Drives550

This is my second post on my Assurant after market warranty company experience. First post here

Car told me, very urgently, ABS ESP INOPERATIVE. Blind Spot Assist Inoperative. Parking Guidance Inoperative. Night View Assist inoperative.

Still drove fine.

Took to the dealer. Diagnosed 2 wheel speed sensors. $154/each; $254 labor.

Also, the "Check Washer Fluid" warning wouldn't go off. Sensor was gooped up with PO de-icing type washer fluids. Sensor and seal $13.20; labor $138.

Total: a paltry $735.

Warranty covered with zero issues, zero deductible, paying dealership directly.

This brings my roughly 5 months (approx 2200 miles) ownership warranty claims total to $3,435. Warranty cost about $4500. I'm perversely confident I'll make my money back, so to speak.

And continue to 100% recommend and love Assurant as a warranty company.

Oneworld

Great to hear.

DaveW68

This is another poke at the members here to insist that "all" aftermarket warranties are a waste of money because they don't pay on claims.

Perhaps a thread/sticky should be posted about which aftermarket warranty companies are good and which are bad so everything can be found in one place?

I think I'll start the thread and the OP here can post his experiences to it.

1bad540

Interesting! what did you pay for the wrty?

DaveW68

He states in his post that it was $4500.

1bad540

do we know how long that's for?

xpl0sive

from his original post:

service contract underwritten by Assurant Solutions, purchased through USAA. 3 years / 36000 miles, cost about $4500. It's an exclusionary policy.

alx

If statistically warranty made financial sense for the end user (i.e. you spent more money on claims than it cost you) companies would not offer them. It is simple math.

Drives550

I think it is actually very complicated math, factoring in for all makes, models, miles and sundry other factors that go into actuarial tables for insuring against a wide spectrum of loss, spread against a range of "reliability" and likelihood of claims. It's perhaps "simple" if you base the equation solely on one make and model of car. But spread it out and outliers do emerge, e.g., Dave, myself, all the guys with CPO warranties that saved the *** of their checkbook.

Generally, in my life I've become wise enough to know that if something I don't do for a living seems simple to me, I probably just don't understand it well enough.

alx

Oh. Am sure the actual dynamics of insurance business finances are quite complex. Managing risk is complicated. But at the end it is really simple- we pay insurance companies more money than they pay us. Their annual statements reflect that. Only exception is large number of clams due to say Mother Nature, but next year the premiums reflect that if this wasn't true they would simply not offer the losing product- like the v12tt Amg aftermarket coverage which is now extinct.

It is like casinos- you certainly have winners here and there, but the house either turns profit or adjustments in the portfolio / gaming floor are needed until it does

DaveW68

I suppose in the case of the W221 S-class, many of the warranty/insurance companies didn't properly research the number of claims and dollar amount prior to offering coverage. If they did, many probably wouldn't offer coverage at all or the price would be significantly higher.

In the case of my warranty, if I had purchased an AMG S65 with the same mileage, I could have obtained coverage for the exact same price that I paid for mine. And the price I paid would have been the same as an S550. While many companies have given up on covering AMG's or anything over 8 cylinders, my company still does....at a price that's usually less than guys with 6 or 8 cylinder motors are paying for coverage. And the fact that my company has already paid out almost 4x what I paid for coverage (with another claim for motor mounts coming soon)....and I still have 66k miles and almost 6 years of coverage left....I'd say it was a winning proposition on my end. Based on other's experiences with warranty claims, I don't believe I'm the exception....other than what I paid and how long I'm covered for.

Drives550

Suppose what some of us are saying is to get the warranty on the w221 before it goes extinct like th v12tt AMG warranty; seems by your own admission that was a winning warranty to get when it was available. I venture that at the age and mileage these cars are getting to, the warranty in this instance on these cars is likely a winner.