I have read masses of posts on where to get the best deal for an MB Extended Warranty. The information posted is hugely helpful and informative. Thank you to all who contributed. However, I haven't been able to, yet, find a thread which discusses whether or not the thousands spent on purchasing an EW for an SL has been worth it. There's a lot of general commentary on the Internet about how the majority of respondents who bought an extended warranty didn’t use it and only a quarter of survey participants said they’d buy one again. I understand that buying an EW offers peace of mind and, occasionally, comes in handy when an expensive piece of technology goes on the fritz. What I want to know is how many of you R231 owners bought it, why you bought it, if you've ever had to use it and for what problem or defect. If the answers to these questions are already out there, please feel free to direct me to the thread. The date of the thread would be useful. Thank you!

 

As you state, extended warranties are just for peace of mind and does the R231 have a history of specific equipment defects within a given period of time/miles?

I may be jinxing myself, but just looking through the threads on this, and the other forum, you see that the great majority of R231 complaints are constantly about lack of colors, body styling opinions, the merits of ABC or the 1960's era sound system. Whereas, the R230 forums list actual problems experienced by owners. Obviously, the R230 models are much older with much higher usage and mileage, so either the R231 engineering is turning out to be more reliable, or its inherent weaknesses are waiting to be revealed when a larger subset of cars reach higher mileage levels or are not properly maintained for a longer period of time.

My personal experience was that my previous 2008 SL550 did not have a warranty, but it was very reliable and that any minor issues were easily taken care of by myself. I then moved to a 2010 Aston Martin Vantage with very low miles, which thankfully I chose to purchase with a warranty. It had a very good service history, but it was frequently on the Aston Martin dealer flat bed going back for warranty rectification. I then decided that I preferred the incomparable grand touring manners and reliability of the SL, so I moved on to my current SL550. I did take the MB warranty for the current car, but only because of my poor reliability experience with the Aston.

To sum up. My feeling is that if you buy a lower mileage SL with a strong service history AND you are only going to do less than 5K miles a year in it, then it probably doesn't make financial sense to spend extra on the warranty. Put some funds aside into a car maintenance slush fund and enjoy the SL's incomparable GT cruising experience; assuming you can put up with the allegedly 1960's era sound system!

 

I had a 2004 SL500 that I bought new. I kept it for 12 years and sold it with only 22,000 miles on it. It was always dealer serviced as per the book. At about 3 years old, the ABC pump went out and was replaced under warranty. Other than that, the car was trouble free. I feel that most of the mechanicals in the R231 cars are as good or better as in the R230 cars, but with various improvements, which I feel make the laters cars even more reliable. I will probably put no more than maybe 3,000 miles a year on my SL450 and do not believe I will purchase the extended warranty when the original runs out.

 

The paragraph above represents 'very sound logic' and I agree 100%!....

 

I would think that car manufacturers would build cars with parts that should, at minimum, last at least as long as they warranty their cars for. It would make no sense, financially, for them to build a car with a part, say a water pump, that will only last 3 years, yet their vehicle warranty is a 4 year, 50,000 mile deal. They would have to replace said part, at their expense, which wouldn't make sense. That said, if the car is driven a lot of miles, the mechanical systems on the car will, slowly but surely, wear out. So to say that your new or slightly used car hasn't experienced any mechanical issues, is disregarding the fact that stuff just wears out over time and usage. So if you drive only a few thousand miles a year, and plan on owning the vehicle for perhaps 10 years, that Extended Warranty might not be worth it, It's a totally different situation, if you're like me and put on roughly 12,000 a year and plan to keep the car for a "long time."

With that in mind, I plan to buy an extended warranty, when I purchase my car off the lease it's currently on. As with my first E550 Cabriolet, I'll shop a number of Mercedes dealers, throughout the states, because I've found that by doing so, I can save almost 30% of the cost of the EW.

As an addendum, when I started looking at the SL, I also looked at every other 2 seat sport/luxury car available, including the Aston Martin. I didn't want to pay full price for that car, so I was looking at 3 to 4 year old versions. Talking with the salesperson, I found that AM owners usually put on less than 4,000 miles a year on their cars. I asked what an extended warranty would cost, and was told "a little over $8,000 a year. That was when I determined that owning an Aston Martin was not for me. Conversely, I expect that a MB extended warranty will cost perhaps $3,000 for a three or four year product. Money well spent, I believe, based on my driving habits.

 

I negotiated a 2 year Aston Martin factory warranty extension for about 1/3rd of that cost - total. When I sold the car, I then got a cash rebate for the unused portion of the 2 years. The repair bills for that car would have been much higher than what I actually paid for the warranty. I imagine that it was like dating a supermodel; stunningly good looking, wonderful driving experience (except in rush hour traffic), but very high maintenance!

 

I bought an extended warranty for peace of mind. It’s bumper to bumper coverage 2 extra years up to 75,000 miles. Purchased it thru Mercedes Benz. It pays to shop around as some dealers charge more than others. Got the best deal at Fletcher Jones.