Extended Warranty question

[ROBERT CROSS]

WOULD YOU PAY FOR AN EXTENDED FACTORY WARRANTY IF OFFERED?

[overlander63]

Me? No. But I am capable of making virtually any and all repairs needed.
An extended warranty is usually offered by an insurance company, and they are gambling the product they have insured will last longer than they have it insured for. Many extended warranties are very restrictive as far as what is allowed, where and when any service and maintenance is to be performed, etc.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by overlander63

Me? No. But I am capable of making virtually any and all repairs needed.
An extended warranty is usually offered by an insurance company, and they are gambling the product they have insured will last longer than they have it insured for. Many extended warranties are very restrictive as far as what is allowed, where and when any service and maintenance is to be performed, etc.

We don't have a drlr. in N.Y. So I am very familiar with doing my own

warranty repairs.

What I'm wondering is would you pay extra for a FACTORY warranty.

Is a 2yr warranty realistic for such a "high value" product?

[lewster]

I do a good amount of work fr clients with extended 3rd part warranties. They usually cover just about everything in the coach or motor home. I have seen some folks shll out thousands of dollars for these policies, but they usually get the return when (not IF) something big breaks.

I had to replace an entire Aqua-Hot hydronic heating system for a customer recently............total cost to remove the old and install the new including parts and the new unit...........over $10,000! Needless to say, he got his premium back over double! (less his $250 deductible )

Just something to think about.............Trailers of course are not anywhere near as complex as motor homes, so the payback is probably not there. But it sure can be for the big rolling palaces!!!

[safari57]

I bought extended warranty on a van we bought new. I paid $3,000 for that and it's the only time I ever did that. I had over $11,000 in repairs during the warranty period - whew. The week the warranty expired I sold the van.

If I were purchasing a new Airstream and there was an option for extending the warranty, and it covered the entire coach meaning they dealt with the various component manufacturers and all I/dealer had to do was one claim to one source, I'd look hard at it.

Barry

[2airishuman]

hi rc...

along with the early "lifetime warranty" a/s has offered various extended warranty packages over the years...

here is an example i posted from 1992/3, enlarge the pix in the upper left frame to read it...

http://www.airforums.com/forums/216538-post20.html

YES YES YES, the basic warranty should be longer on a product that advertises longevity as a feature.

frame, shell, subfloor, windows, plumbing, electrical and other a/s unique structural items SHOULD have 5 YEARS at the minimum.

the axles do, as i understand.

appliances are a different issue but a/s SHOULD be tracking ALL applicance claims and selecting better stuff, in some areas.

plastic vent covers that are toast in 2-3 years and tank sensors that are gone even sooner are a JOKE.

and remember the rust and corrosion that sometimes starts even before the units leave the lot is NOT covered.

THE BIG CHALLENGES with an aftermarket extended warranty are these...

1. price
2. specifically what is NOT covered
3. who can provide the local warranty coverage.
---NOT ALL A/S DEALERS are competent to do the work
---MANY don't want to submit billing statements or follow the 'agreed schedule' for service issues
---
4. who sells the warranty? the dealers or the company? this is big because someone is gonna pocket the money OR pay out the claims.

right now there are some dealers who DO sell extended warranties.

none are a/s approved but still folks buy them and dealers sell them.

LASTLY a/s takes a big financial hit on the claims/warranty side, primarily because fit/finish and quality standards are still LOUSY.

and last year there was discussion of REDUCING the factory warranty on new units to ONE YEAR...

which is a long way from the lifetime offering back in the glory days.

cheers
2air'

[TBRich]

We had a 3rd party warrantee on our small motor home...it paid for a few small things, but it was like pulling teeth. I mean I had b**ch and moan to get action...not the way I like to operate. I would NOT do the 3rd party thing again. Fortunately, when we sold the motor home, the warrantee was still in effect and we were able to cancel it and get about half of the cost back. 3rd party extended warrantees are very expensive and very fine-print oriented and they (the underwriters) do you NO favors if they can avoid it for ANY reason. IF, OTOH, Airstream was to offer an extended FACTORY warrantee I'd want to look into it...but no 3rd party warrantees for me ever again.

[FreshAir]

I believe extended warranties are a waste of money 90% of the time. You have to use common sense and crunch a lot of numbers to justify spending your money. Not like me. In 1987 we bought a new car mostly as a commuter. For an extra $600 we got a 5 year 50,000 mile extended warranty. Sounded like a good deal until I realized that our commute was 120 miles a day. We quickly piled up over 30,000 miles that first year and each subsequent years. So our 5/ 50,000 warrantee's life expired in 1 1/2 years. $600 was a lot of money for us in 1987. We still consider case by case extended warranty offers on our major purchases and never have picked one up since. Never sorry either. Oh, and that car was driven off by it's new owner with 300,000 miles on it. It was tired but still dependable.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Never been a fan of 3rd party warranties. Some companies are better

than others but most leave a great deal to be desired. Have a pretty

fair amount of G.M. experience, having delt with their GMPP extended

warranty plan over the years. Even got one on my Burb when I purchased it

in 1995, not cheap even back then. And I never used it until late in it's

third year. Truck being six years old at the time. But one major ABS repair

got my investment back.

How nice it would be if A/S would just give us a realistic base warranty.

[moosetags]

I purchased a brand new 2001 Chevrolet Suburban 2500 in December, 2000. We decided to purchase the no-deductable 5 year/100,000 mile GM extended warranty. It cost $2,500. We hit the 100,000 miles in a little over four years.I kept meticulous repair records during the warranty period. The covered repairs that I would have to have paid for (those past 36,000 miles) totaled $1,870. I came out a little upsidedown on the deal. When we bought the new 2004 Tahoe, the same warranty was $2,800; we decided against it. The Tahoe now has 48,000 miles on it, and it has never had any repairs. Service, tires, battery, that's all we've done.

I think I'll roll the dice, and not go with the extended warranty.

Brian

[Midamrail]

We do it on our diesel trucks just because of the expense of the repairs if they're needed, but we negotiate the warranty as part of the deal and will only pay the pass-through price from the dealer - no mark-up. We did use it once; the $1600 we paid for the warranty was more than made up by the $3500 tranny we needed on one truck.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by Midamrail

We do it on our diesel trucks just because of the expense of the repairs if they're needed, but we negotiate the warranty as part of the deal and will only pay the pass-through price from the dealer - no mark-up. We did use it once; the $1600 we paid for the warranty was more than made up by the $3500 tranny we needed on one truck.

Have worked at several GM stores over the last 15 yrs. (serv, dept)

You definitely did it the right way, negotiate the GMPP up front, most drls.

will bend to close, especially on a "high end" tv. Your $1600 was

a good deal. You can also go from $0 to $100 ded. too save a little up front.