2012c350

So I'm from the old school where the thought was that extended warranties were considered a waste of money. At least in my case it's been true because I've never needed dealership work when my vehicles were out of standard warranty.

I keep my cars for a long time/high mileage and after hearing Glyn say that a MB tranny can run $10K I'm wondering if maybe it's worth the price (assuming that MB actually/truely covers things in the extended period.) I keep my vehicles for over 10 years (actually my 5 vehicles average 24 years old with the two "newest" being 11/12 years with ~150/170K miles each.)

So, if I plan on keeping the C350 for 10 years/150K miles do you think the extended warranty is a good option? Would you be willing to bet that there's a good chance of needing it after the original warranty expires?

Thanks for any input. Again, first MB so not sure about what to expect at high mileage...

AZN Optics

Geico Mechanical Breakdown Coverage (http://www.geico.com/getaquote/auto/...own-insurance/)

Mercury Mechanical Breakdown Protection (http://www.mercuryinsurance.com/insu...rotection.html)

2012c350

Thanks for the info. I'll compare them against MB and see what comes up.

Still curious how reliable Benzs are at higher mileage. Seems that most people here don't tend to keep theirs for a long time. I know a friend of mine drives BMW exclusively but swears he'll never own one out of warranty because of their cost/reliability after warranty. That's what got me wondering here...

coolvi

I believe most here are on leases. The lease terms nowadays are just way too tempting: If I were to trade mine in, I could lease a '12 C63 for $400CAD/month (48mo)! Makes buyout/finance rather silly if you just look at the numbers.

Added resale value is out of the question if you plan to keep it. I have about one year to make a decision on my 2009 whether to get extended or not. So far I have had one O2 censor replaced under warranty. I plan to perform all regular services at the MB service centers. Unless something happens within the next 12 months (knock on wood, or not?), I can't seem to justify the cost of extended warranty which runs for $3500-4000.

matthew121170

I think I'm one of the higher mileage folks here and I can say that I did get the extended warranty because I do keep my cars for a long time and I figure, for me at least, that if it didn't break after 100K miles then I'm pretty safe. Anything that would break after 100K miles would have broken anyway. Maybe that's a backwards way of thinking but there it is. I did talk to my service advisor and she said that a lot of those advertisements that you see on TV are misleading for "Mechanical Breakdown Coverage" or whatever. She tells me that they don't cover much and nothing that is computer related. Her words were "anything with a circuit board on it, or that's controlled by a circuit board". I was like, isn't that pretty much everything in/on the car? She was like yes, and they don't cover all of our labor rate either so you are stuck paying the difference there. Now I'm not saying that those two that AZN posted are the same way, I'm just relaying a conversation I had.

2012c350

Interesting comment on the electrical aspect. I'll definitely be checking all the fine print. That's what's nice about my '67 Buick Electra. The "electrical" aspect is about 6 wires running out of a fuse box. lol...

Glad to see I'm not the only long term car keeper. I hate payments which is why I could never lease.

matthew121170

I can't lease because I'd only be able to drive my car for a year, park it for a year, then go get a new one. I put about 30K miles a year on my car.

2012c350

yea, definitely not an option for you. I average just over 15K which is more than the normal lease allowance, but close. But yea, at 30K/year that's way too many for you. If I was driving that many miles/year I'd definitely want a MB/nice car for sure!

RLE

The MB dealers in western Washington are recommending National Warranty Corp located in Eugene Oregon. My 2008's warranty expired last October so I purchased this company's policy. It is cheaper than what is sold by MBUSA and covers a lot more. When buying one of these contracts, they have to be examined very carefully because not everything is covered and it varies a lot. I ended up with zero deductible, rental car and towing coverage and paid $3800 which bought me four more years or 75K miles whichever comes first. So, it's another 45K miles for my car. And, the if the car is sold before that, the unused portion is refunded. My dealer's service department says they are great to deal with.

I would recommend against anything sold by Geico since they are right at the top of the "Worst Insurers" list. Followed by Progressive and State Farm.

The high end body shops (this includes MB certified shops) hate them because they never want to pay to restore the cars (MB, BMW or Lexus) to factory standards. Used parts and body filler are their favorites.

Azn_C300

Can't speak for everyone else or the national average, but I've never had any issue with Geico personally. I've claimed insurance through them before and the shops I go to are pretty high end quality shops, requested complete OEM parts (and in one instance cash value for aftermarket replacement instead of going OEM) and had no problem.

Now there's been some debate about if it's just Mechanical or Electrical that's covered, and from what I understood, Electrical is supposed to be covered, but I think I should place a call just to double check.

There's been a few threads on MBI vs extended warranty though and debate's been fleshed out. I'd suggest reading up on it and make the decision based on your situation and comfort level

Becks Imports

DISCLAIMER: I sell extended warranties, so I am biased.

It really depends on the car, its specific and overall model reliability, and if you've owned it since knew and/or know it's service history. Plus how many miles you have, how much the warrany costs, and its coverage.

With AMG cars, it's almost always a good bet. I posted statistics in one of the AMG forums about the 300+ AMG cars I have under warranty, and the average AMG car I have will earn a 200%+ payout against the warranty cost by end of term. That's a pretty damn good bet to me.

With other models, I have a hard time selling someone a plan on a C300 RWD for $4K to get them to 100K miles. Meaning, I don't think they will see a positive ROI.

