I just got back from my inspection. Everything is good, got my sheet filled out. Now I guess I just need to call these 2 and see who has the best coverage/rate and pick one up. Thanks for the info in this thread, been well worth the time to read.

 

What dealer and how much did they charge you for reference?


The $ is important for reference since everyone needs an inspection now if its 48k miles or 4+ years.

 

I took my car to Alex Rodriguez MB in Houston, TX.

The inspection bill came to 1.5hrs which was $159.00

I also had them reset/update my BCM which was .5 hrs and cost $53.00

Then I had misc. fees for disposals and supplies for $21.20

Total bill was $234.90 out the door.

I just called Todd at Chrysler and went with their 4yr unlimited plan. I tried to reach Michael Case for a second opinion to verify the same coverage, but the first (office) number doesn't work, and the 2nd number went to some blank voicemail. I just felt more comfortable sticking with Chryler direct, instead of some broker selling Chrysler. Peace of mind was with the extra $270 or whatever it cost.

For the inspection, they also require you to do a service, but I just had mine done, so I did not have to pay for another one, but just for reference, the sheet requires a fresh oil change, filters, etc...basic service.

 

That's only $106/hr for labor! That's a deal. I think the dealerships in NorCal charge close to $200/hr.

 

hey man...are you from the clear lake area...i live in friendswood...juan is my sa at arod.

I've been looking to hook up with an e55 and see what would happen...i've only raced one and i think something was wrong with it???

anyways...if you're in the area, shoot me a pm and we will try to get together sometime. take care.

john

 

I sent you a PM John. I see your old 55 went 11.8 @ 118...nice, I have yet to get into the 11's with mine stock. Hit me back if you want to meet up sometime, we can also call Shardul who has a VR550 03 E55, but he lives over in Sugarland. I live in Pearland, so A-Rod is not the closest MB dealership, but so far I have been happy with their service, so I just drive the extra distance to deal with people that have done me right.

 

so i understand its easy to get the Chrysler warranty if you have engine/performance mods (they dont require inspection). but do you have to do the repairs at a MB dealer? If so, are they mod friendly, I know that most of the time they are not.

 

I don't know what would happen if you had to do an inspection.

But the Chrysler contract is not the same as a new-car warranty. For a new-car warranty, the dealer does not want to touch modified car because they are not suppose to. MBUSA requires the dealers to produce certain evidence, depending on the type of repair, to prove that there was a defect on hand and that a proper workflow trouble shooting process was undertaken to diagnose the problem.

The Chrysler service-contract, is different and the dealers look at it differently because for the most part, the Chrysler SC is just as good as you walking in paying cash. All they are doing is collecting payment from a third party. They do not require the stringent process that MBUSA requires. So if the dealer has never been stung by Chrysler, they would have no problem taking it.

We really should stop calling this stuff a "WARRANTY," this is what gets the confusion going. You can only get a WARRANTY from a new-car or CPO. Everything else you buy are 3rd party SERVICE-AGREEMENT CONTRACTS. Not too often, you'll also come across MBI, which are Mechnical Break Down Insurance, these are actual INSURANCE policies sold by an insurance company to cover mechanical breakdowns. These are not warranties, these are not service agreements, these are INSURANCE.


Hope this helps.

 

Yeah - Chrysler is basically an insurance policy. It's underwritten just like an insurance policy. MB dealers will work with it, but they still get paid "warranty time" and not "cash time".....so that is where you are wrong and it's not the same as paying with cash. Quick example - my visit last week for SC clutch.

My friend is the service tech and it took him 6 hours to do my sc clutch and backing plate as well as some coolant hoses that were leaking to the heat exchanger, coolant flush. If I was to pay with cash - I would have paid 6 x $100 = $600 for labor alone based on actual time spent on the car. Chrysler however paid the dealer for 4.25 hours because that is what the book "warranty time" is for the repairs.

So if you are modded take care of your tech and they will take care of you.

 

I got the 5yr warranty on my E55 from todd and I didn't have to do an inspection. I gave him my vin and I have 31800 miles and everything was fine. I don't think they would let me purchase the warranty and then make me do the inspection. Wouldn't they make me pass inspection first before purchasing? My guess is the low mileage and the vin # check has something to do with who they believe needs to do the inspection.

 

Talking to Todd, he mentioned that requiring the inspection was new to them, and that they used to allow purchase of warranties w/o inspections. Now any car older than 4 years, 2005 and older, or with more than 48k miles do need an inspection. Apparently, they were having issues with people signing up for warranties with known issues and simply paying the $2-3k or so, then getting a new tranny, engine, etc....

