I just bought a Touring CX-5 and elected not to purchase the warranty that extends coverage out to 8 years.

What is the wisdom of this choice, or what is the likely hood of electrical computers, etc. failing? The added warranty increases the payment by $43 per mo on a 60 month plan.

I'd like to hear what experience you all have had concerning this choice and whether the extra warranty was needed. This is my first Mazda, however have purchased 2 other new vehicles since 2008 and didn't need the warranty. The dealership is holding the paper work until this coming Tues in case I change my mind about the warranty.

I was surprised that there is also a paint warranty that cost $995.

 

In my humble opinion, extended warranties are a complete scam.

The above said, I got suckered into buying such a warranty on a new car I bought back in 1988, it didn't pay off. Since that time my wife and I have purchased over a dozen new cars and instead of buying the extended warranty, we took the cash value and put it into an interest bearing account, and then drew against said account when an unscheduled maintenance event popped up. As of this writing, only one of the warranties we've turned down would have paid for itself; barely. The flip side is a van we bought 19 years ago; it needed a new transmission (which cost $2,600), however, the warranty would have long since expired when the transmission failed, I used that fund anyway.

The best news of all, our repair "fund" has nearly $20,000 dollars in it. Long story short, while an extended warranty may well pay off on any one car, over a lifetime of vehicle ownership, they are HIGHLY unlikely to do anything other than drain your bank account.

 

Most modern vehicles will last well beyond the warranties offered (otherwise, they wouldn't make any money on them). I bought my first extended warranty when I bought my 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland. I got a lifetime warranty (good until the cost of the repair exceeds the value of the car) which pretty much covers everything that the factory warranty did. The reason I did that is there is so much technical junk on that vehicle that replacing anything will run into the thousands easily. I've already had the radio replaced which would have cost me over half the cost of the warranty. As I plan on keeping the vehicle a long time, this seemed like a good bet.

If you're just going to keep the car five or six years and the technology isn't that extreme, I'd pass.

 

Keep in mind, your lifetime extended warranty was A) a rare offering, and B) comes with strings attached (such as certain required visits to a dealership). I'm not aware of any manufacturers currently offering a lifetime extended warranty.

 

Actually, the strings are very few - maintain the vehicle according to the maintenance schedule. Fiat-Chrysler offers the lifetime contract on a number of its vehicles. However, I'm not aware of any other manufacturers which do this.

 

Are you saying Fiat-Chrysler is still offering lifetime warranties?

Edit:

 

They were last month from postings on the Jeep Garage, at least for the non-diesel Grand Cherokees.

 

I bought the CX-5 Touring this week too and didn't take any warranties. In my experience, if there's going to be an electrical problem, it will start in the initial warranty period, if at all. I've bought warranties before and never had the need for them; in any case, they're often written in such a way that they manage not to cover things that will come up. The one I was offered would have added some $3400 to the cost of the car! I'll take my chances at that price. After refusing it, was told there's actually a $995 one good for 4 additional years so you might ask about that if you want one. Went out tonight to try to teach it my voice and the voice control wouldn't activate when I pushed Talk - not sure if I didn't do it right but apparently others are having trouble with this feature. Suggestions appreciated.

 

Having a extended warranty is like having good medical insurance ... you hope you never have to use it but if you get really sick, you are so glad you have it. The real problem is either you wind up paying too much from a dealer or you have a bad after market warrantiy which is truly the worse. If you want a factory backed warranty without breaking the bank, try mazdausawarranty.com. This is the real deal. Curious to get other people's opinion on these prices compared to quotes they got at the dealer.

 

Sorry, extended warranties are a scam.