However, if you think about it like; pay $4K for exclusionary (aka bumper to bumper) warranty for 4 years of coverage. File an average of $500 in claims per year at Benz dealer, by end of plan, with no major problems, your net cost was $2K for four years of coverage, so $500 per year.

To me, paying $500 per year to protect against a major mechanical problem (engine, trans, etc) is not a bad deal either.

Some people only assign value to the warranty if it pays out at 100% or better, otherwise they consider it a 'waste' of money. To me, that's like paying $1000 per year for homeowner's and being angry that a tornado doesn't knock your house down so you can 'cash out' the policy. There has to be SOME value assigned to sleep-well-at-night protection!

Bruce

2012c350

Good points. I assume I don't have to decide the day I buy my car (hopefully that's early this week!) So I'll continue investigating different provides/policies. Ideally I'd like to not have to decide on the purchase until I'm nearing the end of the factory warranty but I'm guessing if I wait till then the premium will likely be more...just like an old guy buying term life insurance....

dgghostkilla

I GOT IT FOR MY 2010 MERCEDES AT THE BENZO DELAER. BUT IT WAS UNDER 2 GRAND I THINK. NO DEDUCTIBLES AND ACCEPTED AT ANY MERCEDEZ BENZ DEALER IN THE COUNTRY

RLE

I have read through Geico's sales pitch and I think it tells you nothing, intentionally. A few things come to mind.

Originally Posted by PRNewswire
CHEVY CHASE, Md., June 27 /PRNewswire/ -- GEICO, nearing the sale of
its one millionth mechanical breakdown insurance (MBI) policy, reminds auto
owners of the benefits of this unique coverage.
GEICO's mechanical breakdown insurance (MBI) policy is an all-risk
policy designed to protect policyholders after the car's warranty is up.
After a $250 deductible on a covered loss, GEICO MBI covers repairs to all
mechanical parts of the car except for maintenance and wear and tear.

They use the term "covered loss" quite a bit but don't define it. I'd love to hear what isn't covered. As on example, suppose your C300 develops a big oil leak which is not unknown. That's not a mechanical breakdown but a seal or gasket failure and I've seen policies that specifically exclude seals and gaskets. So, no coverage.

GEICO's assistant vice president of MBI, Suzanne Worthen, said, "Our
coverage is very broad. It pays for covered mechanical or electrical
repairs to a new car. It also covers a car that is leased with the option
to buy, with the insured being the first titleholder. This coverage helps
protect our MBI policyholders from being saddled with unanticipated and
expensive repair bills."

Boy, is this meaningless. There's that word "covered" again.

GEICO notes that the vehicle must be less than 15 months old and have
an odometer reading of less than 15,000 miles at the time the coverage is
initially purchased.

So when does the extended warranty start, then? The OE warranty has 35K miles to go so you are going to be paying Geico every month until the original expires, for no coverage?

Glenn Cropp, MBI claims manager, further explained, "GEICO's MBI is
structured to be better than an extended warranty. It provides better
protection and is less expensive than the typical dealer extended warranty.
MBI coverage includes all parts and systems, not just the specific list of
items covered by most dealer warranties. In the long run, our policy saves
auto owners money because they pay only a small premium each policy period instead of a large lump-sum payment up front."

Money in their bank, not yours.

Chad Pence, centralized services reports and controls manager, added,
"GEICO's MBI is a great policy and really comes in handy when they need it
most. Our MBI counselors handle claims, investigate losses and negotiate
the cost of repairs to make sure GEICO pays a fair price on claims.

"Negotiate the cost of repairs". And this means? I'll tell you what the shop owners say. A Geico agent shows up, looks at what is required to bring the car back to running condition and demands that aftermarket or used parts be used. "After all, it's not a new car." Unquote. The shop owners say that they have to accept Geico's amount unless they don't want any more of their business. This also applies to body shops. So, corners are cut.

Just yesterday I attended an MBCA tech meeting at one of the two Mercedes approved body shops in Seattle, A question was asked regarding dealing with insurance companies when repairing crashed MBs. The owner of the business had plenty to say about which companies realize what it takes to properly repair an MB and the ones that don't care and are only interested in the cheapest way possible.

Last year I attended exactly the same the sort of event at the other MB approved body shop (that time for the Porsche Club) and the story was exactly the same. The three worst companies when it comes to covering the cost for a correct MB repair are still:

Geico
Progressive
State Farm

If one is driving a five year Camry then likely none of this matters. But, we aren't.

2012c350

Good to know. Thanks for that info. I'll continue doing my homework between now and whenever I need to decide.

AZN Optics

yeah, the printed material is vague which is why you need to speak to a rep directly to find out what it is and what it isn't (I'd recommend the OP doing this with any insurance policy). As stated, I'm sure many have had their issues and many have not, all I can relay is my personal experience.

2012c350

I definitely will be reading the fine print. The initial question was more along the lines of have most people here purchased an extended policy and did they find it useful as well as do the majority of those who didn't buy one wish they did. But seeing that the majority of people seem to not keep their car all that long it's probably not relavant to most.

AZN Optics

Also consider that you're posting this on the w204 forums with the vehicle being released in 2008, you're just now starting to get people out of original 4 year warranty so won't get as much feedback. w204 platform was the one that was supposed to be built to redeem the MB reliability name after the Daimler era and according to reports I've seen, has been rock steady. Of course there will always be cases here and there, but for the most part, it has been very reliable. You'll probably get better results posting this on the general non-model-specicific MBW subforums