Aftermarket warranty companies

[Jmorrone]

Can anyone recommend a good after market warranty company. My car has 171,000 miles on it and I have been shelling out some significant cash lately on different issues. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[BimmerBreaker]

Aftermarket warranties are designed to make money, if they paid out more than they were paid then theyd go out of business. If your car is getting too expensive to maintain, get a newer car.

[MIKYZZ4]

DIY preventive maintenance is the preferred method, of keeping repair costs to a minimum.

[Matt Cramer]

In the same vein as "I wouldn't want to belong to any club that would accept me as a member," I'm not sure any aftermarket warranty company that would sell an aftermarket warranty for a car with 171,000 miles is trustworthy enough to do business with.

[TonyAngel]

I bought an aftermarket warranty from carchex. I sent the inquiry and someone called me back. They had a heck of a good sales pitch and under the the terms and conditions they described, it sounded like a good way to get a little peace of mind. I went ahead and got it. I'm paying something like $125 a month for 2 years for a 3 year warranty. I just got it because my car started having problems right after I got it, so I wanted a little insurance in case something big happened. Like the transmission blowing up. After I signed up, I got a warranty packet in the mail fully described my coverage. After that, I called them to cancel. There was literally twice as much content in the contract dealing with what isn't covered as there is dealing with what is covered.

For example, say my transmission goes out and the clutches and gears are fried. The transmission is covered for the hard parts. Electronic parts are not covered so theoretically, if the hard parts are what failed and the electronics are still good, then I get new hard parts. This was the kicker for me. Now imagine that hard parts in your transmission failed, but the failure was due to a part that is not covered, say a solenoid failure caused the gears or clutches to fry, then the repair won't be covered because the overall failure was caused by a non covered part.

I'm an attorney, although I do not specialize in contracts, and I can usually read and understand a contract and its implications better than most. I have to tell you that their warranty contract was artfully crafted with just enough ambiguity that most would be mislead, but not so much so that it would be considered vague in the eyes of the law.

On the other hand, carchex has some very good reviews and there is a good bit of stuff that is covered. The good news is that you can cancel at any time, but be warned. Cancelling is not nearly as easy as signing up.

I will likely cancel because most of the stuff that is covered probably won't happen to me because most of it is preventable. I was told that the warranty covers some preventive repairs, but ALL repairs under the warranty are done with parts that they are willing to pay for. When I read that, I immediately had electronic parts and pumps made in China come to mind.

In the end, I'd suggest budgeting the money that you would have put into a warranty and just bank it and continue on your road to doing it yourself.