Extended warranties...which are the best?

Since we are talking insurance here, one of the best insurances is the Good Sam Roadside Assistance program. It's about $100 per year, and covers the towing costs whenever the rig breaks down. That is especially helpful when you are travelling far from home. Our towing in Yukon as way over $700 by the time we had it to a garage that could fix it. As for the extended warranty, we have more than paid for the premium on our Diesel Pusher class A, but I also realize the economics of the warranty business, but in my opinion it is like any other insurance. You buy it for the disaster. There is nothing worse than being on an extended trip and you have a $5000 or $10,000 bill in order to get back on the road. In Yukon, we had a Low Pressure fuel pump replaced, which in the end cost about $2500 with all the time it took to diagnose the problem. We won on the gamble, but I know a lot of others lost, because the 3rd party warranty company is still in business

WoodGlue wrote:
Honestly, I would do this;

Put the $5,000 (or whatever) into an interest bearing account of or a short term CD and let it sit there unless and until you need a repair.

WoodGlue

X2 Most extended warranties are close to useless and waaaay overpriced. You are buying a quality unit with very low mileage and should have no major issues. We bought our 2012 Nexus with 6,000 miles and never even considered an extended warranty.

If you were considering an older unit, even if it had low mileage then perhaps some sort of warranty would be in order. The worst thing folks due to any RV is not use it but with a thorough PDI you should be fine. :C

Like all insurance contracts, you will not know what you paid for until you make a claim. IMO.

Like autos/trucks, many 3rd party warranty companies collect money for several years and then go out of business. whether to purchase an extended warranty or not is up to you, but I would definitely by only one offered by the manufacturer, not one offered by a 3rd party even if it is recommended by your dealer.

We had a extended warranty from RV Shield for 2006 fifth wheel for $1800 for 7 years. Best thing we ever bought - we had to replace furnance, fridge, airconditioner, inverter - twice, wiring - it was worth it for us. Like any insurance, you decide how much of a risk you want to take.

Here's my 2 cents on this topic, take it for what it's worth...

Understand this one thing if nothing else: You generally don't win with extended warranties.

Here's why: Any company that sells an extended warranty is not about saving you money but is strictly trying to make money themselves. So they price their product to include their expenses (what they need to pay out in claims & their other expenses) plus a profit. So assume you do pay them $5000, here's a rough example of how that money would be spent by the extended warranty company:

*** claims - $3000 (they keep some amount in a reserve to cover what they think would be average for the particular coach including age, mileage, etc)

*** expenses - $1000 (they spend some to pay the dealer a commission for selling a warranty, pay their staff, pay their light bill, etc)

*** profit - $1000 (for the owners of the company to buy some nice stuff for themselves!)

These are just hypothetical numbers but the idea is to say that you'd be further ahead putting $3000 in a cookie jar & covering your own repairs versus paying $5000 to cover the repairs plus everything else above.

No doubt there are people on this forum & others who say, & probably did, come out ahead. But, the simple economics of the situation is that you won't (the company has to pay out less than they take in or they go out of business).

About the only time I'd recommend somebody buy an extended warranty on a camper is if they don't have a slush fund already or can't park & leave untouched some money to cover unexpected expenses. Although, even then honestly, I would suggest they might want to rethink if this (expensive) hobby is the right choice for them.

Again, JMHO.

Our extended warranty experience - We had never owned an RV before, so when we bought our Winnebago Minnie MH we bought the extended warranty, good for 5 years. Now 10 years down the road and never had an issue that could have been covered. IMO extended warranties on anything are a high profit item for the seller and a waste of money for the buyer.

Hang around here and read trailer life magazine long enough and you'll get pretty jaded about extended warranty's. Personally I will never buy one because of their poor track record.
I would keep the $5k and just take my chances.

Generally extended warranties are not worthwhile. The chassis warranty, housebox warranty and individual appliance warranties provide coverage for specified periods of time or mileage, and only after that, the extended warranty coverage kicks in. You are required by fine print in extended warranties to keep records of your compliance with each appliance manufacturers periodic inspection and maintenance schedules as well as scheduled chassis maintenance. Policies are full of exclusions and hard to comprehend by owners.Save money to cover eventual repairs and upgrades in a "Pearl Harbor"
bank account. Appliances and roof AC units may start to fail after about 10 years.

I tried to PM you.