Buying an extended warranty from a dealer at the time of purchase of the car (as I did) leads to an interesting irony: After your told the car you're buying is the best ever, and will run forever, they turn around and try to sell you insurance against something happening.

As one writer stated in this thread, if they weren't making money, they wouldn't sell the things.

 

Willard is correct. Most consumer guides do not recommend buying them. That said, depending on YMM, there might be one I would buy. But I tend to choose something well made...so if it doesn't go wrong in first 3y/36k miles....
....I just "talked" Ford into covering a repair that was "not under warranty" at 41,000 miles. All I paid was what would have been the $100 due to my "customer loyalty" - and this was the first Ford I've owned.

 

I feel that for most cars this is not worth it. The technology is well understood and reliable. The only basis I see for getting it is your assessment of how reliable the FEH transaxle is. If this needed replacement it would be a big bill.

My read of this is that the technology is quite simple (a planetary gear set with two synchronous machines) and therefore reliable. The computer control and electric setup is well understood technology and (though some are frustrated by problems) should not generally give problems.

I chose not to get such insurance. My FEH has 41,000 (so far unblemished) miles on it.

 

I have bought one extended warranty and that was for a '02 Dodge Grand Caravan. The only reason I bought the warranty is because the '93 Grand Caravan I owned prior to this had multiple problems with AC compressors - had to replace every couple of years so the extended warranty would have been well worth the money. Then the '02 Caravan, with the warranty, went through the 7 year/100,000 mile period with no problems, so go figure.

Overall advice would be if you see a good repair history on the vehicle don't bother - if the repair history is bad buy one. I'm going to watch our '09 TCH closely for the three year/36,000 mile period then make my mind up, but Toyota usually puts out a good product so I don't anticipate buying one this time.

 

The example was for electronics which may have been misleading, but we've had at least 3 extended vehicle warranties that we didn't use.

 

Well, something has to be different. The list price (the one provided by FMC) is $2345. I can see a discount of a few hundred, but to get it at over 50% off seems a bit odd.

https://www.genuineservice.com/esp/welcome.do


EDIT: OK, I just looked at the other site, and it shows 100K, 7 year coverage at $1695, which is believable.

 

Bill - you know that the eCVTs ('transaxles') in all FEHs are covered for 8yrs 100,000 miles [10yrs 150,000 in some states] under the standard hybrid warranty.

 

Now that you mention it... yeah. Should have brought that up.

...And that's kind of my point, that you probably really don't need these extended warrantees. The technology is well understood for nearly all of the car and Ford gives that longer warranty for the transaxle because it is relatively new and they don't have as much data built up on the service life of its internal parts.

But, you're right, I should have included that.

 

That seems like a good price; Ford dealership (where I bought my Toyota Highlander Hybrid '06) offered me an exteded warranty on this Highlander for $1700.

 

I did not purchase an extended warranty b/c I rarely keep a vehicle after it's paid off, but this is also my first hybrid and my first new vehicle for about 20 years.

My wife has been recently been diagnosed with the progressive (bad) form of MS and it appears will have to quit work during the first half of 2011, leaving us with one income and a major hardship. I don't know if my FEH will work with a wheel chair or if I'll need a van with a ramp, so don't know if I should opt for the extended warranty. I'm close to 34k miles now.