Warranty Poll - Page 2 - Smart Car of America Forums : Smart Car Forum

ifishcat · 11-11-2007, 09:11 AM

so....

i realize this thread is on getting more for the price but...

would you pay say a $100 to extend a year, $200, how bout $500 for five years?

jonnysan · 11-11-2007, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ifishcat

so....

i realize this thread is on getting more for the price but...

would you pay say a $100 to extend a year, $200, how bout $500 for five years?

Five additional years on top of a 3 year warranty would be what I would expect for $500...not $500 beginning from brand new.

As briefly as possible, I want to share an experience I just had regarding my wife's '03 Acura TL. We bought it in the Summer of '05 as a lease turnback with 23k miles on Acura's (Honda's) Certified Used car program. The warrantee included a 7 year, 100,000 mile powertrain coverage with no deductible, which I thought was kind of excessive but nonetheless, a good thing to have. Given Honda's excellent reputation for reliability, the deal was golden.
Well, last week, without any warning, the transmission trashed itself right in downtown Albany while my wife drove into work! It quite simply just would not propel the car at all, totally slipping in all gears!
I had it towed to the dealership, thinking it was something simple like bad shift code or a bad shifter or something like that. NOPE! The transmission was SHOT!

A new one was ordered and the car as we speak is undergoing a transmission transplant. (estimated replacement cost=$2800.

So I am very glad that powertrain warranty was in place. A search on the net revealed widespread transmission failures on '01-'03 Acura's with the SS trans (sport shift) which I or the wife never use.
So a decent warranty can be a good thing to have in this case, no doubt. Our reservations concerning the Getrag trans in the Smart and it's *different* mode of operation (hesitation) could become a long term can of worms for the car...I certainly hope not...

John

lhoboy · 11-11-2007, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ifishcat

so....

i realize this thread is on getting more for the price but...

would you pay say a $100 to extend a year, $200, how bout $500 for five years?

It's unlikely that an extended coverage is going to be that cheap unless it is for the drivetrain only. These days, the drivetrain is the cheap part to fix. The big bucks are in the computers, electronics, wiring harnesses and sensors.

Four years of extended full coverage for a MINI (just a little more expensive) costs $1800.

DaveInTexas · 11-11-2007, 01:55 PM

Trophy Nissan really wanted me to buy an extended warranty from them and started the bidding out at $3000 for a 4/60 Bumper to Bumper. I promptly told them that I didn't need to buy the pickup if they were that unsure of their product. He then immediately reduced it to $2000 for a 5/75 power train which I said NO! Persistence paid off, because I ended up buying an extended warranty that I originally had no desire for at $500 for a 5/75 power train.

lhoboy · 11-11-2007, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveInTexas

Trophy Nissan really wanted me to buy an extended warranty from them and started the bidding out at $3000 for a 4/60 Bumper to Bumper. I promptly told them that I didn't need to buy the pickup if they were that unsure of their product. He then immediately reduced it to $2000 for a 5/75 power train which I said NO! Persistence paid off, because I ended up buying an extended warranty that I originally had no desire for at $500 for a 5/75 power train.

Dave,
You struck a great deal. What was the standard warranty? The $1800 on the MINI extended 4/48 beyond the standard warranty of 4/50 (total 8/98 bumper to bumper)

DaveInTexas · 11-11-2007, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lhoboy

Dave,
You struck a great deal. What was the standard warranty? The $1800 on the MINI extended 4/48 beyond the standard warranty of 4/50 (total 8/98 bumper to bumper)

It was 4/48 power train 3/36 bummer to bumper. I though they were nuts, but they were trying to recoup some of the cost after knocking off $3500 off of the retail price, and it wasn't that expensive of vehicle in the first place($17,900 MSRP). My Father was sitting there being silent and was amazed at the deal I struck, and he has been known to get some really good deals in his time. This last vehicle, I knocked off $7000 off of the msrp, but Mazda had several incentives at the time. It's really going to hurt having to pay retail for a smart...