hello, im a first time buyer, recently i been reading articles on people saying that extended warranties are a waste of money, and now i feel like i got suckerd in. im a financing a 2015 fit for 72 months, and i got the 7 year bumper to bumper. and the 3 yr unlimited maintenance. was wondering if i did the right thing as to get the Honda care. or should i cancel? thank you for your opinions!

 

I, for one, never purchase extended warranties. But only you can know if it's worth it to you for the peace of mind. There are several people who have had bad experiences with various product issues (not just automotive) who just feel better having the protection. I'm not one of them.

 

There are dozens of threads on this and each individual poster has his own opinion. I'm with GoBucky, I don't believe it's necessary.

 

If you plan on keeping it for a long period of time- then it may be advantageous- I like extended warranties and as you noticed others think otherwise.




It all depends on you- but you can always purchase the warranty from another "Honda Dealer"- it doesn't have to be the one you bought the car from. Just make sure it's the Honda Care Warranty and not a Third Party Warranty that the dealership is trying to sell. If the warranty you purchased was built into your financing- you should be able to CANCEL (one or both) of the warranty selections- usually within 30 days- but the SOONER the better- with no penalty. Since you can usually find a cheaper price of a Honda Care warranty than the price you paid when you bought the car and warranty, etc.

 

I belong to the Bogleheads community and this the latest thread on extended warranties - https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=158561 with thirty-one opinions. Just remember auto salespeople are trained to convince you to buy these. And remember auto dealers don't make a lot of profit on the sale of an auto. They make profit on extended warranties and their service department.

 

I guess I'm going to be one of the dissenting opinions on this forum in general, and admit that I got an extended warranty to 8 years 100K miles from Honda.

That said, Hondas are generally very reliable cars. My last Honda is still actually in the driveway, and is more or less working just fine 11 years and 220K miles later. However, I wanted peace of mind this time around for two reasons.

One - while I have enough money to spend a bit less than 2K on an extended warranty now (lumped in with my monthly payments), I'm not sure if I'll have the spare money in a single large sum in the near future. And even if I do, it's less desirable (at least mentally) to have to spend a large amount of money all at one, rather than enduring a small increase in my monthly payments.

Two - my 2015 fit is the first model year of the current generation, and it's built in a brand new plant in Mexico. Whether or not you agree with Mexico's stigma of producing a lower quality car (I honestly am leaning towards being ambivalent on the car's Mexican origin), the fact that it's the first year of a new generation means there are still likely kinks to work out. Probably not all that many considering it's a Honda, but still, it happens. On top of that, the fact that it's a brand new factory means brand new machines and that a brand new and inexperienced (at the very least in terms of this particular car and factory) crew are building the car.

The last thing that pushed me to get a warranty is just incidental, but my most recent car, which I also still own, had its entire infotainment/radio unit go just 1 month and 3K miles after the regular warranty expired, but I had luckily decided to get an extended warranty on a whim since the car was German. I know Hondas are generally more reliable than German cars, but I thought about the infotainment unit itself. My fit has a radio unit with a big, expensive touch screen (NOT manufactured by Honda, so the Honda reliability reputation doesn't really apply), plus several cameras, and other electronic features. If this unit goes.. it costs more than the extended warranty alone. I've had cell phone touchscreens go before the 2 year contract even expired! And if the screen goes, they replace the whole unit. Yeah, an extended warranty is always a gamble, I agree, but in this particular case, just one expensive and dubiously reliable electronic item (the touchscreen infotainment unit) costs as much as doubling the warranty, and that's not including the zillion other things that could possibly break on the car, electronic or not, and I figured why not.

But, I'll still echo what everyone else is saying. It's up to you and what your needs are.

 

Think about it this way. Warranties are just insurance.

If you bought insurance for everything that could go wrong in life you would be poor. Statistically you are better off not paying for it. The company knows your car is not likely to have 1400-2000 worth of problems int he next 7-8 years so they offer it.

The number i was given were 1400 for 8 years.

If 50% of cars need a 2000 dollar repair, they make 400 bucks for every car they sign up. (2000*50%=1000...and you paid 1400) So, statistically your better off not insuring yourself assuming you can afford the consequence.

Now on a house, they still make money, but you cant afford to buy a new house if it burns down, so insurance is needed. You probably can afford to fix your car if it breaks down and statistically if you don't buy insurance your better off. If you bought 2 cars, only one would break down and you would save 800.

