Should one buy extended warranty on a new car?

I just bought 2006 Honda Pilot EX-L with navigation. They offered me an extended warranty for $1465 for 7 yrs/ 80K miles. I have purchased it and given 60 days to think about it. Any thoughts? Should I buy it or cancel it? Any reasons for me to keep it? Please help!!

Extended warranties are almost always a bad value. Buying a used car is almost always a better value than buying a new one.

Do your research before you buy, not after

if its a cheap car - no
if its a new car - no
if its a used car - yes, if it has alot of electronics/electric.

i.e.
I bought a used jeep laredo for 15K - did not buy(had usual power windows, mirrors, locks and radio).

Years later, I bought a jeep limited for 20K - yes bought it (had power windows, mirrors, heated mirrors, locks, radio/cd, 10 cd changer, moonroof, power seats, heated seats and every jeep owner's worst nightmare... the climate control system).

newparent said: I just bought 2006 Honda Pilot EX-L with navigation. They offered me an extended warranty for $1465 for 7 yrs/ 80K miles. I have purchased it and given 60 days to think about it. Any thoughts? Should I buy it or cancel it? Any reasons for me to keep it? Please help!!

You can probably get a better price. I paid $765 for a 7 year/100K/$0 deductibule warranty for my '04 Accord in Dec. '03, when they were selling for about $1200-$1300 on average. Check out the forums on Edmunds. You can get an idea of what other people are paying. I bought from Pohanka Honda in Maryland. Unless you live in FL, you can purchase an extended warranty from any dealer in any state. I would try to get a better deal, and go back to your dealer and ask them to match the price (or at least come real close) or get it from another dealer.

Even I bought 2006 Pilot recently but have not purchased Extended Warranty. Though I understand that some things are not covered in the 3 yr/36K warranty, I feel it should be enough for the first few years (Honda is one of the most reliable SUVs, so I *hope* things would be OK till then]. I may THINK about buying Extended warranty once the manufacture warranty expires..

newparent said: I just bought 2006 Honda Pilot EX-L with navigation. They offered me an extended warranty for $1465 for 7 yrs/ 80K miles. I have purchased it and given 60 days to think about it. Any thoughts? Should I buy it or cancel it? Any reasons for me to keep it? Please help!!

Lenagainster said: ... The warranty company refused to replace the radio, offering repair (2 months without a radio) or max of $600 towards a new radio. I still got stuck with a $120 bill from the repair shop for them to determine that it was my radio and not my speakers. Refused the deal and put in a $150 radio from a tech store. Never had another reason to make an extended warranty claim.

1 of my friend just got into the same problem w/ his xtend warranty on '02 Lexus. The warranty co. refused to pay for his engine repair claiming that it causes by abuses. He managed to get Lexus to reapir under good will since the warranty just run out a couple months.

luiset83 said: If Honda works the same as Toyota, you can buy the extended warranty anytime before the factory warranty expires, if you don't want to wait. I bought mine close to the end of the factory warranty, and it paid for itself already. I have a Prius and the multi function display (MFD) started working erratically shortly after the 36k miles elapsed. The cost of the warranty... $990.. cost that i would've paid to replace component... ~$500. Well worth it to me, at least.
You can buy an extended warranty anytime before factory warranty expires, but once you get beyond a certain number of miles, the price goes up and the coverage goes down. I believe it's in the neighborhoor of 12K miles, but check for yourself at CurryHondaCare.com. Try several different mileage scenarios, you'll see that after x miles are on the car, the cost goes up and the coverage drops - it's a substancial change.

It's not so much the engine and drivetrain I'd be concerned about, it's all the electronics. You can get a 8 year 120K mile, 0 deductible policy for the Pilot for 1505.000 from CurryHondaCare right now, if you plan on keeping the car, that's pretty good protection.

no, unless you plan to keep the car for additional 7 years after manufacturer warranty.

Personally, I would cancel it.

Look, you bought a Honda not a Yugo. It should be reliable and you still have the basic factory warranty.

Take the $1465 and put it in the bank or invest it. You can then treat that money as a repair fund. If you never use it you'll be way ahead of the game.

Bob

bryany127 said: Warranty extended to 7 years and not an additional 7 years of warranty.

That's what would be expected, but my dealership wrote one which used the sale date as the start of the 7 year coverage period. This was for a ~2 year used vehicle. I think they made a mistake. Anyway, I made enough successful claims against that one to realize about 1.5 times its cost in paid benefits.

One thing which made it easier for me to get the benefits was that I took the car back to the selling dealer for each claim. They dealt with the insurer and even fought (and won) at least one significant denial. So the OP's answer is the usual, 'maybe'.

ellory said: Extended warranties are almost always a bad value. Buying a used car is almost always a better value than buying a new one.

Do your research before you buy, not after

+1 on all counts.

A warranty is only useful when it DOES pays our problems. We can always get a cheaper warranty somewhere, but we won't know the truth until you file a claim... ususlly troublesome.

