Stuttgarten

I recently saw a commercial for CarShiled, a company offering coverage for car repairs. I contacted them online, but did not call them to get a quote. Today they emailed me a $200 off with the following verbiage:

Here are some reasons why this coverage cannot be beat:

• 100% of covered repairs are paid
• Highly customizable plans
• Your choice of ASE certified mechanic or dealer
• Easy, flexible payment terms
• 30-day money-back guarantee
• 24/7 Roadside assistance
• Rental cars provided

I wanna know if anyone has tried them and what their experience was.

ChrisB

We purchased our 2011 E550 in Oct 2018 ... and the dealership had a special on the Old Republic warranty.

Our independent mechanic said they are a good company. We got a good discount. So we went for the premium bumper to bumper coverage.

Off the top of my head I think it was 5 years 40,000 Km (say 24,000 miles) and cost $ 3,500 Canadian (say $ 2,600 USD). I thought it was pretty good insurance for a car that is high tech and expensive to fix.

Since then have had the generator motor fail = $ 1,500 Cdn to replace ... and the rear Air Springs and valves replaced = $ 2,500 of work. Both cost me $ 300 deductible. Plus I got a C Class car rental for a few days included.

Very happy to have broken even so soon.

Make sure they are a good company.

If they are ... go for the higest coverage. Since apparently they make their money on people who take the least expensive “drive train” warranty- and drive trains almost never break down.

They spend money to keep the Platinum Bumper to Bumper buyers happy ... since that is their advertising for selling “drive train” warranty policies.

Good luck!

akingzkid

Look them up on the BBB site. They have an “F” rating. If I were you I would run the other way.......fast!

cetialpha5

A lot of the aftermarket warranties are basically scams. That's why you get robocalls all the time trying to sell people aftermarket warranties. Either the repair won't be covered, they will deny it or they go out of business shortly. That's why a lot of people just stick with the dealer warranties. When they're too old, it's just cheaper to self insure.

pb39374

Call Autopom: my 2010 e350 that I bought in December had 41,000 miles on it. I got a 7 year warranty that will take me to 100,000 miles for $3,600. I got the Paramount coverage which is as close to bumper to bumper as you can get. A few weeks back my heated seat just stopped working. I brought it to the MB dealer. The warranty company covered it (it would cost me $1,100). Also, my transfer case was leaking a little. The warranty company covered sealing it (would have been $1,200).

bigjule

I purchased Century Warranty.. I had cyl head replaced on my 2015 e400 sedan ..cost of 7k .. cost me $100 deductible... Original plan was like 3 yrs 36000 for a lil over 2k I believe ..and originally I was going to opt out of the warranty but needless to say I'm glad I rolled with it

Badwolf

Just had a talk to carshield canada, 4 years 160k km total, $100 deductible, wanted just over 5k.

That's alot of work on my 2015 e250 w212.

cetialpha5

I would pass. I don't think I've paid more than $1k in the last 2.5 years that I've owned the car and some of that was for things like brakes which wouldn't have been covered.

Stuttgarten

Yes, some of the reviews I just read on CarShield are atrocious, it's scary!

Badwolf

Just read part of the sample contract on their website.

they excluded the one item that I am afraid to death of emission system. list of some exclusions: emission systems, catalytic converter, glow plugs, struts, hydrolic suspension, and shock absorbers. not even the heated seats.

cetialpha5

Oh yeah, I also had to do the rear springs and shocks, those usually aren't covered. Got to do the fronts now too. The car is mostly reliable, just regular maintenance stuff that normally doesn't get covered anyway.

