Smart Car March Newsletter and smartautowarranty.com

[Bremer Speck]

Yesterday, I received the March newsletter. Since there is a lot of talk about the warranty as well as extended warranties, the newsletter item about smartautowarranty.com caught my eye and I went to look at it. Sure, I understand it is yet another 3rd party coverage. Fine by me. What I cannot accept is the total lack of attention to detail. When you go to smartautowarranty.com, the first thing you see is a fairly large photo of a Porsche Coupe. Now tell me, what has Porsche got to do with our Smart!? Perhaps, they consider the Porsche a smart auto but given the fact that the word Smart is displayed in an offset color, it has the emphasis on The Smart car. Why then the photo of a Porsche? IMHO, very stupid but also typical.

[BandSofC]

When I go there I see a Nissan 350.

I don't think the site is related to the auto manufacturer.

[jwight]

I think they use "smart" in the generic sense. Tried the instant quote feature - it isn't. After you fill in all your info and hit submit, you get a thank you message, not an "instant" quote. All so noticed their standard coverage includes a deductible for each visit (although they do offer a zero deductible option) and you can customize the parts of your car you want covered.

[a2jack]

Come on you guys! The warranty is a third party scam with no connection to Smart. That's why they have all sorts of cars on their site.

Smart dealers are only acting as sales agents. Sorry

A2Jack.

[Old smart]

When I think about the 24/24K warranty, and the smart-1 service that goes with it (and ends with it), I realize that there will be about 2-1/2 years of smart experience before I am left out in the cold. Lots of bugs will be worked out during that time. But, it seems to me that most vehicles visit the shop for periodic maintenance, and various safety recalls. My own experience doesn’t include many actual warranty issues. If there is a safety recall, all affected vehicles will be handled, not just those with warranty coverage left. A big deal I see is getting the vehicle back to the distant dealer. Third party warranties won’t do much for us there, but smart-1 service will. So, instead of squalling for more warranty, OEM or third party, I would like to have the opportunity to buy more smart-1 time. That is something that PAG could sell themselves in-house without doing anything different than collecting the money and issuing a coverage card (just like AAA). Then I think I can deal with the off-warranty things myself.

[a2jack]

OldSmart. Yes I agree "Smart 1" could work. Or how about a tow bar mount of some kind that could use a universal rental tow bar that any You Haul store might have. (Just thinking. )

A2jack.

[SloPok]

Originally Posted by a2jack

OldSmart. Yes I agree "Smart 1" could work. Or how about a tow bar mount of some kind that could use a universal rental tow bar that any You Haul store might have. (Just thinking. )

A2jack.

I have a 2004 Ford F250 Super Duty diesel that I purchased new. It came with a 3yr/36K bumper to bumper warranty. The diesel engine had a 5yr 100K warranty that you paid $100. for each visit to the Ford doctor for engine related work ie; sensors, oil leaks etc. I have 101K miles now on the truck. Ford came out with an additional 100K 5yr warranty which kicked in AFTER the first 100K factory warranty. This second plan is by Ford and has $0.00 deductible for each visit unlike the warranty"s $100 per visit.

This 2nd warranty cost me $1600. The dealer(s) set the price for this. I was quoted $2500 from the dealer that I bought the truck from. I ended up buying from another dealer for $900. less.

This is a Ford warranty good at any Ford dealer in the US or Canada. I guess they did this because of all of the problems with head gaskets blowing out, early injector problems, some oil leaks and a lot of buy-backs under different states Lemon Laws.

When I first bought the truck I added a 3rd party warranty that took over after the Ford 3yr/36K factory. I had to pay $100 per visit and they paid 50% of repairs made. They would not cover a break caliper frozen floating pin problem that was caused by a bur from the factory. The service person that I worked with didn't come across to the ins. inspector that the problem was caused by bad material/workmanship. Instead she told them that it was caused by rust which isn't covered. This cost me almost $400.. So if the smart service person that you are working with doesn't word things correctly you could be in for a big bill with these 3rd party companies.

I don't like to shell out money on these warranty's but in my case, with my truck, and with a couple of other cars, they have saved me money above and beyond the cost of the policy. As an example a used 1988 Corvette with a 12K/24 mo warranty that came with the car saved me over 10K in parts/repairs replacing things like 4 hubs at $2800 (bearings had .002" play so they were all replaced.) I really made out with that policy!!

I'm 1509 (that should make some of you that are waiting fell better!!). I'm happy that I have to wait about a year for my smart to be born. A lot of bugs will be worked out in that amount of time. I'm leery of the tranny. I had a lot of problems (and a couple of my friends did too) with a 1998 Ranger's tranny and drive train. I understand the smart's tranny is a redesign and French manufactured. I'm watching this for reports from those of you that are driving now.

Everything will be worked out in the end and if I have too much trouble and they US can't fix the car in the stated, I'll put it into the bed of my truck and cart it off to Vancouver BC and have a dealer there fix it. They have several years of background working on these machines. All in all I think this car is a winner. If it's anything like the 1970 VW that I bought when I left Submarine Service I hope to keep this one a LONG time.

[smartyPantz]

I dont believe that that was a smartusa newsletter.
It was from this site.

[LinuxGuy]

Originally Posted by Bremer Speck

Yesterday, I received the March newsletter.

The newsletter was NOT from "smartusa" but from "Smart Car of American" and was sent as a result of joining this forum. It was sent by the owner of this forum. It is NOT the March Newsletter from smartUSA.

[spdickey]

Another couple of cases where "Smart" isn't always "smart." Make sure you know what you are looking at before assigning blame to smart USA.