I picked up my clubman today and had the financing set up with Pen Fed Credit Union, but decided to go thru MINI instead because the credit union was short about $5000 (wouldn't finance the entire amount). The dealer got me approved with Chase. Naturally they tried to sell me several different extended warranties which I elected to not go with. The warranty that I did go with was the "road hazard tire coverage" thru Fidelity Warranty Services at a cost of $799. Are any of you familiar with this warranty and do you think it is worth the cost. They will repair the tires (up to $40, if they can be repaired) and if they can't be repaired they will replace them. The lifetime benefit is $5000 and the coverage term is 3 yrs, unlimited mileage or until the tread depth reaches 2/32. The wheels are covered, but only if the tire has to be replaced or repaired. I can get a full refund of the cost of the warranty up to 60 days. What do you think? I appreciate the help!!!

 

Well, with Tire Rack prices for the Dunlop SP runflats ($170), you could replace all 4 tires for less than the same cost as the warranty. Since there is a fairly small chance you will have a blow out on the order of needing a whole tire replaced rather than just a patch, I feel that $799 is pretty expensive for 3 years. I had my last car for over three years (bought new and drove 41k miles) and never got to 2/32 tread. Not even close, and I'm not easy on tires. Even if you do, it is doubtful you will have to replace all four unless you autocross with them. I would go for the refund.

Also, I used to work for a dealership group and aftermarket warranties were a big money maker for the dealer. The warranty companies would sell them to us for $0.50 on the dollar. That and when it came time for the client to collect on a claim, they couldn't use us as we weren't on their approved list of shops. I'm not saying all are that way, but there are tons of awful warranty companies out there.

 

Thank you for posting that!

 

The reason I got tire insurance was for the replacement of broken rims in addition to tires.

 

Well, I can understand that. However, rim breakage is pretty rare unless you live in a giant pothole and love driving fast without looking at the road. Sure it happens from time to time, but I was in the car business for about 6 years and I saw maybe 6 or 7 broken rims out of thousands of cars. Usually they were cheap knockoff rims made poorly to resemble what ever was the hot style at the time. Factory and nice aluminum rims would sometimes get a bend in the edge of the rim, but there are lots of places around in the US that can fix that as good as new for $100 and even that was fairly rare.

The only time I regularly saw broken and cracked rims were at the insurance auto auctions and at that point the rims were the least of the owners worries.

 

Speaking of warranties, I don't plan on getting one that covers rims, but I am considering getting one that covers repairs to 100,000 miles. We've put over 65,000 miles on our current MINI in the three years we've owned it, and we plan on keeping the Clubman for a long time to come. Is there a good one out there that you guys recommend?

 

Alex,

Thanks for the help. I have decided to cancel the warranty. I can get 4 tires through Tire Rack shipped for a little over $500 and in the whole time I have been driving I have never damaged a rim. The warranty thru the dealer states wheels are not covered unless there is a repair or replacement of the tire on that wheel, so if you damage the wheel and the tire is ok the wheel would not be covered.