This all comes into play unless you know something your warenty provider doesn't. I know I abuse my laptop, so I do buy the warenty on them. I almost always use the warenty prior to expiration since my laptops generally fail prematurely. I can win the insurance game if i know something they don't. If you plan on using your car as a taxi, going off road or any other abusive behavior you may want to consider it, because your car is more likely to fail and the insurance company doesn't take that into account. (make sure that those don't void warranty)

 

Cancel the sucker. You do not need it. Most reliable car around. You can always buy one at the end of the existing warranty, if you think you will need it...probably not...and save thousands.

 

My dad says if I cancel it, and come back will be 3 times more expensive?

 

Yes, it will be significantly more expensive and just as useless.

 

Personally I would never buy an extended warranty Big waste of money. I feel if nothing goes wrong with a car in the 3 year 36,000 mile factory warranty nothing will go wrong. except for normal wear and tear.

 

Hopefully i can shed some light on your situation. I had worked for GMAC and Ally for almost 10 years in the adjuster department, handling all of the large claims. Mostly driveline failures...engine, transmission, transfer case, differentials, ect. I saw you posted the dealer told you it is a bumper to bumper warranty. THE ONLY B2B WARRANTY YOU WILL EVER GET ON ANY CAR IS FROM THE MANUFACTURER. Even though you bought a Hondacare policy it is still most likely administered by a thrid party company. What I would suggest is actually reading your policy booklet and finding the section that states "What this agreement does not cover". It will have a list of exclustions, and you can decide if it is something you still think would be beneficial to you. If you decide that you do not want the policy then usually there is a grace period of 30 to 60 days that you can cancel the policy without any penalties or prorated charges. If the dealer gives you push back for trying to cancel, stand your ground. They will say anything to make you keep the policy. As previously mentioned the dealer makes their money on these service contracts and financing. If you paid $2000 for the policy, it only cost the dealer lets say $1400, that $600 difference is ALL profit for the finance guy. Since you financed the car, if you decide to cancel they will refund the money to your lien holder (the bank you financed with) and put it towards the principal of your loan. I hope this helps you make a decision.

 

Speedbike has some very good points though, and those same points are what got me to get the warranty package for my 2015 Fit also. Even in my 09 fit, the only real failure the car had was electrical. And being an electronics tech myself, I can first hand tell you that nearly every electronic item that is manufactured today is manufactured to near limit of their tolerances. Unlike other engineering disciplines such as mechanical or mechatronic engineering, electronic engineers often can tune their designs very close to their max tolerance (usually around 5-10%) because electronic components are very reliable in their variability and rated specifications. And tuning to these limits is how companies get the edge over their competitors in the "specs arms race."

While the automotive industry (and to a farther extreme, the aeronautics industry) are a lot slower to adopt bleeding edge technology in favour of more tried and true methods, they still adopt electronic components with an expectation of a certain number of them going wrong. And to replace the entire infotainment unit over a failed display panel or soldering coming loose on the board is not cash that I always have readily on hand.

When choosing to get an extended warranty, carefully look at what it does and does not cover. The items for me which I was particularly looking for were those of electronic and electrical in nature, of which mine does. Also the clutch cylinders were another important item on my list as any transmission component is not cheap to repair (due to labour).

But at the end of the day, I also go into it knowing that the odds of me actually using the entire value of the warranty are not in my favour. If you're purely looking at this from the standpoint of "how much does save me?" then the answer is likely it won't. But what it's really there to offer you is piece of mind where for that period of time, you likely won't have to pay for most repairs to your vehicle. I got my warranty to cover my 6yr financing period, and since we drive a lot I got the 200k km package. But once my financing is done, then I'll have more money available to service the car should the worst happen because I'll no longer be paying off the car.

Really, at the end of the day it's your choice and you'll have to weigh how much it means to you. Usually for people who are very experienced with car maintenance or have immediate family members who can readily help often are in less need of it because their piece of mind comes from their (or their relative's) ability to fix those problems. Personally I'm trained to fix robots and while I probably would work my way around a car, I just don't have the time to learn and thus require someone else to do it for me. Not to mention I don't have the tools or space to perform many of the more advanced repairs.

I'm not necessarily "for" or "against" extended warranties. It's an option, like anything else. You'll just have to see if that option is right for you.