warranty confirmed!

[lpingb]

I think the warranty will come down to what it will cost to extend it. I sell new cars and the "advantage" to having a limited length warranty is it reduces cost. There are some decent aftermarket warranties that might be available, the danger there is thats where the profit could be for the dealer.

[dudeydog]

Would you be able to purchase an extended warranty from someone other than the dealer?? Does that type of thing exist?

[Lewis]

The over riding issue for me right now - in light that it's now confirmed to be 2/24- is whether we can add the coverage 2 years after the purchase if we decide to keep our cars longer term after living with them for 2 years. Usually that is ok but I understand with some car companies you need to buy the extended warranty at purchase. Also if it is a time of purchase only option will it be transferrable? It seems to be that the more we learn the more questions we have!

[eqwalker]

Exactly Lewis. My question now, is how long (if any time) do you have to make a decision on extending the warranty. You could well have a first time purchaser that can barely provide a down payment to get the car, but would like to have a warranty longer than 2,24. The purchaser may not have the money now to extend the warranty, but could within the first year or two. Just curious how they will handle those type of requests.

[rushme]

Two and half years back i bought a Suzuki Vsrom...a motorcycle for the smae amount as $10K......and it had something of 2 year warrenty....seeing the smartcar is not bigger than a motorcycle..and the cost is somewhere very similar to what i paid for the vstrom....i guess its not a big deal to get extended warrenty for 50K miles...i hope the extended warenty is not more than $500..............

but warrenty always sounds better than anything

[spdickey]

Originally Posted by dudeydog

Would you be able to purchase an extended warranty from someone other than the dealer?? Does that type of thing exist?

Yes they do, an no you shouldn't Most consumer groups never recommend purchase of a third party extend warranty. The all recommend that if you are going to buy one, get the one offered by the factory.

In the UK you can buy an extended warranty on a used smart directly from smart. Hopefully that will be available here.

[MicroNut]

Originally Posted by Lewis

...I think the big problem regarding the waranty will be the impression it gives consumers that the 4/2 is a disposable car- low priced and short waranty means that to most consumers when maybe, from a marketing perspective the company should be emphasizing it's toughness despite the small size...

I think this is indeed going to be a perception issue for smart:

America's shortest car. America's shortest warranty.

Not the kind of image you want to project when launching a new brand...

[spdickey]

America's cheapest car. Buy what you want.

[Fredvon4]

AFAIK there is no such product for sale as an "extended warranty"

In America, these products are legally called "service contracts" or "service plans"

Most of the time a "factory sponsored" service contract/plan is cheaper at initial purchase of the car.

Many of the factory sponsored plans can be purchased later but before the initial factory warranty is expired. Buy this way usually costs $100-250 dollars more.

Some factory sponsored service plans can be purchased after the initial warranty is expired but they are even more expensive because you end up paying the "used vehicle" pricing.

Third party plans are the most problematic in that they almost always have deep exclusions, and most of them require pre authorization before any repair is started, additionally many of them require the service or repair to be done by someone in "their network"... Internet RV forums are full of horror stories on every third party plan provider you can name... there are also a LOT of horror stories about the Factory plans also

Edmond's and other auto buying sites all agree that these products are one of the highest profit areas in car sales. They also advise against third party plans. They note that Factory plans have the least amount of hassle getting a repair done

Because of the very integrated safety, emissions, and power management computers and other electro mechanical devices on the Smart car, I assume that any service plan will be a bit expensive...I bet right now the very least expensive one will be in the $700~900 range

I now buy the Ford Gold ESP plans on the high-end trucks that I have decided to keep for 5 or more years.... and I buy just before the 3/36 is expired.... I accept the extra $100 cost of waiting...

In the past I have passed on the extended service plan only later to have a Major multi system failure.... $2359.99 for the plan or $7984.99 for the repairs out on the road (yes Virginia a burned up Ford 4R100 auto trany can get damned expensive)

One F250 truck cost $1984 for the Gold plan and I never used it. When the truck was totaled FoMoCo gave me back a prorated $1250.

This current F350 the Gold ESP was $2300 negotiated down from $3680 because I am a good customer... I know other folks who got deeper discounts... point is they are usually NEGOTIABLE!

I plan of modifying the Lil Smart so 2/24 is OK with me
I doubt I will sell her any time soon (unless I get some insane high bucks offer out of the blue) so I will decide later if extended service contracts make sense

I am still researching but one of the Brit sites have a guy from Smarts R Us claim that ALL 450-451 transmissions had an internal oil seal that craps out in the 50K mile range.... sounds labor intensive to fix a cheap part... can not tell yet if it trashes all sorts of other things... I hope he was just assuming the 451 trany would have the same problem.....

Either way we have a ways to go to see if the 451 is reliable or problem child.... decisions on extended service plans are going to be a hot topic in these forums

[spdickey]

I added an extra two years for my '07 Prius. Cost me $500.... I figured that was the cost of one small repair down the line for the complicated hybrid system. I can't figure that the smart is any more to repair than a hybrid.