Truck extended warranty

[DZLFREK]

I have about 1,000 miles left on the "new" purchase of 3/36. I have never considered an extended warranty, but am open to different opinions. What do they usually cost, best places to buy them, etc.



Thanks everyone!



David

 

[jelag]

On TV the other night was a consumer report on extended warranties for vehicles...

The crux of their report that what most warranties cost, and what the deductible is, your better off going without than buying... .

If and when you have a need to repair, the repairs in the next 100K won't equal that fee...

I currently own several trucks the highest mileage truck is an 04 with 300K+... . Other than one clutch, and 2 brake jobs we've had no out of pocket expenses on this truck or our others... not including tires, ujoints, oil filters, etc... if you add my jeep, my wife's car... . I'm guessing I'm close to 1M miles without a major break down on 7 vehicles...

So for me it would be looser... Hope this helps. .

BTW - remember that the warranty provider is there to make money, so he will spend less to fix the vehicle than he collects from you...

 

[LBARTLETT]

in my opinion the only extended warranty to even consider is the Chrysler "Gold" I think it was called, supposedly bumper to bumper (really not) at about $1,300 the last one I bout that was 3 years or 100k miles

 

[DBentley]

I vote to keep your money in your pocket and deal with any repairs in cash with a good local shop to keep costs down and help out local business.
The warranties always seem to exclude what is needed and carry a copay of 100 or so.

 

[Grizzly]

I agree with LRARTLETT. The only time to purchase extended warranty is when you buy the vehicle and only from the manufacture. By the way new vehicle warrants are highly negotiable. I purchased mine for about half price, which was about $600+.



I've not had to use mine yet. jelag is correct in saying save your money, unless you get it half price.

 

[PGAdams]

Keep in mind, you also have a 7yr/70,000 drivetrain warranty or better, not sure about the 2006.

I did not purchase an extended warranty. 50K on truck while passiong thru Dallas, McKinney, TX area. Stopped in to have rear pinion seal checked.

McKinney Dodge (5-star) replaced rear pinion seal, rear axle seals, front pinion seal and updated steering linkage.

$100. 00 deduct.

TDR has been a great resource of information to check for similar situations, preventative information or corrective actions.

I have purchased extended warranty's in the past but, would not recommend it.

Mopar denied a claim on an extended warranty for a leak, and claimed it wasn't a moving part,,,,blah, blah, blah.

As other have stated, repair or pay as you.

IMHO -

The extended warranty (insurance) groups are betting you don't have claims and you pay approx. $1300 betting you are going to have a claim.

 

[AStrand]

I bought a extended warranty but only because I wanted the pickup covered while I was making payments. I didn't want a catastrophic failure expense and then a pickup payment on top of that.

 

[jgillott]

The only vehicle that I would have benifited with an extended warranty is our 2005 Silverado. It would have been paid for many times over by now.

 

[AABEN]

I got the 7 year or 70. 000 miles and I used it once and will use it in about 3 weeks. the CD player went bad 800. 00 now the door is broke in the heater or the air vent so I will not be out any money.

 

[seafish]

I think that an extended warranty is kind of like gambling--the odds are obviously with the house, but that being said, it doesn't mean you can't break even and possibly come out ahead.



I bought the Chrysler Max Care/ 7 year/100k for about $1700, before the factory warranty was out on the truck which I had purchased low mile (15k) used from another owner. I decided to buy the warranty because of the balljoint/ wheel bearing problems, HVAC blend door, as well as injector problems that some 3rd gen owners are prone to having. So far, they have fixed an HVAC control head, but comoing up in the next few weeks, I have to bring the truck in for Ball joints, rear and maybe front pinion seal leak, and stereo replacment. ALL of these things seem to be covered by the warranty that I bought, as they are listed as covered in the more then 5000 parts on the truck that are covered. Front and rear Shocks are also covered, and I am pretty sure mine are on the way out, so I'll have them check those 2.



Of course it's crucial that your dealership has a solid truck mechanic, and THANKFULLY, I have 2 good dealerships with very good truck mechanics to choose from. There is a $100. deductible, but I believe that if you stack the claims in one visit, then only one deductible applies. At least that is how they did it last visit. I think that as long as all the work is done on this next visit for $100, the warranty will have just about payed for itself, and I still have 3 years and 48k left.



Really, the most problem that I have with the warranty, is having to replace the broken parts with more oem parts that are STILL prone to failure, but I have a plan for that.

 

[RKerner]

I bought the Master Gold Warranty 5yr/100,000mi with no deductible at 35,800 miles. Cost $1600 done under the easy payment plan - 1yr no interest.



Repairs under this warranty:



PS pump and 70 mile tow to dealership

Front u-joints

both front wheel bearing sets

rear u-joint

2 - rear door jamb wiring harnesses

All steering linkages, pitman arm, alignment

wiper control module

wiper switch

one freebie tire rotation



I have gone out of my way to forego extended warranties as I thought they were like the other guy mentioned, a gamble. Researching here steered me into buying my first extended warranty ever.



I think I made out ok. I may need to get some tools for the next 200,000 miles as I'll need to get my hands dirty with both kids in college.

 

[jgillott]

What site did you all go to to buy the extended warranty or did you go to the dealer? There are several sites out there, but I'm not sure what one is the genuine Chrysler extended warranty.

 

[seafish]

While there are many dealerships with online sites that offer the Chrysler MaxCare Extended warranty, on recommendation of several TDR members, I talked with Diane at TOPOR Motors in Chicopee, MA. She was knowledgable and freindly and seemed to have the best price available at the time, though I do not know if that is true anymore. BUT, knowledgable and friendly counts for alot in my book, so even a slight premium on the cost would be worth it to me. I do not know if TOPOR survived the dealership elimnaitions this year, but if they did, I would still recommend Diane. Their phone# is 413-594-4723.