Raul Varela

I called this company to ask them a few questions and for 2 weeks they bombarded me with multiple follow-up calls per day. They are relentless when it comes to sales. I decided to take one of their calls and purchased a vehicle warranty after what seemed too good to be true. My policy was in place for 27 days and I began hearing a vibrating and clanking noise in the engine in my Mercedes E350. I took my car to the dealer and was told there were a number of issues that needed to be repaired. One was a problem with an engine mount which is covered by this warranty. The Car Shield appraiser talked to the Mercedes dealer and most of my claims were rejected except for the $1300 engine mount issue. The appraiser assured the dealer this specific repair would be covered. A few minutes later, I took a call from the appraiser. He sounded like a person trying to validate his job of rejecting claims to maximize his profit. I felt like I was being deposed in a court. He asked question after question and then asked me to provide the entire repair history of my car for 2020. Fortunately, my dealer has all of it; Mostly wear and tear stuff. I left my car at the shop thinking the engine mount would be covered. It took over 3 days for them to review my history and reject 100% of the repairs. It appears the appraiser trying to validate his job caught me on a technicality and used my words against me. According to appraiser this was a pre-existing condition even though I had noticed the clanking less than 15 days ago. The reality is they could say everything is a pre-existing condition and never fix anything. I asked Car Shield to have the appraiser who rejected my claim call me. Of course, I never got a call back. I canceled this junk warranty after 27 days. Here is the beauty of all this and what I explained to their high- pressure sales and customer service reps who begged me not to leave them. I actually bought another vehicle warranty at the same time and 2 of the repairs were approved. They claim they are #1 rated but go to their Facebook and notice they disable their reviews for obvious reason Their Better Business Bureau profile has 752 reviews and a 1-star rating. The proof is in the pudding.

KEY08

Those asinine Car Shield commercials say it all.

LILBENZ230

I bought my E350 CPO and purchased the available extension. My car had a year of factory warranty left, one free CPO year, then 2 additional years giving me a total of 4 years.

This is the only time I've ever purchased an extended warranty. These 3rd party extended "warranties" are not worth the paper they're written on. Even though the ones my credit union offers usually review well, the fine print means none of the expensive stuff would be covered on my car, aside from the powertrain. Sound reproduction? Nope. Lighting? Nope.

Pass on all of them.

El Cid

I purchased the M-B 3 year extended plan through the dealer when my original warranty expired. Got my money back and more since so many things can go wrong on an M-B. Don't have one now, just keeping my fingers crossed and hoping all the bad stuff has already failed.
As for Car Shield, I am very wary of anything that advertises that heavily on TV and uses celebrity spokespersons.

Quattrodude

Good day all -
I think getting any type of service contract is like many things out there, it is a gamble - you might lose, you might win (if that's what you call it) - All cars will break down at some point, the key is will it break down when you own it or after you pass it on
I myself have enjoyed buying cars slightly older thus less cheaper but nicer cars with more options and then spending the extra to cover the car for repairs that I feel will come during my ownership. The key is to find a company that is reputable and that you don't give them reasons deny your claim. IE do all your maint.or limit your mods etc.

Working for a company that does insurance - its pretty simple - generally the more expensive the contract the more likely you will be needing repairs during that contract. Thus a Honda or Toyota will most likely be the cheapest and others like BMW and Merc will be more expensive (also because they are more expensive to fix)

As in anything like this - be sure to read the fine print! that can be huge when it comes to covering the costs of repairs - things to look for are sometimes very subtle - here is a good example - on a very similar contract between Car Shield and Endurance (Whom I went with for my 2nd contract) Endurance covers things like electronic modules vs car shield did not...if you know anything about our cars - these modules can be 10-1000s of dollars...I also had my local dealer offer Zurich for a warranty - but it was 2x more expensive and again covered less.

One thing to ask if searching around is to ask - Whom is backing the contract? (So far other than OEM manufactures) Endurance backs their own contracts...

Sorry for the babel - but hope this helps making your decisions on what ever you choose - I have slightly more piece of mind having the major components covered on my car.

Cheers and happy new years to all

DFWdude

You buy any car, you take a gamble that you got a good one. When I took my (new to me) W212 to the dealer the first time for warranty service, the SA told me on pick-up, "Looks like you got a good one." Maybe he tells this "to all the girls." I don't know.

But I do know how to save money every month to cover major repairs, if ever needed. Never needed it the first 18 years owning my C-Class, so I now have plenty sitting around to cover the W212. IMO, this is a more POSITIVE attitude than throwing funds at a blood-sucking insurance company, hoping(?) that something goes wrong so that you get some of it back.