I bought my Fit today and of course they want me to take an extended service contract, prepaid maintenance, road hazard protection, and interior exterior protection. These are all a waste of money right?

I haven't bought a car since 1978 so I know they saw me coming. Maybe the interior exterior protection "on sale" for $499?

Help please!

 

You assume correctly. ALL of that is super-profitable for the dealer, so guess where that money comes from...

 

You have to know when someone is so desperate to sell you something it's a scam.

 

My detail shop sells a new car prep pack for about $500. Vinyl and fabric protectent, paint sealant, undercoating and rust inhibitor. 3 year to lifetime warranties. It's mostly valuguard stuff and we do make a killing on it, with less than an half gallon of product. One of our sales pitches is that dealers would charge 1200. If you care about that stuff, talk to local high end detail shop and compare services.

 

I've purchased 9 Honda's from Palm Harbor Honda, and not once have I purchased nor needed the extended warranty. Anything that goes wrong exl500 usually does so within the 3 year period. However, as far as seeing you coming, the finance manager has to ask you if you want it as part of keeping their jobs. Just had to be polite, and decline. I got the 6 foot pretty lady as the finance rep. :thumb ups: Real funny lady.

 

My dealership admitted their interior protection is a bottle of scotchguard and some elbow grease. Works quite well.

Extended warranty can be bought at any time during your regular warranty. I believe I was told 3 years 50 or 60k miles. My extended pushes to 6 years, 100k miles.

 

The last car I bought was a Taffeta White Scion. I declined all of the dealer "packs". I haven't waxed the car in the 10 years I have owned it. I wash it when it gets dirty with dish soap and sponges, drying with terrycloth towels. The car lives outside in the SoCal sun.

The paint is still in excellent shape.

Now, "car care" fanatics would tell you that many of the things I do are wrong. They'll say that dish soap is too harsh, that I should only be using microfiber towels, and that I need to wax often to protect the finish.

To them, I say the factory paint is the protective coating designed to protect the metal. It was carefully formulated to withstand the environment to which it is subjected. No amount of snake oil is going to improve its ability and may well reduce its durability. The more you rub on the paint the more of it you wear off and the more likely it is that you will scratch the clearcoat.

To a dealer who wants to sell me a "protection" package I will ask "If the paint on the car you want to sell me really so substandard why should I buy this car?

For the interior, I put seat covers on the front seats. This is only because I prefer light-colored fabric on the seats.

 

The only wax that protections is the stuff that has UV protection.

wax isnt going to stop a rock from chipping the car

Polishing removes your clearcoat a tiny bit each time


Im like you, just washing, never a wax or polish. Paint is decent, and thats all I could say when it was brand new, since honda uses such a thin layer of paint. What a dumb idea, save half a pound by using 2 stage paint/clear. Id rather have 4-5 layers of paint and 3-4 layers of clear, and pay $500 extra on the car

 

I also advise if a dealer tries to sell you a "pro package" like my dealer did, that you actually ask what's in it, and have a list of MSRP prices to show them in comparison to what they're offering. You'll likely find $500 in parts for $1500 tag.

That's what I got roped into

Also say NO to the extended warranty.

Say NO to the Credit Life Insurance.

Say YES, unless you can find it cheaper after the fact, to the GAP insurance.


If you end up having to cancel the extended warranty and credit life insurance, because you weren't even really sure it was sold to you(tricky finance department stuff), you can get a full refund, but your agreed upon monthly fee will remain the same. We cancelled 4500 dollars almost in extended crap, but we're still paying the 60 or so dollars a month it increased the payments by.

 

Your paint may look excellent in your mind....but in reality, it probably looks like junk, just like most cars on the road today that have been abused by lazy owners.

 

Why? Does it help your ego to write such things? Are you 15? You certainly sound sophomoric.

 

No he is right. You think people put wax on their cars because its fun? No. It protects paint that you might have polished or properly maintained.

GeorgeL and 13 Fit's paint are probably dull and full of swirls but they don't know the difference so that are perfectly happy cleaning their cars with terry cloth. So their cars look like 95% of cars on the road: dirty, faded and full of swirls. To each his own!

 

My exterior protection plan consists of parking in a garage and washing my car whenever it gets dirty. My interior protection plan consists of dusting and vacuuming on a regular basis and a few rules: no eating in my car, no drinking liquids other than water in my car, knock off as much sand/dirt/leaves/etc as you can before you get in, shoes belong on the floormats - not on the seats or dashboard. Total cost for interior/exterior protection plans? $0.

 

SR45, I had Margaret too.

Thanks all. I recognize they have to ask. I"'ll just say no.

I got a red EX by the way.

 

I sent you a Priv Message, but something is happening that its iffy if you get them. Let me know 500.

 

Yeah, your instinct is good on this. You don't want to buy any of that stuff. The inside/outside protection is a huge waste of money, extended warranties have a higher likelihood of not paying off than of paying off (especially on cars with well above average reliability), and the other add-ons are similarly bad investments. Just say no.

As for tangible add-ons (accessories such as the cargo mat and such) it's a judgment call. A lot of those things are priced high and might be worthwhile if you can negotiate down to around their true cost, but often you can find aftermarket equivalents for many of those things for much less money. It depends on your assessment of the quality of the original vs aftermarket and what it's worth to you.

There are really good guides from Consumer Reports which can be found online (I hope without a membership to the website!!) and even some from Edmunds and other car buying/selling resource sites which will lay out for you the economics of these high pressure items. If you've already bought and accepted any of those things, there might very well be a way within a short time frame for you to get out of it using laws that address sale of large items. I'm not a legal expert, but I recall there possibly being a 48 hour or so window. Someone else might know better than me on this.