ucfbeta92

While I was at my MB dealer today, I learnt something new. We were talking about post-CPO aftermarket warranties, and he asked me if I had considered the CPO Extended Limited Warranty Program.

Confused, I ask him "Isn't that the CPO warranty? I'm talking about a warranty after my extra 12 month / 100,000k mile CPO warranty ends". He says, no, there is an additional extended warranty program offered by MB for CPO cars. At this point, I tell myself he's been smoking something because even the sales guy who sold me my CPO last month didn't know/tell me about this. He takes me to his Finance Director who pulls up and shows me the details and prints out an honest-to-goodness MB corporate brochure.

It's for MB CPOs only, must be purchased (cannot be financed) before CPO runs out, and has two options:

1 more year (upto 120k miles) for $1,595 (C / CLK / GLK / E / SLK; more for other classes)

2 more years (upto $135k miles) for $2,295 (C / CLK / GLK / E / SLK; more for other classes)

It provides the same coverage as the CPO warranty (no deductible, etc.) and will be honored at any MB dealership in the US. Also, I am told that if I sell the car before the extended warranty is used up, I can be refunded the money (pro-rated), have it apply towards down-payment for next purchase, or transfer it to next buyer if selling privately.

The brochure is stapled with the Finance Director's business cards and "buy before" date in her hand-writing (essentially, the latest possible date that my CPO will run out).

Personally, when my CPO is running out, I'd much rather get this than an aftermarket warranty and worry about deductibles, etc.

After coming home, I googled this and it turns out it is fairly new:

http://www.benzblogger.com/2011/02/m...hancement.html

Hope you find this information helpful. Wondering how many of you already knew about this? Was it common knowledge or is it news to you?

If anyone wants, I'll be happy to scan the brochure for you.

xolinlevh

This was mentioned to me when i was buying my CPO a couple weeks ago, i think i may spring for it down the road if im still driving this car. Seems like a really good deal

ucfbeta92

I was told about an MB extended warranty but I was told if I didn't get it at the time of purchase I would not be able to get it later. I'm not sure if they were talking about the same thing or not, because the CPO Extended Limited Warranty can be purchased at any time before the CPO Warranty runs out.

xolinlevh

Hmm well the extended warranty they were telling me about (I forget the name of it) could be bought anytime before the CPO one ends, so i guess thats this one?

ucfbeta92

Must be.

AlonzoMosely

they told me that although you can purchase it any time before the cpo warranty expires, the price is not guaranteed. so i bought it now to lock in the price and will just get the refund later if i decide i dont want it.

ucfbeta92

I fell for that spiel when I bought my previous car, but think about this way: since it's probably built into your financing, you're paying interest on it over the period of the car loan (or at least until you decide to cancel it).

Depending on the interest rate, and/or financial situation, the ideal option may vary from person to person.

LandSeaAir

I don't know guys, these are such reliable cars, why waste your time/money on extended warranties, fine maybe something will go on it, but chances are the repair cost will be less than or equal too the price of even that 1 year extension for $1500. If this was for an S Class or CL Class I would agree, but the C Class has the least amount of recorded repairs of any of the models (source: CPO salesman). And if you bought it CPO you know its a good car.

head_unit

My understanding is the Extended part doesn't offer quite the same coverage as the original factory warranty.

Still good in case of tragedy, though.

"Why waste your time/money?" Well, because these cars are insanely expensive if say the radio dies or the trans hiccups or your C230 kompressor heads get swapped etc etc etc.

It's INSURANCE, eh? Of course it fatly profits the offeror. What's your appetite for risk?

Personally, I would NEVER own a German car out of warranty.

AlonzoMosely

head unit, the implication at the time i bought the car was that it is the same coverage as factory. i'm a goddamn lawyer who pays attention to detail and if it is not they pulled one over on me... of course they also didn't tell me i had a 7 day exchange option and i only discovered that about 10 days after i bought the car when i sat down to read the paperwork. Guess the bottom line is that MB CPO sales consultants are used car salesmen no matter how you polish them up.