I can only go by what was told to me, but that is how it was explained to me.

 

If you don't mind me asking how many miles do you have ?

 

I just rolled over 50k 2 days ago. So, since my car is 4 years old and over 48k miles, I pretty much had no chance of not getting an inspection. But hell, at least I have the peace of mind that my car has been inspected and everything looks good....I would love to never use the warranty, but I would rather have it and not need it, then need it and not have it.

 

I disagree.

Chrysler IS NOT insurance. Chrysler is not underwritten by any insurance company nor is it backed by any insurance company. What Chrysler offers is a service-contract. It is an agreement between you and Chrysler, that if you maintain your car according to schedule, and a covered component fails, they will pay for the repair. It's an agreement, a contract, that's all it is.

Here's verbatim from Chrysler in the agreement. "A SERVICE CONTRACT - This Plan is a service contract between you and us. It protects you against major repair bills should a component covered by the Plan fail in normal use." The term insurance or warranty is never used when it discusses about the benefits of the contract.

With response to your recent service involving the clutch... Chrysler paid for 4.25 hours of labor because this is what book time says how long it takes to do the job. Therefore, Chrysler paid what they were suppose to for that particular job. If your mechanic took 6.0 actual hours to do the job, then either he is not familiar with the work and therefore could not do it fast enough, or he took his sweet time to milk you for the extra 1.5 hours of labor.

With that said, I have heard from a lot of mechanic that book time sometimes is shorter than actual time, sometimes the other way around. Depends on one's skill, the job, the car, a number of things.

What I can tell you that if you worked in the industry, you'll know that any savy person or entity will only pay someone book time. That is what the shop is entitled to, not more, unless in rare occasions. Ask a body shop how much time is allowed by an insurance company to replace a fender. They'll tell you they go strictly by book time. Same for warranty repairs. There are exceptions however, such as if the car is a specialty car, hybrid, antique, etc.

Don't believe everything the dealer is telling you. Most of time they are wrong.

 

i did worked in car industry before. i work in insurance - actuarial. car service contracts are underwritten by most companies just liek insurance.

tech that worked on my car is the lead tech, and they didnt make me pay the difference between book time and actual time. my point was that if i was a cash customer they would have made me pay for actual time spent on the car even it was more then book - that's a fact.

 

Chrysler is underwritten for THEIR OWN business plan, to prevent catastrophic losses in claims. However it's meant to protect them directly, not you.

Chrysler offers a "service-contract." That contract becomes nulled/void when the company dissolves. With their contract, it's a straight user to user agreement, governed only by Contract law. If Chrysler goes belly-up, all of our contracts are gone.

If your purchased actual insurance from an insurance carrier (ie. Mechanical Breakdown Insurance), it would be "insurance" and the policy and how they pay and handle claims will go subject and scruntnized by the Dept of Insurance for that State since they are governed by them. They CANNOT close up shop overnight (think AIG). These are the best 3rd party warranties. They are also the best because your policy is for a shorter period of time (ie. 6 month, 1 year) and is renewable until the maximum age is reached. You NEVER have to fork out the full $3000 for example to get the coverage. Just think of your car insurance, you don't buy it more than 1-year at a time, but you renew it. In CA, you can only purchase auto insurance (includiing MBI) 6-months at a time.

Lastly, there are the new warranty which are also a type of contracts. Where benefits are derived from the sale of a product (the car), these are called "Warranties" for new-products, all subject under the Magnusson-Moss Act (ie. Lemon Law). Yes!!! Lemon law applies to almost all other GOODS, not just cars! It is also an agreement because the warranty book would essentially say that if you maintain this car according to schedule and this fails within X amount of time/mileage it they will repair the defect. If the company of the product goes belly-up, you too will lose all the warranty benefits.

I don't know why you would pay a mechanic more than book time for the work. But again, most consumers will because they "trust" the mechanic because 1) they don't have access to book time, and/or 2) they "trust" them so much that they take the tech's word not knowing that he's actually working much slower than he's suppose to! Again, there are exceptions. If you feel your tech is a great guy and you get the assurance he does great work, then why not pay him a little bit more? I agree.

 

I too had problem reaching Michael Case, but last time I tried (called 3 times total) was 3 months ago. If anyone has been able to get hold of Michael Case recently please chime in.

