Extended warranty. What are your thoughts

[Chuck___]

My 2017 Ford dually 350 truck has 12,000 miles on it. Thinking of buying an extended warranty????? I was picking up a B&W hitch I purchase at supply shop just after I purchased the Ford and ran into a Dodge service manager. He told me years ago that the best advice he would give anyone is to purchase an extended warranty before your truck factory warranty runs out. With the newer truck electronics, if anything needs replacing it will cost you thousands.


Any recommendations and or advice?

[Tvov]

Lynnmor wrote:
I can understand your concern, while I never buy warranties on smaller items I did buy one for the truck.

Do some online shopping for the Ford ESP plan, you will probably find a MUCH better price than from a local dealer. Flood Ford is one such place.

This! You can buy a "factory" warranty from ANY Ford dealership, and it is good throughout the country. When I bought my truck back in 2008, I found a dealer in Kentucky who sold Ford factory warranties (for new trucks at least) online, and they were all legal. My local dealer almost had a heart attack when I said I could get a warranty for less than 1/2 of what he wanted. My dealer did lower the price substantially to where I was okay buying it from him.

With new vehicles, I am a believer in getting a warranty to at least cover the vehicle while you are making payments on it. It would bug the heck out of me to pay for a major repair on a vehicle I didn't even own yet!

Of course, it is amazing to find out how much is NOT covered under a "bumper-to-bumper" warranty... catchy name that is, right? Read the fine print - everything will be repaired for free (and probably even includes a rental car), except for all the stuff that won't be repaired for free, and the rental car has pages of limitations of when and if you actually get one.

Okay, enough warranty ranting.

You have a 2017 vehicle, going on 4 years old. Has it been fine so far? Is there any reason you think you need a warranty? Most of the non-factory warranties have Massive fine print, and almost don't cover anything except maybe the rear view mirror falling off.

Also, check to see if you still have original factory warranty left! You may still have coverage for a lot of parts, especially exhaust system.

If you really think you may have truck issues requiring warranty work in the future, you may want to think about buying a new truck. When you add up warranty cost, down payments, and lost time - buying an extended warranty after the fact may not make sense money-wise.

Holy mackerel, my coffee must be strong this morning - how did my post get so big? lol!

[Flashman]

spud1957 wrote:
If I owned a Ford diesel, I would have an extended warranty.

True that

[wowens79]

I never buy them. I’ve had my truck for 17 years, and I’ve had 2 repairs. An AC compressor, and a fuel pump.
Read up on how much they pay out in claims vs how much they bring in. They are a huge profit center. Good for them, they are in it to make money.

[YC_1]

Ask me about my bumper to bumper plan recommended by lots of folks on RV forums.

15 K miles and only a few years owning our new RV and going full time. It is stressful enough being broke down and towed. Downtime for the DPF was three days and 5K. Warranty said it was emissions component and those are not covered.

I did get them to cover a dead inverter and a bad rear view camera monitor. So got some of my moneys worth. I bought it for peace of mind. It was not peace of mind after that event.

[Me_Again]

otrfun wrote:
We purchased a bumper-to-bumper, 8yr/120k, $100 deductible, Mopar OEM Maximum Care plan for our new 2016 Ram Cummins. Unfortunately, it doesn't cover the SCR or DPF, but covers most everything else. If your locale requires emissions testing this could be a potential issue. The vast majority of dealers wanted $3000-$3500 for this plan. We eventually found a Ram dealer in IN who sold it to us for $2200. We felt $2200 offered good value for 8 years and 120,000 mi. of peace-of-mind, not to mention the increased resale value if we decide to sell it at some point. YMMV.

We bought the same policy on you 2015 RAM. Which includes a loaner or rental car during warranty service and recalls. I think it was only the second warranty I ever purchase. First warranty was for a VHS tape player decades ago. Third one was for all of our appliances in the park model here in Arizona at a very reasonable price. Appliances have short lives here in the desert summer heat.

[ScottG]

Remember that the dealer doesn't pay that much for a warranty so you can dicker with him until he just wont go any lower. The last time I bought a auto makers warranty, they started out at $2800. I told them I'd pay $1k and after lots of going back and forth, he finally sold it to me for that price. He then told me they only pay $800 so anything over that is gravy.
BTW, it was a total waste of money - never used it.
Haven't bought one since.

[otrfun]

We purchased a bumper-to-bumper, 8yr/120k, $100 deductible, Mopar OEM Maximum Care plan for our new 2016 Ram Cummins. Unfortunately, it doesn't cover the SCR or DPF, but covers most everything else. If your locale requires emissions testing this could be a potential issue. The vast majority of dealers wanted $3000-$3500 for this plan. We eventually found a Ram dealer in IN who sold it to us for $2200. We felt $2200 offered good value for 8 years and 120,000 mi. of peace-of-mind, not to mention the increased resale value if we decide to sell it at some point. YMMV.

[spud1957]

If I owned a Ford diesel, I would have an extended warranty.

[Grit_dog]

Fordlover wrote:
It is all about your tolerance for risk. Extended warranties are simply a form of an insurance policy.

Extended warranty companies are businesses, and they intend to make money, which means they must charge you more for the warranty coverage they offer than it will cost them to sell, administer, and pay claims on average. If they don't cover these costs, they will go out of business, and your extended warranty will cease.

My thoughts are if an unexpected 2k repair bill will decimate your personal finances buying a new car is probably not the best move. For some, the piece of mind of not being potentially exposed to an unexpected repair bill for a set period of time is worth the up front cost of the warranty.

To each their own. Best of luck with your decision.

Heck, I feel this way about factory warranties! If they were losing money on them, they wouldn't offer them or would raise the price even more. I'll take no warranty 10 times out of 9 after doing my due diligence, not just with cars either.

[ScottG]

Not a snow balls chance!

[Lynnmor]

I can understand your concern, while I never buy warranties on smaller items I did buy one for the truck.

Do some online shopping for the Ford ESP plan, you will probably find a MUCH better price than from a local dealer. Flood Ford is one such place.

[Mike134]

Should call it piece of mind insurance. Like others said above it's a cash cow for the seller. No way they sell it to you unless they know they will make a nice profit when all the sales are grouped together and just a couple of claims payed out.

[FishOnOne]

As for the electronics and sensors it could pay off or maybe not but I wouldn't worry about the drive train. Based on your usage of your truck I doubt it would pay off. As for my truck I thought about it but decided not to and it was the right choice, but we did get one on my wife's Edge Sport and turned out it wasn't needed. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

If you do choose to get one be sure it's a Ford ESP plan.

[romore]

The dealers love sellinng extended warranty, it is a cash cow. Look at it as a game of chance, in the end the house wins. Put the premium in a no touchee account each month, if you need it fine. If you don't it's still yours.

[Fordlover]

It is all about your tolerance for risk. Extended warranties are simply a form of an insurance policy.

Extended warranty companies are businesses, and they intend to make money, which means they must charge you more for the warranty coverage they offer than it will cost them to sell, administer, and pay claims on average. If they don't cover these costs, they will go out of business, and your extended warranty will cease.

My thoughts are if an unexpected 2k repair bill will decimate your personal finances buying a new car is probably not the best move. For some, the piece of mind of not being potentially exposed to an unexpected repair bill for a set period of time is worth the up front cost of the warranty.

To each their own. Best of luck with your decision.