell them), even if I have to get it through the MB dealer. Does anyone have any experience with extended warrenties from the dealer and/or any after market warranties? Any advise would be appreciated.

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[Randy B]

I bought one through Warranty Gold, for my 99 E430, and for my Parents 99 E320. Both of us have not had a problem with them. Each has used them once so far since being out of warranty. What I liked about them was they prefer you go to the dealer rather than an independant, and they pay by Visa over the phone with the dealer.

[Richard / E320]

Since the dealer is sending you information on an extended warranty, is it Starmark or aftermarket?

I purchased the Starmark extended warranty when my vehicle was new and have never used it; even if I never do, I still feel it was worth the $1150 to have seven years of coverage...

[PA28150]

I am convinced the Starmark warranty is not what it's cracked up to be! Took my 2001 E430 in to the dealer to repair the driver's side foglight wiring (there have been postings on this particular problem).

The darn thing had been acting up since February, but I was in no rush to go in (primarily because it's a pain, secondly because I knew it was under warranty). So, when I got there, I had clicked over the factory-warranty 50,000 miles. No problem...or so I thought!

Strange as it may seem...the repair was NOT covered under warranty. This despite the fact my salesman and I read the extended warranty paperwork, which said covered components included "wiring, and wiring harnesses."

What did they have to replace to fix the problem? A WIRING HARNESS ! But this particular WIRING HARNESS apparantly doesn't qualify...Go figure! I didn't know there was discrimination among wiring harnesses...

Naturally, the Service Department knew nothing of this W210 problem (so, I "educated" them). The "repair code" that popped up for this was not listed among covered items.

Fortunatley, the dealer took care of it from their "goodwill" program - which I appreciate. Suffice it to say, I'm not at all happy with MB trying to weasel out of this on some technicality.

Don't look now, but your MB warranty has holes all through it!

[rob_fed]

I am in the same boat. I will probably purchase an extended service warranty when the MBZ is up. On a similiar note, I had a '94 BMW 540ia and I purchased an extended service warrently through the Heritage company. The car had about 80k miles when I got the warranty. I did get my money via these repairs: upper control arm bushings, transmission mounts, left head gasket (V8) and all associated parts to get to the head gasket - gaskest, hardware, and the crankcase ventilation valve (not call PCV on a Bimmer, but the same funcition). Also, forget, the entire driveshaft assembly. Over $5k worth of work and parts for the price of about $1200 for the policy.

The only troubling thing was that when the car was near 100k miles, I went to the dealer to complain about a slight transmission slippage and a slightly rocky idle. The early V8s had a quaility problem and a bad idle was one of the first signs of problems (very long story). The transmission was a "lifetime" fluid type (Haa!). To make a long story short, the idle issues were attributed to Bosch Platiinum +4 plugs and the transimission was determined to be faulty. The transmission was a "remove and replace" item, no diagnostic tear down. The Heritage company wanted a tear down to determine the root cause in order to pay for the transimission. The BMW dealer suggested an independent transmission shop to perform the tear down so Heritage would pay.

On a final note, I took the car to two independent shops, one a major chain and the other a smaller local shop that could work on the BMW tranny. Both indicated no issues. So without a warranty and perceived, impending issues, I traded the car in, for a '99 E320.

So, what ever warranty you get, read the fine print and understand exactly what you are paying for.