Extended Warranty
 

hi:

I have a 99 Boxster w/64K miles. Everything seems fine and the PPI (bought it in August) didn't turn up anything. However, it is an older car with a few miles on it and I can imagine having issues down the road. I will probably put no more than 6K per yaer on it. I have been researching warranties. Warranty Direc, which several people on the board seem to think is good, won't do a warranty for this car.

I found a company that has several options. The full warranty for this company that covers everything is just too expensive. It is a little over $3K for 24 months. I'll risk that in the next 12K miles I won't have a major problem. Howevr they offer a power train warranty that goes for five years/100K for $700. This seems to cover all I would want in the engine and transmission. I hav attached the link. The company, Great American Insurance, is a large well rated company. I think I am ok there.

Any opinions on whether this warranty itself is worth it?

Tahnks in advance for your input.

http://www.autowarrantybroker.com/extended_auto_warranty_plans_CoverageDuraLube.aspx

The limit of liability per engine/water pump claim is $3000 ($2000 for transmission). That's not enough money if you need a new engine. But it's better than you having to pay it all.
Also, you might want to ask if an RMS leak would be covered.

Regards,
mike

Self insure. Take the $3k that the warranty would cost you an use that money (or invest some of thta money) to pay for things as they break.

You have a 99' w/ over 50k,you should be fine. I've only heard of normal wear like wheels bearings and torn c.v. boots at that mileage.

Most of the MAJOR problems like cracked sleeves occur under 50k so just take that $3k and save it for minor repairs.

I had a 99' for 2 years and put 6k on it,it had 56k when I totaled it. The ONLY problems I had with it were owner related,like installing a K & N oil filter. It started every time I fired it up,never made a sound or did anything out of the ordinary,it was the most reliable car I had ever seen. I'm sure it would have hit 100k w/o an issue.

Drive it like you stole it!

Powertrain warranty: $700
 

I was not going with the $3K option for the reasons you give. However I thought the $700 5yr/100K option might be worth it over the next 5 years (if I keep it that long..I'd like to switch to a 2000/2001 S). the warranty is transferable.

NJkayaker, if you decide to get the power train warranty product, first request a copy of the contract, and read it front-to-back and clearly understand what is and what is not covered. Then make your final decision.

NJKAYAKER,


Can you provide a link to this 5 year $700 power train warranty so we can all see what it says?

IMO, anything outside of the new vehicle warranty is not worth it. If it makes u feel better to preventively replace the RMS, then do it. Take the rest of your money and put it in an ING account that earns 3+ percent. The way I think about it is this way, if I was to lose my engine, for example, parting out my busted car afterwards should earn me enough to buy another. There is tens of thousands of dollars worth of parts in our cars, think about it if you were selling rims, fenders, litronics, seats, electronics, plastic console parts, etc, our Boxster's are worth more apart than together! I have a good friend who buys old 737s from the majors, takes 'em apart and makes sometimes 10 times what he paid for the plane put together.

Just go out and drive your box like it was your last day here, enjoy it!

Link
 

The link is at the bottom of the original post. For 5 years of engine/transmission coverage it doesn'
t seem too bad. There are limits on payments per incident (they are in the actual contract. Over five years one $1500 incident pays for it. Thanks for all the feed back

My take on extended warranties - or any other kind of insurance for that matter - starts from the obvious. The firms that sell them make money on them. That means the law of averages is that you'll pay more for the warranty than you'll collect in claims.

It makes perfect sense to buy warranties or insurance for things where the loss is great enough you simply couldn't cover it - liability insurance, homeowners insurance, etc.

All that to say, if you can afford to pay the $3K the powertrain insurance covers, you're better off not paying the $700. racer-d has it right, even though he was talking about the other insurance option. Just my $0.02

Don't know about the one you refer to but many cover "internally lubricated parts" and exclude cracked heads, head gasket failure, and cracked blocks. Also I would wonder if water pumps and coolant tanks (you will need one for sure eventually I think) would be covered.

Most of these companies also require the dealer to check if there are any stage 2 "events" where someone revved it past the limiter, not that you would do that... just so you know.

Also, it sure would be nice to know which companies are good to work with once it is time for repairs and which ones will fight you like crazy on any repair. The Porsche dealer told me some of these warranty companies just fight you and the dealer like crazy (several weeks even) expecting you to eventually give up and get it fixed just so you can get your car back. So I think it is important to research it and get some real world (not company marketing) testimonials if possible. Might not hurt to make friends with the dealer service rep. either as they are your ally when it comes time to actually using the warranty (I assume a private repair shop would be teh same also, it just so happens that the local dealer here has an outstanding service dept. in terms of service).

If I were buying a used porsche today, I would buy a good quality drivetrain warranty. These birds are just too expensive to fix.

IMHO.

NJKayaker,

Beware of Warranty Direct. See my post for details
Warranty Direct is screwing me over

Mike

Warranties are good for the providers
 

I checked the warranties and the prices they want are outrageous. If you do the math you will see that the disadvantages outweigh the risks. Ive driven my car 41,000 miles and the only thing that bothered me was the clutch going at 30,000 but since they had to the seals it became a $ 800 repair. In a porsche everything is expensive I like to save like the next guy but I equate the car to a land yacht. If you have to ask how much fuel it uses per hour don't buy it. Its expensive to buy, expensive to upkeep that's the nature of this beast. The only solution is not going to the dealer which sometimes is a risk. The dealer is expensive and you know, I hope they are not taking short cuts on both parts and labor the work is guaranteed. Go to Joe's Garage and who knows what they are using on your car. Another Porshe driver I know lives in Staten Island and he knew of someone that in order to save the outrageous cost of an oil change he brought to a local shop end result he blew the engine! I had experiences with tires and it turned disastrous. The dealer was closed that day I went and had the work done in STS and they completely screwed everything. Used the wrong weights, put them in the wrong place the drive of the car was horrible and told the dealer to take his tires and shove them. He then found the Michelin Pilots meant for the car brought the car to dealer and they redid the balancing and alignment for nothing. That was my lesson and it was well learned. :o