Warranty experience?

[brian42]

Unfortunately, the dealership has a lot to do with warranty satisfaction. At peak times when dealer's service departments are seeing a lot of warranty work, or plagued with recall work, the service department may try to push work away in order to do more cash work. Or, sometimes they are just overwhelmed and can't keep up. Sometimes they've hit their warranty limit.

Perception is also reality (right or wrong). I go in there prepared with complete descriptions (and pictures) of what's going on. I am not unrealistic but am one of probably 100 customers they'll deal with on any given day. I know they are doing their due diligence and I take some their doubt/questioning with a grain of salt because I'm sure they get their fill of "there's a weird noise under the hood so I need a new engine", "there's a scratch on the hood so I want the whole care repainted", and the like. I'm sure it also doesn't hurt that I'm in my 50s and not my 20s.

I go back and forth, I've never had an extended warranty pay off for me, my Ferd's is up in March and I've had 0 claims. That was $2K flushed down the toilet basically.

I've never had one until now. I do about 30K miles/year so my B2B will be up at about the 14 month point. I purchased the 7 yr/unlimited miles MaxCare extended warranty which will give me almost 6 more years of (nearly) B2B warranty (instead of 4 years for those that don't drive over 12K miles/year). For me personally I felt it was a good deal since I drive so much. With all the expensive electronics on this truck it's only going to take one major component replacement (e.g. bricked radio) in the next 6 years to pay for itself.

 

[Willwork4truck]

Yes it's a gamble. Like with any kind of insurance, you are betting you will have a covered problem and they are betting that you won't. I would have to say that they know the data points and have figured it's a paying proposition to sell them.

Have their been horror stories where the extended warranty has saved the owners behind? Yes, lots. (My brother had a 200X Jeep Cherokee that he had the 7 year/100K warranty on, and it paid for itself about 3x over... Something was always wrong with that vehicle. He had it checked over at about 98K then promptly sold it off.

Are there owners that have had to fight with the automaker to get coverage? Yes, lots.

Are there people who have bought a factory warranty and gotten zip? Me for one, but that was my choice to buy it for the "peace of mind".

I'm still on the fence about this, and have 4+ months left to decide before the 1 year price increase.

 

[brian42]

It's not for everybody but, if nothing else, it give me peace of mind (as you said). Since mine is the first year of the generation (said I would never do that but the RAM was the only one I liked) I think I'll get my money's worth out of it. My truck is at the dealership for the 5th time in less than a year.

The manufacturer always gets their money, even if they have to raise MSRP the next model year. For example, if you think you are getting "free maintenance" for XX years (something like Toyota Care) you are mistaken. It is built into the price of the vehicle you bought. Not to mention that you are more likely to have the regularly scheduled services on time, with a known quality (no auto parts store house brand), and it's logged in their system. Now when you trade the vehicle in they can easily turn around and sell it for even more as Certified Pre-Owned.

You can also pay an extra premium and add a refund clause to your FCA extended warranty. If you don't ever use it you get all your money back at the end of the contract.

 

[Willwork4truck]

Not that anyone cares but I’ve decided against it. My 1 year “get it now before it goes up date“ is in 7 days. I have 8500 miles on the truck, and it likely won’t have 24K on it when the bumper to bumper 36 month is up.
Just like what happened on the Ferd I still own, bought a 5 yr extended warranty (factory) and it just expired on time, not miles. Never used it.

With my/our low usage, I’m not inclined to spend over 2K for the “peace of mind“ feeling again. My bigger issue is keeping the battery charged and the tires aired up due to it sitting. YMMV obviously yet with absolutely nothing having gone wrong with this truck, I’ll not bet against RAM on this one.