ChrisBrown

Get the warranty. My CPO warranty paid for itself in under a year. It is completely worth it.

ucfbeta92

+1000

Only somewhat true as I understand it. To his credit, when I was buying my car, the finance director did tell me that it is as close as you can get to a factory warranty, and has the best bumper to bumper coverage - implying that it isn't the same as, but reasonably comparable to the factory warranty. One thing that I know off the top of my head that is different between the factory warranty and even the CPO warranty is that trim defects aren't covered (such as peeling, etc.)

While I haven't had any major issues and I hope I never do, I completely agree with you.

LandSeaAir

A lot of people do believe in that, and there have been scenarios to back that up. With personal experience though I humbly disagree. My father recently had a 2003 S430 which he took up to about 200,000 miles, no warranty as we bought it with 60,000 on it, the total repairs (not maintenance) were under $1,500. This was the high end model during one of MB's worst quality eras, and that was it. He had an 00 S430 before that, again, probably spent ~$1000 on repairs.

I just think that these W204s, proven to be the most reliable modern day Merc really are no problem out of warranty. Just my opinion, of course and some day I may be disproved, but lets hope not

Ironically I just posted another thread about things I would like to be replaced under warranty

Conner

ucfbeta92

I think it's a luck-of-the-draw thing. One of my uncles bought a "refurbished" Benz back in the 90s, and he had all sorts of transmission problems that just would not go away. After spending a ton of money on it, he finally sold it and bought a Japanese car. For over a decade after that, nobody in my family would buy a German car, let alone a Benz because they were terrified about its quality (or perceived lack thereof) and cost of repair.

LandSeaAir

I agree 110%

RLE

This must be your first Mercedes.

Well, mine is my eighth and just last week I bought an extended warranty (this one is sold by both local dealers) which covers everything from now (28K miles) to 75K miles total or October 2015 with no deductibles and I paid a heart-stopping $3850. But, I will get any unused part of it refunded whenever my W205 gets here which will be about another two years.

andymlow

don't forget that the real savings comes in the fact that the warranty pays wholesale for the repair and you would be paying retail.

andymlow

My question is:
If I buy a used car that still has factory warranty, can my local dealer CPO it for me?

RLE

Real savings for whom? During warranty, MB reimburses the dealer for their parts cost and pays shop rates (according to their schedule, that is) for the repair.

The dealers do well on warranty work.

RLE

The remaining part of the original warranty transfers to you and then you will be given the "opportunity" to extend it.

Open-Road

If the car is on their lot, then I have seen some dealers given you an option to buy as it is or get it certified and then buy. But I don't think you can bring a (under warranty or not) car to them and ask them to certify.

ucfbeta92

Actually, that's not true. Per one of my local dealerships, they do on occasion buy a customer's car when it's about to run out of factory warranty, CPO it and sell it back to them. Essentially, they're charging them for CPOing the car.

I'm not sure why one would want to go that route instead of just buying an extended warranty, but it's been done.

If you're in Central Florida, I can direct you to the dealership.

GMTK

This is my first post, bought my first 2010 C300 Luxury yesterday.

The "extended" warranty explained to me by the finance guy is basically an additional 2 years or 35k miles of the CPO.

What's funny, he priced it at $2750, and we talked him down to $2100. The selling part for us is that it 100% refundable prior to hitting the 100k or year mark on the car. The downside is we are paying interest on that $2100 in the financing.

But from experience (just got rid of a land pos rover), the extended warranty can pay for itself with one "minor" problem. We had an actuator go out that would have been $1300 out of pocket

encoder

So in both of those cases, your dad would've been out another $500-1500 had he purchased the extended warranty, over and above what he ended up paying in repairs out of pocket.

So it's a situation where if he bought it, he'd be trading an absolute loss of +$500 against a guarantee not to exceed that. Versus a potential savings of, at most, $500 against a potential loss that's basically unlimited up to the purchase price of the car.

I think your own situation supports buying an extended warranty.