Offer of Extended Warranty from dealer?

[jklad]

Hey all

So my JK Wrangler hit 3 yrs old this January so it's now out of factory warranty. Always got it serviced at the same dealer from new in order to avoid any hassles with warranty; I know you can get it serviced elsewhere & still keep your factory warranty intact, but anyway these guys were good to me covering stuff under warranty that may have/perhaps/possibly/probably (insert: cough...) been caused by my own missuse. I went over the JK with a fine tooth combe last December & got them to fix every little thing I could find wrong with it before the warranty ran out.

Anyway, it's pushing up on 6 months since the last service so I've been getting ready to do it all myself. It's a major one that involves changing out all fluids for the diffs, t/case etc & I've been looking forward to doing it myself (have always serviced my previous vehicles myself) & saving some big $$$s (from memory it's almost a thousand bucks for the major service from the dealer however I can do it myself for under $200 in parts (engine oil & filter, air filter, PCV valve, Diff fluid, ATF4 for the t/case).

So lo and behold, along with the reminder in the mail from the dealer that the service is due soon, they also informed me that as I have been "such a good and loyal customer" they are offering me a free extended warranty (extra 2 years or 170, 000km in total). Obviously most people are like myself; they day the warranty runs out they either do the servicing themselves or take the Jeep somewhere else like Ultra Tune that charges half what the inflated dealer price is, which is why they shove this little carrot in front of your nose.

The way I look at it I'll be saving several thousand dollars over the next 2 years by doing the next 4 scheduled services myself, however the trade-off is that if I spin a bearing or suffer some other catostrophic mechanical failure then I could have had it covered by the extended warranty. So I was wondering if anyone else has had this "offer" from their dealer upon expiration of their factory warranty, & also is the dealer's extended warranty worth the paper it's printed on (my prior experience with these makes me aware that they are often in no way as comprehensive as a factory warranty and contain a lot of exemptions)?

As a side note Chrysler offered me an extended warranty a few years ago for something like 3 grand, & I had to pay for it then even though it wouldn't come into force for another 2 years when the standard 3-yr one expired

[Bryceee]

Originally Posted by jklad

Hey all

So my JK Wrangler hit 3 yrs old this January so it's now out of factory warranty. Always got it serviced at the same dealer from new in order to avoid any hassles with warranty; I know you can get it serviced elsewhere & still keep your factory warranty intact, but anyway these guys were good to me covering stuff under warranty that may have/perhaps/possibly/probably (insert: cough...) been caused by my own missuse. I went over the JK with a fine tooth combe last December & got them to fix every little thing I could find wrong with it before the warranty ran out.

Anyway, it's pushing up on 6 months since the last service so I've been getting ready to do it all myself. It's a major one that involves changing out all fluids for the diffs, t/case etc & I've been looking forward to doing it myself (have always serviced my previous vehicles myself) & saving some big $$ (from memory it's almost a thousand bucks for the major service from the dealer however I can do it myself for under $200 in parts (engine oil & filter, air filter, PCV valve, Diff fluid, ATF4 for the t/case).

So lo and behold, along with the reminder in the mail from the dealer that the service is due soon, they also informed me that as I have been "such a good and loyal customer" they are offering me a free extended warranty (extra 2 years or 170, 000km in total). Obviously most people are like myself; they day the warranty runs out they either do the servicing themselves or take the Jeep somewhere else like Ultra Tune that charges half what the inflated dealer price is, which is why they shove this little carrot in front of your nose.

The way I look at it I'll be saving several thousand dollars over the next 2 years by doing the next 4 scheduled services myself, however the trade-off is that if I spin a bearing or suffer some other catostrophic mechanical failure then I could have had it covered by the extended warranty. So I was wondering if anyone else has had this "offer" from their dealer upon expiration of their factory warranty, & also is the dealer's extended warranty worth the paper it's printed on (my prior experience with these makes me aware that they are often in no way as comprehensive as a factory warranty and contain a lot of exemptions)?

As a side note Chrysler offered me an extended warranty a few years ago for something like 3 grand, & I had to pay for it then even though it wouldn't come into force for another 2 years when the standard 3-yr one expired

I bought my 07 2DR second hand, and was offered the extended warranty think the original factory warranty had 2 months left.
I took it, cost me $2K for the top cover (actually through Allianz)

For me it was worth it, so far they have replace the front ball joints twice about to get them done for third time (hardly take it offroad) and they wont fit after market ones , water pump, clutch plate, cracked coolant overflow bottle and throw bearing
Hardtop Seals

[North Coast Wrangler]

Just make sure you read the fine print on the warranty, some of them will only cover the first $1000 or so of a major repair then leave it up to you to cover the rest.

[Billnick]

It's all a big money grab from greedy dealers. They make very little money out of new car sales and this is their way of recouping their loss. It only costs them peanuts to repair say a ball joint but pass on the inflated price to you. It's just like insurance, you gamble on how long you can get away without having to pay big bucks to fix something whether it be health, ambulance or cars. I scrapped the warranty on my near new Falcon reasoning if they thought the car was a good risk then I'll take over the risk and over the years it has paid off, I'm miles in front. I did the same with my daughter's Hiundai and 2 years down the track it is running perfectly.

[Steve F]

Originally Posted by Billnick

It's all a big money grab from greedy dealers. They make very little money out of new car sales and this is their way of recouping their loss. It only costs them peanuts to repair say a ball joint but pass on the inflated price to you. It's just like insurance, you gamble on how long you can get away without having to pay big bucks to fix something whether it be health, ambulance or cars. I scrapped the warranty on my near new Falcon reasoning if they thought the car was a good risk then I'll take over the risk and over the years it has paid off, I'm miles in front. I did the same with my daughter's Hiundai and 2 years down the track it is running perfectly.

That only works if you plan to keep it a long time and people don't look at the service history. I just sold my 2008 Mazda in 24hrs because our had full dealer service and extended warranty. Its tough to sell a car and this sort of thing helps.

Cheers
Steve