what's a good warranty to buy?
 

I have a 2001 Porsche Boxster and it's always been serviced by Porsche. I was wondering if anyone has an extended warranty on their car. Through Porsche, I was quoted about $1800 a year for my car with all coverage, including oil leaks and the like (I say that because that is a major issue). Anyone find something more competitive? (Like less money =) I always cry poverty as a teacher when I take my car to the dealer, and they care, like for example, my headlight went out...rather than deal with it in the rain, I went there, and they replaced it for free! Nothing to me, other than the service gal saying to me "give him a tip." So I gave him $10 for his trouble...I was amazed. But anyway, about the warranty, I would like to know about any insurance companies that can help me out :)
Bill

1800 A YEAR??? That's crazy man. When I first bought my BoxsterS it barely had 10K miles and Warranty Direct gave me a quote of $4K for four years. I thought it was too steep given the low mileage. I passed and have only had one repair that cost more than $300 (throttle body). Glad I passed on the coverage.
The issue is that when you buy these extended warranties they REQUIRE that you do all the maintenance at the required intervals--that adds up because the dealership charges you an arm and a leg for some really minor things you can do yourself of have an independent Porsche specialist do at half the price of the stealership. If you miss any maintenance they can turn around and void a claim.
That's how they do it.

Personally if the car has more than 60K miles and the previous owner wasn't dilligent about maintenance I might be inclined to buy a warranty. Maybe.
Either way I wouldn't spend a lot on the coverage. If you have a major claim you've got an uphill battle to get paid. You're better off putting the $5K in the bank for a Porsche repair fund.

p.s.
your car should not be leaking any oil beyond a little drop here and there now and then.

We declined the extra warrantee, which would have cost us over $4000 on a $14,000 car. We reviewed the service history, all by Porsche of Reno, and on schedule. At worse, we'll have to pay $7000 more or less for a new motor, not a good bet at $4000! Besides, if we put $2000 directly into maintenance we'll be $2000 ahead with a good running car!















Knock on wood!

^ don't forget the labor to install that $7K engine. Total bill probably closer to $10K.

I think even at $10k, $4k (or 40%) is way in favor of the warrantee company. Besides I understand if you track your car, or even enter it in AX that will instantly void some warrantees.

Your best warranty is your own bank account. Budget $100 a month for repairs and put it in a new bank account somewhere. Don't draw on it for tires, oil changes, brake pads or discs (wear items) and keep putting a hundred clams in the account every month.

Some years you'll drain it and other years you won't and you can build up a nice reserve.

One forum member used Warranty Direct and had to spend thousands suing them to get them to honor what was plainly stated in their contract about replacing the motor.

I think you're better off insuring the car yourself.

You should think twice before you use Warranty Direct. They gave our forum member TheNavarro a real hard time about replacing his engine. He had to take them to arbitration. They love to collect your money but they hate to pay out on claims.

$1800 a year is a rip-off, actually all extended warranties ADDED AFTER purchase are a rip-off. +1 on the bank account for repairs.

I just picked up my '06 Cayenne from CarMax with 9,100 miles on it, the Porsche warranty will apply 'til Feb '10 (or 50K which will not happen first).

I added the six year, 75,000 mile warranty at time of purchase for $1649 This is a wear and tear transferable warranty (key words here) that will end in Dec 2014 or 84,100 miles, whichever comes first. The BEST and CHEAPEST time to add an extended warranty is at the time of purchase, many times you can negotiate it in as part of the deal. After the purchase, forget adding a warranty, open a bank account and start putting some cash away for the eventual rainy day.