Here is what my Google search turned up about Fidelity, seems to have many complaints from their Platinum Coverage customers http://www.consumeraffairs.com/auto_.../fidelity.html

Also spoke couple of times with Lisa Lehrbaum of Courtesy Motors (also a MB dealer) per MBWorld forums. She quoted 7 years 70K miles for ~ $3,950 I think. I need to call her back to make sure her latest quote was Chrysler Maxcare. http://www.checkbook.org/auto/extendedservice.cfm

Have to make my decision soon as my '06 CLS55 warranty expires this June, currently have slightly over 30K miles on it.

JL

 

Did you read what I wrote? I did NOT pay him. Chrysler paid MB for ~4.5 hours (warranty book time) and my car took longer due to some issues - jeeeez. Can I say it anymore clearer - I did not get billed for the difference.

Reason I know it took longer - tech is a friend of mine, and I will not get billed extra there.

Also you keep referring to book time - but there is actually two times(warranty and cash). Warranty time is less most of the time. Which contributes to techs being less enthused about doing warranty work, the pay structure is different and they often don't get paid for extra time spent on the car in case "unforseen" issues arise.

 

Not sure about other warranty companies, but my Chrysler service contract pays exactly what I would pay. Chrysler just calls the dealership and gives them a credit card to pay the invoice. It is all done in book time, but there is not a separate book for warranty or cash work....at least with Chrysler service contracts.

 

Thanks for the link. Those are some recent complaints and makes you want to avoid Fidelity at all costs.

 

I just read through the entire Fidelity Service Contract again and a lot of the complaints are because the buyers did not read the contract. All the complaints about the warranty expiring earlier than they thought were due to a clause in the contract that stated if your car has over 5,999 miles when you purchase the contract then the start date of the contract would be Jan 1 of the model year of the car, NOT the date when you purchased the contract. It was a pretty shady clause if you ask me and I'm happy to see that it has been removed.

The one down side with the Fidelity is after your vehicle passes 50,000 miles they have a clause that states, "The failure of a Covered Part due to gradual reduction in operating performance as a result of normal wear and tear, prior to the vehicle reaching 50,000 miles." This means after 50,000, certain parts they will probably not cover because they will claim wear and tear. That is where a majority of the complaints come from on these boards. They are usually high mileage vehicles (75,000 - 100,000). I think most of these complaints could be avoided if people actually read what they were buying!

I would have probably gone with the Chrysler plan because I think it's better than Fidelity after 50,000 miles but I didn't want to put over $3,000 on the roulette table if you know what I mean.

 

Thanks for the clarification. Perhaps I wasn't being clear to ProdigyMB.

There is "Warranty Time" (Specificed for Manufactuer Warranty work) and then there is "Book Time" (Which are official labor hour figures used in the industry).

Since Chrysler IS NOT a warranty (It's a service-contract, remember!!!), it DOES NOT AND SHOULD NOT fall under "warranty-time."

That's the reasony why Chrysler paid the dealership exactly what you and me would have paid.

 

Correct - Chrysler will only pay the warranty book time, which is what they have in their system. If you are a customer that is simply paying with cash for a repair, dealer can charge you based on ACTUAL time the mechanic spent on your car and not book time - it's as simple as that. When dealers work with service contracts companies they don't bother trying to charge actual because they will not get more then book.

 

There is some degree of gambling with the Chrysler contract.

You brought up a very good observation regarding Fidelity's contract. With all things considered, these are my observation:

1) Chrysler is in the dumbs. However, the language and covered components in their contracts are amongst the best. There are absolutely no tricks, catches, cavaets, etc in the contract language. Furthermore, from feedback, it appears to be very little or no complaint about any repairs (big or small).

2) The other service-contracts have mixed responses. Some have good converage, some show decent financial strength. However, the language written in the service-contracts on these companies may be questionable (the quote above about Fidelity is an excellent example). Furthermore, with any of these companies, you'll find almost a list of complaints about wrongful denials. Denials based on a technicality in their contract langauge, denials based on alleged wear and tear, modifications, pre-existing conditions, missed missed maintenance, etc.

At the end, yes, a lot of these "other companies" are in decent financial shape, but the "gamble" with these companies is whether or not they will pay your claim in the event of a loss. Records and history have shown that there is a good chance they'll try to fight you, espcially on the larger claims.

 

I definitely agree with what you’re saying about Chrysler's contract. Under 50,000 the miles I think the Fidelity contract is pretty clear cut (for the platinum coverage), nothing goofy. Above 50,000 is open to what is considered wear and tear which could be a problem for certain parts. I'll probably never hit 50,000 miles so this should work out ok for me as I think they are good with claims at this stage. The gamble for me with Chrysler is not their contract as I think it's probably one of the best, its whether or not they will file bankruptcy.