I think that if you ARE going to get an extended warranty, it is ONLY wise to get the Chrysler MaxCare warranty as it covers over 5000 mechanical and electrical parts, including (according to the pamphlet that I got) including PARTS AND LABOR to replace enegine, transmission, driveline, steering, A/c, power group, engine cooling and fueling, front and rear suspension, electrical, expanded electrical (??), brakes and ABS, instrumentation, luxury groups. On the back side, the pamphlet actually has a list in small print of ALL the parts covered alphabetically.



What is NOT covered, is arts and Labor to replace Maintenance Services and parts, glass and plastic lenses, Body and Paint, including soft trim, Wear Items (such as clutch, brake pads, shoes rotors, drums and belts,), Snow Plows, winches and trailer hitches.



The other (non MaxCare) warranties, only cover SOME of the parts, and If I remember right, NOT the ones most likely to fail (injectors, BJ's or HVAC).



Please know that this might have all changed SINCE I bought mine last year, so you should confirm with the agent that you are talking with... you could probably have them mail you a pamphlet before you commit to buying the warranty. I just picked up the MaxCare warranty pamphlet from my local dealership, also asked the their price, which was $2500, told them I'd think about it, then went shopping online.



There is also a money-back option to purchase (I think it was $200) so that if you DON'T make ANY claims by the time the warranty runs out, they will refund you're money back (except for the premium for the money-back guarantee) I bought that too, but within 2 months, made my first claim, so that was a waste alraedy. Still, I would probably purchase the refund option again as if it turns out you baby your truck and nothing happens to go wrong for the warranty period, you are only out the premium, ASSUMING that Chrysler is still around (but I WANT to make that asssumption)



Hope this helps a little.

 

[ringneck]

rip off

just blew my intercooler in my o5,towing our 32 foot 5thwheel, we were going up a steep hill when it blew. took us down to 10 miles per hour. logging truck almost hit us,extened warrtee suppose to be the same as factory. guess what would not cover chinaese junk. dodge knows there no good,only put then in for 5 month. this almost kill my family,so they all suck.

 

[Southbound]

David-

I have an 06 and decided to buy the extended warranty (from the dealer) at 42k miles. Based upon a lot of the problems I was experiencing I was concerned of future cost of repairs. I think I paid around $1300 which gets me to 100k on everything other than the motor with a $100 deductible. I do agree with the others in that you usually dont need extended warranty with these trucks as I never had issues with my previous Dodge trucks. However on this truck the repairs I have had done to date have far more exceeded the cost of the extended warranty. Note: Once we reach the 100k mark there arent many options for extended warranty. There was a post mentioned that alot of the warranty offerings out there are a scan which is very true!!! I spoke to my buddy who is a GM for a Dodge dealership and he told me that 99% of the extended warranty companies they have dealt with NEVER pay their claims. Apparently the extended warranty packages offered for trucks over 100k miles are useless. Note: Your only real option is extended warranty through Dodge until 100k. The dealership actually gave several different warranty companies to pick from so you do have some choices there. Good luck with your research.

Remember ... ..... my . 02

Southbound

 

[RVTRKN]

I got the 7 year or 70. 000 miles and I used it once and will use it in about 3 weeks. the CD player went bad 800. 00 now the door is broke in the heater or the air vent so I will not be out any money.

Blackbear, I have the 100K/7 year from Chrysler and they wouldn't cover my vent door on the AC. But there are two extended warranties from Chrysler and mine is the lesser of the two. %^#*@# sales sold me the lesser warranty twice, on the 04. 5 and the 07 C&C, I did not know about it until the vent door broke and was denied twice for the repair on the 04. 5.

 

[MJReynolds]

I'm probably going to get one before my 3/36 is up. I went to chryslerwarrantys.com and got their price then went to my local dealer and they were going to beat the price last December. I would have bought it but I wasn't sure if Chrysler was going to be around and I didn't want to buy something that might have been worthless in a few months. I would ONLY get the factory extended warranty, all others are probably more trouble than they're worth. I agree it's a gamble on something going wrong but over 7 years it's likely I'll have a few things that I'll be able to use it on. On my last Ford it paid off when they had to fix the rear differential ($980), heated/cooled front seat ($325), and DVD player system ($1,100). Those 3 things easily exceeded the cost of the warranty, especially the DVD system. The rear differential first started giving me trouble in the 3/36 coverage but I couldn't get the Ford service knuckleheads to agree there was a problem until it was well out of the basic coverage. I finally got the TSB for them and then they managed to fix it. Having the extended coverage made it much less of a hassle.

There are so many things on vehicles now that are very expensive to fix that it's not very hard to have 2 or 3 repairs add up to the cost of the warranty.

 

[JBloom]

I just got mine. Three years and only 26,500 miles. Figured it would a safe bet. I love my truck and want to be covered.

 

[KLauber]

I bought a 3rd party warranty at 120,000 miles, good for 5 years or 100,000 miles. It cost 2000 bucks but was paid for last month when the transmission went at 185K. The rest of the drivetrain is still covered. Good only if you use the truck for business like I do.

Ken

 

[JKreiss]

Ken,



What 3rd party did you use. I'm looking at a couple right now and was curious as to the validity. You can PM me if you want. Anybody else have any experience good or bad with the 3rd party warranty groups. Thanks.



Joe