I recently purchased a new 2019 Toyota Camry. I used my car as a trade in and paid the rest in cash so I have no car payment.
Upon venturing into the finance manager office he naturally tried to sell me several different warranties. The new car came with a 2 year or 25,000 mile warranty. I declined all the warranties. I came home and did some research and uncovered that I can purchase the extended warranty any time before my current warranty is up. Funny how they don’t share that info with the buyer.
Should I consider purchasing the extended warranty at some point? Also, they offer a warranty that covers “dents & dings” as well as tires and lost keys. The cost is $600. Should I buy this? I’m also aware that the finance manager can lower the price on these offers!
Found pretty much the same when we bought our 2019 Toyota 4Runner and 2019 Tacoma in March… the FM can lower the price as ours did, but she tried a hard sale on the warranties, which honestly put us off.
From past experience, find out what your deductible is, too. Our last warranty on a Santa Fe was $100 per incident. And research what is and isn’t covered! Some things get grey, as we found out when we tried to use the warranty on a catalytic converter issue (the warrantor did not want to cover it and passed the buck saying it was Hyundai’s responsibility… let me tell you, that caused many, many aggravating phone calls. Hyundai finally did cover it but the warranty company was really a jerk about it, they were totally unhelpful and mostly rude). I guess it also depends if you plan to run the tires off of your Camry… or will you plan to trade up in a few years? If you plan to keep the vehicle then it might be in your best interest if you don’t want to pay for out of pocket expenses.
If my car was paid in full, I would just start a fund for repairs that should ideally take a few years before they happen - especially since you bought a new vehicle, that should have a longer powertrain warranty? I prefer to select my cost-effective repair shop myself and not be tied to an insurance or warranty company. Take the $600, deposit into an interest bearing account and add $20 a month to it perhaps? Toyota’s advertise as being very reliable vehicles but warranties and other “add-ons” make the financial person’s sales goals. Too many individuals in the sales process at a dealership are required to meet specific sales goals - even the financial team. I personally think it shows a lack of faith in their product to push said warranties and add-ons, but that comes from a few years’ experience with leases and paying for the warranties and finding that the extras don’t really benefit the vehicle or me. Just my two cents.
Extended warranties can be a gamble with autos. Extensive research is required before making a decision and don’t forget to research the company providing the extended warranty.
On the other hand when purchasing appliances, computers, etc. definitely purchase the extended warranty. I purchased a new computer for my husband at Best Buy several years ago. With one year remaining on the three year extended warranty, the computer died. Best Buy’s Geek Squad checked the computer and said there was nothing that could be done to repair it. We were able to select a new computer to replace the old one and decided to choose a different brand. All we paid was the $50 difference between the two computers. We went from an HP to an Alienware. The extended warranty wasn’t very expensive and more than paid for itself.
I recently traded my car in for a bigger and nicer model. Since I bought a used car now with all the bells and whistles. I got an extended warranty from a company that contacted me. With all the electronics and power motors for everything i felt it was a good deal. I also wont be buying a car again for a long time.
I am glad you asked this question. I am blessed to recently purchase a 2007 Ford Ranger XLT, and my hubby wants me to get a warranty. I am looking at a 2 year warranty from Ford, powertrain, with 29 items covered, for a little over $1000.00. Since titan older truck, it didn’t come with a warranty. All wisdom is appreciated on this issue!
I was in the used car business with my own small dealership for many years and I sold many warranties. You have to realize warranty companies are there to make money! Overall, they always will. What you are buying is something that you may come out ahead if and only if you have far more issues than the average.
You are far better off to take $50 per month (or $100 if you have a high repair cost car) and tuck it away into a savings account so you have an emergency fund for repairs. Or if you have enough in your regular emergency fund just realize you may need to dip into it for a large repair bill.
Also keep in mind that you are financing the warranty if you add it to the car loan. This means two things: 1) you are paying interest on the warranty for the entire period you owe money on the car (even after the warranty expires) and 2) adding this warranty to the loan makes you (probably even more) upside down in your car loan unless you are paying 30-50% down. So you buy a car for say $20k, pay $2k down but add $1500 warranty + $500 gap + $1000 tax title & license and you are now financing $21k on your $20k car with $2k down and as soon as you buy it, it is worth maybe $16k wholesale/trade in so you are immediately upside down by $5k.
We sold warranties and we felt good about it because our main customer base were lower income lower credit score and almost all lived paycheck to paycheck, so a $1000 repair would literally sink them to the point they would lose their car and possibly their job (and of course stop making their car payments). But if you have some fiscal responsibility you definitely don’t need one.
Think about it this way. If you had a fleet of 100 cars you would never buy warranties on all of them because you know that your costs to fix would average far less than what the warranty company would charge you (since they are making a profit).
You will be far better off researching repair history (costs & occurrences) for the make and model you are interested in and then analyze the carfax or autocheck report of the vehicle you want and take it to a trusted mechanic for a thorough inspection.
In my opinion most warranties are not worth the cost anyway. Warranties and insurance policies should only be used when the risk of loss is far greater than you can afford. A $50 warranty on a $500 TV is worthless since the most you will be out is $500. A car warranty is not worth much since the most you would be out if a motor blows is several thousand dollars and less than the cost of the car. But regular car insurance or health insurance is imperative to have since you could be saddled with a $500,000 (or more) bill for a liability payment or hospital bill.
I have found a lot of this depends on how you drive and use your vehicle. If you are going to be putting a lot of miles on very quickly, I would probably invest in some of the extended warranties because you’re going to be putting on miles faster than the allotted time. If you are sticking close to home, Id say you’re probably fine with your current warranty.
I do a lot of my own maintenance on my vehicle (03 Mazda 6). I found out that most of the parts I purchase, I can put a warranty on for less and that’s a better option for me since its usually a minimum 2 year warranty for my major parts.
Best of luck! Awesome money savvyness with not caving in to the warranties till after some research. I had no idea I could change my mind after I purchased a new car!
Keep your hard earned money and save up for repairs instead. Those warranties are mostly commission on the sale. The companies wouldn’t offer them if people frequently used them.
