How many miles are on your IMS Retrofit?

[Frank M]

Having some experience with warranty companies as I have been doing independent mechanical inspections for over 40 companies, 12 years now.
My advice is to get a reputable company as mentioned in a previous post.

For service go to the selling dealer that sold you the warranty as they have some pull due to their warranty sales. (notice I didn't say you bought it online. from a solicitor or through the mail)

do your maintenance right to the tee, do not modify your vehicle or use questionable products, use what is recommended by the manufacturer only.

[JFP in PA]

As someone that runs a shop, let me give you another perspective on these warranties:

1. Many aftermarket insurers try to act like these repairs are medical insurance, they try tell the shop what you can expect to be paid, how long it should take, and even where to buy parts. Not in my shop…….

2. They want you to disassemble the engine, then wait for their “inspector” to show up, which takes anywhere from a couple of days to weeks. Shops typically have limited space, particularly inside. No owner wants his car sitting outside for weeks, particularly with the engine partially disassembled.

3. As others have noted, many of these companies try to weasel out of paying a claim for reasons totally unconnected to the problem. ECU/DME data, “competition tires”, “extensive modification” (aftermarket exhaust system), etc., etc….. Anything to keep from paying out…….

4. “Partial settlements” where they will pay for only part of the job, or only cover the parts. I actually had one tell me that they would only cover the time to swap out the bearing, not the labor to get at it. Right……..

5. The warranty companies often use poorly trained or totally incompetent personnel to review the claims. Often they know little, if anything, about the make or model involved, much less what is required to make the repair. Yet they are the individuals that determine if the claim will be paid and at what rate.

6. After market warranty companies are amongst the slowest payers out there, often trying to string the shop out for months on a claim, and sometimes go out of business while you are waiting, leaving the shop to file a legal claim with little to no chance of getting paid.

Like many other shops, we no longer deal with any warranty company, period. If the owner wants to file a claim, that fine by me, but the repair is cash, check or credit card only………

[jhandy]

Jeff is correct. These people are evil. I bought the coverage the day I bought the car new. I used it once for a wheel bearing, and then it sat un-used for years.
My milage was fast approaching 75,000 which was the cut off. So I sent it to the shop and asked that they inspect everything and replace anything that was broken or worn.

The only thng that saved me was that they pissed off Jake and he fought tooth and nail to get stuff covered. (just out of principle I think)

However I think that experience soured him on warrenty companies. In the end I had ~5000K of work paid for and a car that drives like new.

At one point they even tried to say that I changed my oil too frequently as the manual for the car said every 10K.

Buy the coverage from the dealer, it will cost double but I dont think that they would try to screw you as quickly.

[autodoctor911]

I have dealt with many warranty companies at dealerships and independent garages, and the only time they have even asked for maintenance records is when there is evidence of neglect such as excessive sludge. even then though, after some bickering the repairs were covered even if no real records could be produced. Of course If you bought the warranty somewhere other than from the dealer that sold you the car, you probably did get screwed right from the start no matter how many years they claim to have been in business. how can you know what business they've been in, unless you check them out. the hard part has been getting them to pay enough to cover quality parts and a decent labor amount to make good money recently as they have tried to cut costs by using used parts. not nearly as bad as with regular insurance coverage, especially state farm recently. yeah some of the inspectors don't know much, but that can be an advantage too. I still work with them, and have not had a problem getting paid once the approval is made.

[autodoctor911]

The best extended warranty plan that I have ever dealt with has been from Nissan, so if you can, find a porsche for sale at a Nissan used car lot, or even just go to a Nissan used car salesman and have him findyou one that you like at another dealer or at an auction. Dealers trade the cars with each other at wholesale so he can sell it to you for the same price you would pay wherever it was. then you would be able to purchase a kick ass warranty. I've worked on a mercedes with a Nissan warranty and they payed the dealer $2500 in repairs for fixing lifters, and maybe some oil leaks, which I know was probably BS. It probably just needed the plastic oil crossover tubes. then they misdiagnosed the ac and put a FEC(front electronic module) in it for $1100. The ac still wasn't working when he brought it to me. I checked it out, determined that the codes stored in the ac control unit were keeping the FEC from activating the compressor. the codes were caused by the fact that the compressor did not funtion when activated. I just had to think for myself and go outside th pinpint test boxes mercedes publishes and generate my own signal to the compressor to determine that it was the cause. I called the Nissan warranty and they approved a $1000 compressor job without even sending an inspector.

[autodoctor911]

one way to tell a crappy warranty is how they pay for the repair. any good warranty is going to give a one time credit card # with the approval or right after the repair, so patment is recieved before the vehicle is picked up. If a company tries to pay any other way they are being shady and probably not going to pay at all.

[autodoctor911]

I do see one giant loophole on the ims failure in some warranties:
"internally lubricated parts"
Because Porsche had the bright(dumb) idea of using a sealed bearing this would possibly leave it open to someone's interpretation who looks at the part as being not internally lubricated, which would be correct, but I doubt anyone at these warranty companies has figured that out yet.