So is medical insurance but I was sure glad to have it this year when I had surgery on my neck and was in the hospital for 24 hours and the bill would have been 166k without medical insurance...ouch!!!! If you don't have coverage you can only blame yourself when you get a huge bill. I am not the best saver as someone in an earlier post mentioned starting an account with the money they would have spent on a warranty and draw from it but I am just not the best saver. I rather get the coverage and just hope I never need to use it rather than worrying about each ticking sound the car makes or the times I forget to take the parking brake off wondering if I screwed something up?

 

Medical insurance isn't really a good analogy.

The thing about Extended Warranties is over your lifetime of driving you're going to have a fair number of different cars. If you were to buy such a warranty for each one of them the odds are only one or two would pay off, the rest will cost you money. Case in point, over the last 30 years my wife and I have purchased something like 15 cars, had we opted for the extended warranty for each one of them, only one would have paid for itself (but only by maybe $500, the rest would have been nearly complete losses of the cash we would have spent on the policies. Long story short, we're nearly $20,000 ahead because we just said "no".

 

Good point if you don't keep cars past the manufacturers warranty. I keep my cars for a long time and I do way better paying a small monthly fee to have protection rather than being in a position where I need to shell out thousands say for a transmission with a car that now is not worth anything. If you are financial wealthy thats great so if a big bill came along you could pay for it but for people like me I wouldn't be able to afford it. Maybe your position is spot on but I just would not risk it.

 

Sorry, your assumptions are far from reality. I keep my cars well beyond the 200,000 mile mark and extended warranties are, if anything, less cost effective when considering high mileage vehicles.

 

I'm with you on this. My last 2014 CX5 had the trans replaced at 32k miles and then at 70k miles I experienced another "glitch". I currently have a 2016, bought the bumper to bumper Mazda Extended warranty at dealer cost. I have until the end of my original bumper to bumper warranty to decide to keep it or get my money back.

 

The thing is, your transmission failure at 32,000 miles would have been covered by the new vehicle warranty. If you really want to pay a small monthly fee, pay it into your own account and draw against that when you have an unscheduled failure.

Funny thing a transmission failure is being referenced here as a case for why to buy an extended warranty. Funny how? Glad you asked. For one of our cars bought new in 1998, we were offered an extended warranty for something like $1,750, said warranty covered many components up to the 100,000 mile mark (with a $100 deductible per event). Prior to the 100,000 mile mark the only failure the vehicle suffered was a single burned out light bulb and a single door switch, neither of which would have been covered.

The above said, the following failures happened after the warranty would have expired:

• 109,000 miles: Transmission, $2,600
• 112,000 miles: Starter, $200
• 125,000 miles: Driver's side window regulator: $150

So, instead of being pissed off at having bought a useless extended warranty, I simply drew against the fund I established for warranties (the fund was 10 years old at the time and had roughly $9,000 in it).

Long story short, regardless of whether you pay into a self-managed slush fund monthly, or if you pay the lump sum of any warranties you're offered and do not accept up front, you're going to be way-WAY ahead by the time you buy the last car of your driving lifetime.

 

The warranty covers much more than the transmission, it’s bumper to bumper. Yeah, my transmission was first replaced under warranty, and then the second one acted up again almost at the exact same mileage as the first one. Yes, it spooked me a little. New transmission replacements are around the 5k dollar mark. Yes, I chose to buy another CX5 and was offered a cheap deal on a warranty and took it. It also covers power window motors, moonroof parts, heated seats, infotainment system, all computers and other electronic gizmos up to 100,000 miles. Cars bought in 1998 aren’t as complex as they are now. I see that argument all the time. Iv’e had older cars go for 200,000+ miles as well. Out of the last 6 new cars I’ve had, this is only the 2nd car I’ve bought a warranty for. The main point is this, in the end it’s a personal choice, buy one or not. For someone to tell someone else it’s wrong is just, well, wrong. Kudos to you and your 9 grand slush fund.

 

You're missing the point entirely. As cars become more complex, the extended warranties become more expensive; just put the cost of the warranty into a slush fund, and over a lifetime of vehicle ownership you'll have a bundle of money left over. I started my fund back in 1993, currently there is over $20,000 in it even with having drawn against it for nearly $7,000 in repairs.

 

Just how expensive do you think they are getting? I bought a warranty for my 2007 Toyota for $1000, got most of it back 3 years later when the car was totaled on a prorated basis. My CX5 Mazda Extended warranty (out to six years, 100,000 miles) was $1300. I have the option of returning it before my original bumper to bumper is done.

 

Who did you buy the warranty from? The extended warranty offered to us for our 2016 Mazda3 was something like $1,900 direct from Mazda.