psoas

Lease is up in March and going to buy 07 gl450.

Currently have 33,000 miles

Was quoted the following by my service advisor at st. charles mercedes

All are verbally "described as no deductable, bumper to bumper coverage."

2 years/75k miles 2850 +tax
2 years/100k 3775 +tax
3 years/75k 3235 +tax
3 years/100k 4390 +tax

This is an extended warranty from toyota the service guy described as very good.?

I also was quoted from "easycare"

3 years/75k with 250 deductable at 4198 +tax

Does anyone have any thoughts. The numbers on the toyota plan almost look too good to be true...

lkchris

My thoughts are these figures are pretty close to your simply prepaying for anything that will likely be required in those timeframes. Why not pay instead on an as-needed basis?

StevethePilot

Uhh ... heh. Srsly?

lkchris

Yes, seriously--warranties are simply insurance policies and insurance companies don't lose money.

My SA thinks they make it up on people that sell their car before their warranty is used up, but I can't see that statistically significant.

Odds of coming out ahead on an extended warranty are probably better than winning mega millions, but not by much I'd think.

psoas

steve, your saying the prices aren't bad?

I think 3k for the 3/75k is not bad considering how many miles I have. No need to go 100k.

43221B

If it is truly the same as the factory warranty, the prices are good.

StevethePilot

I'm just saying that in my experience, an extended warranty would've helped out quite a bit. Granted, I may be the exception rather than the rule (TamZ?) but I've ponied up a lot of cash, even with help from the dealership and MBUSA, on a car that one would expect to be built to exacting specifications and with exceptional reliability.

psoas

I have no way of knowing if the coverage is a good as the factory...I'm guessing no... but maybe it is a good comprimise between the factory coverage at top dollar and no warranty at all.

I will keep learning and reading about warranties. It seems like a very shady business on the web. I can't tell who actually owns or runs any of them.

ksalno

As lkchris said, an extended warranty is simply an insurance policy and the companies that sell them are in the insurance business and they don't lose money. They are going to collect more in premiums than they have to pay out in claims over the total insured population. Now you my get (un)lucky like Steve and you as an individual will collect more than you pay in premiums but the odds are against you. You also have to make sure you are buying from a reputable company that will still be in business two years from now and isn't going to jack you around when you have a claim.

At the end of the day, if you can afford to pay for repairs that might be needed, then chances are you'll come out ahead paying as you go. If you can't afford it or will sleep better knowing you're insured, buy the insurance. You can also split down the middle and buy a policy with a high deductible so you'll be out of pocket for small repairs but have insurance for catastrophic loses (engine blows, tranny dies, air shocks need replacing). A higher deductible policy should cost you less up front.

alx

the toyota coverage is very good... i have heard very good things about it both from customers and service depts

alex

vntgspd

A lot of good points here and the reality is that the cars are different. Some seem to have many issues and most are very reliable. Your personal experience with your car may be a big deciding factor in the purchase of an extended warranty.

I ended up buying an '08 with 30K miles and paid a bit more than similar cars with 40-50K miles (but far less than a "certified" '08 with 45K miles). This made sense because I got a year of warranty with the car and this allowed me to get a feel for it's reliability. I've only put 4K miles on it in the past two months so it's too early to tell, but if it proves reliable I will likely "self-insure" as some have said. If there are several issues in the next year, the warranty may make sense.

So, if you have had your car since new and are considering keeping it, you should have a pretty good feel for whether you can expect continued reliability. Yes, things CAN go wrong at any time, but unless you have a "lemon" it is quite likely that "self-insuring" is less expensive in the long run. Also this depends on how you go about repairs. If you are a dealer guy who drops it off and picks is up with blank check in hand, maybe a warranty is for you. I'm more of a research, buy parts, get hands dirty or use a respected independent service center to get repairs done (and save $$$).

The info supplied by the OP is great though and I'll file this away when my time comes to consider this same question!