I would not buy unless it's an original manufacturer's warranty. but most of them are not, even those offered at the dealers.

If you must have one, it is necessary lower your expectations.

Ok guys. I have a 2003 BMW 325XI and my warranty is expiring in about 2 months. I have the car almost 4 years and i have been in their service dept at least 12 times. I requested quote for their extended warranty and every dealer has the same price of $4500 for both maintenance and engine. Should i get it?

Well hate to be the contrarian here, but I bought a Hyundai with 14,000 miles on it. I went back in about a year later and paid for the extended warranty for about $1400 which covered me past the 60,000 mile warranty I got with the car to 100,000 or September of 2007. Glad I did. As of now I have 92,000 miles and can say I still have bumper to bumper.

Haven't had too many problems, and in the end the repairs will probably just equal out to the $1400 but it's the peace of mind I cherish. Last week had a problem with the power lock on the passenger side, took it in and parts and labor is about $150 and it is covered.

However up to 80,000 miles doesn't seem worth it to me. I have a saturn as well (bought it used as well) and the factory on that was only up to 30,000 miles so I got an extended one through Allstate until 93,000.

So in the end if you are going to keep the car I think it's worth it.

I'm not going to try to convince either side to change their opinion.
However, we can spout anecdotal stories about whether a specific warranty in your case was covered by the cost of repairs or not. I'm sorry but anecdotal stories mean almost nothing in the grand scheme of thousands of cars being sold.

Second thing to note is that if these warranty companies (or divisions of larger companies) did not turn a profit year over year they would not be in business. This tells me that your premium not only covers the repairs they pay out but it also covers the real estate for the offices they reside in and the salaries they pay out. It is something to think about.

The third item to note is that if you are buying a warranty because you could never afford to repair the car using your own money then you probably bought more car than you can afford. You should probably reevaluate how much enjoyment this particular car gives and whether you were just buying it for status or something less important. I'm not saying this is 100% true all the time. I never buy anything I can't afford to accidentally break on the way home and I have to tell you that being "liberated" from being owned by your possessions is an awesome feeling.

dczarniak said: You young 'uns don't know what you're talking about.

Resolved: Unless you're foolish enough to buy a) brand new models with unknown repair histories or b) an unreliable vehicle such as a Rover or c) a vehicle you really can't afford in the first place (using the x-warranty essentially as a way of financing future repairs over time), you don't need an extended warranty. Instead, you're better off saving the $1000-$3000+ an extended warranty would cost and setting it aside for future repairs.

Please tell us why the above is not correct.

ellory said: Extended warranties are almost always a bad value. Buying a used car is almost always a better value than buying a new one.

Do your research before you buy, not after

I'm so sick of hearing this in every car thread that comes up and people accepting it as true no matter what. It's not always true.

My wife and I had been looking at used Pilots for 2 months. Best we could find was in the range of 24K for a 2004 with about 30K miles and the colors were never what we wanted. When the Honda clearance started this year, I was able to fax attack and get the exact car we wanted for $26790. In this case, it would have made zero sense to buy used.

If you're going to buy crap cars, yes it makes sense to buy used and not take the depreciation hit. If you buy a car that holds its value, the curve for new vs. used drops off significantly. especially if you can negotiate a good price with the dealer and buy at the right time.

To the OP: I am thinking of getting an extended warranty through www.hondacuraworld.com They are a supporter of hondapilot.org and have good sales on accessories and great customer service. They have the warranty you got for half price- you can decide up to 6 months/6K miles on the vehicle if you want to extend it. Also, one accessory that has been great are:
http://cgi.eBay.com/ebaymotors/Dash-Console-and-Door-Pads-for-the-Honda-Pilot_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33700QQihZ015QQitemZ250021297329QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

Hope you like the new Pilot- my wife can't stop talking about how much she does

I bought a used, historically dependable car. I also bought a zero-deductible extended warranty for $1500 (not from dealer). It has had ~$2000+ in repairs within 2 years. Yes, I would buy an extended warranty again. Next time from the dealer, because most imdependent internet extended warranty companies go bankrupt.

I don't bother buying extended warranties for electronics which Circuit City, Comp USA, Best Buy, etc. push because I know I would never use it. I haven't had a need for it yet that my credit card didn't cover. But for cars, they are generally worth having.

Should one buy extended warranty on a new car? NO.

I can play the anecdotal game too. Every single instance where I didn't buy the extended warranty I didn't have repairs that totaled more than the warranty.

Please include the warranty if you buy Honda Pilot. As far as I know, Honda builds bad transmission especially V6 model. I have 2 friends with V6 Accord have bad transmission; a friend of my has Odysey with bad transmission; I have an Acura MDX with bad transmission..... I thought Honda builds good car, my MDX has only 61k miles..... SAD! Now I need to find a rebult transmission as a new one cost me $6000! Unless you are going to TOYOTA!