I tend to keep cars a long time and run up lots of miles. We typically put about 20-25K per year on a car, and I've almost never gotten rid of a car with less than 100K on it. My MINI has 114K now and I plan to keep it for another year or 2 at least.

A long, long time ago my wife and I drove Saturns. We always extended the warranty to 75K miles, which was the longest factory extended warranty offered. It was around $750. (The time frame escapes me because we always run up miles faster than the years).

Although we did use these warranties, they never paid for themselves. GM always got the better deal.

I asked about a factory extended warranty on my MINI, and was told there was only the aftermarket warranties, which I felt were priced way too high.

Now that my car is 5+ years old, I can look back and say that it would have been a huge mistake to spend $3K on this. I spent maybe $1200 on the car after the warranty was up, but that was mostly on maintenance, not repairs. The only thing that would have been covered is the rusted out muffler strap.

My steering column is making some noises too, and the dealer wants to replace it at about $500-600. I suppose this would be covered as well, but we're still no where near $3K. I have not replaced the steering column and the noise has not gotten worse.

 

I plan on keeping my Mini for another couple of years....and the only item that concerns me enough to be looking into the extended warranty is the CVT transmission.

 

I was going to purchase an extended warranty through AAA for $2150 but decided on the Sony 46" XBR5 LCD TV instead
It is always a gamble if the warranty will payoff.

 

to me an extended warranty just means an extended period of waiting interminably for my car at some MINI dealer and never having my calls returned and having to drive miles and miles just to have the problem fixed, maybe....invest the money in finding a good local mechanic

 

I considered this before crossing the 4 year mark, but passed because
I like to do my own repairs when possible and/or use aftermarket goodies.
It would have been useful for the possibility of Midland failure, but I also
figured most extended warranty companies would assume driver error for
transmission failure in nearly every case.

 

I would never buy a warranty from a third party provider, even some one as "Blue chip" as AAA or GE, let alone someone unknown. ( "Warranty direct? Who the heck are they?). I was in the car bidness for over 30 years, and these companies come and go. As one poster noted, they're in the bidness of taking cash in, not paying it out. When losses become unacceptable, they bail.

The only extended warranty I buy is if it's backed by the MFR - period. I feel they have a bit of a vested interest then.........but that's just me. And $2100 for 3 years or 50k miles (the difference between the factory period and theirs)? That's ridiculous!