Carmax sells Porsche warrantee

[baxster]

I did a forum search on Carmax and didn't see anything like this.

I test drove a nice 04 S today at carmax. It has 43k miles for $22600. The sales guy say I can get an extended warrantee through carmax from PORSCHE. He says a bumper to bumper 125,000 total mile (that would give me 82,000 miles), 6 year warrantee would cost $2500.

Has anyone heard of Carmax selling a Porsche warrantee? Does this sound like a good deal? As for the car, Kelly's says it's a fair private party price.

[tonycarreon]

the only way to get a porsche-backed warranty is to buy the car from porsche, either new or CPO. they do not offer a warranty through other dealers. remember - a lot of used car salesmen will say just about anything to close a deal. i'm sure once you see the paperwork does not include the name "porsche" the next statement would be "it's the same company that backs porsche's warranty."

secondly, most aftermarket warranties are quite restrictive, especially once you need it. you'd probably be better served to save your money. if you do decide to get one, check for clauses like "competitive" racing - no AX, DE, etc. make sure that you are bound to only the MFR recommended maintenance schedule and that you can do your own work or select your own mechanic, and over revs do not void the warranty. ask if the clutch is considered a wear item or covered, etc...

$2500 for 6 yr/82k miles is quite cheap, i personally would be leary.

[Lordblood]

The price sounds way too low for a guarantee that would cover a used car for that long, CPO on Porsche's is 2 year/100k miles on cars that do not have the original warranty. I'd say the guy is lying to make the sale, and once you go to him for any repairs he will make some BS up and not work on your car.

Since I was on the market for a Boxster until just 4 days ago, I can say that working with used car dealers, no matter how competitive and prestigious the company is, turns out to be a complete hassle as when you start negotiating price they start to get completely hostile and insult you for negotiating.

A personal story: I live about 600 miles from LA, and there was a nice Boxster S I wanted to see in Thousand Oaks, CA (northern LA). I called the dealer, and said if the car is available I'd like to see it the next day. He said that if we were truly serious about buying the car he would hold the car for us until the next day. We agreed and left the house around 3 PM. The dealer calls back at about 4:30 PM, and tells us that he has found a buyer and will sell his car unless we give him a deposit to hold it until the next day. We did not agree to this offer and turned back and came home, obviously quite upset that he made a bogus promise to us. To make things worse, the next day the guy calls back and asks where we are, because they are waiting for us to see that car.

Moral of the story: don't believe anyone unless its in fine print on a contract.

[Flavor 987S]

Yes, I am sure the Carmax salesperson is 110% correct. They sell a extended warranty from Pore-shaw.

[Brucelee]

I would be HIGHLY skeptical of this claim. In my experience, this is not gonna happen.

[mikefocke]

used car warranty in the US (there are in other countries, BTW). It is a decision of the distributor.

Porsche North America (PNA) is the US distributor and offers a new car warranty and a CPO warranty and your '04 would be eligible for neither as it is not a new car, its warranty period has expired and it is being sold by a dealer who isn't authorized by PNA and thus couldn't be covered by a CPO even if the car was eligible. (Used CPOs can transfer only if from a Porsche dealer or private seller and there was no intervening auction or non-Porsche dealer etc)

You can not buy coverage backed by Porsche.

Now some Porsche dealers sell third party warranties and the salesperson makes them sound like Porsche warranties. Read the contract first before you sign. They are just moneymakers for the dealer/salesperson/etc. They pay out around one quarter of the money they cost.

[Idaho Red Rocket 3]

Hi Baxster,

You are getting a lot of opinions here. So I have a very recent Carmax experience to share with you. I consider myself to be an informed and somewhat intelligent consumer. My past experiences with aftermarket warranties with cars, motorcycles, p/u trucks and 18 wheelers leads me to believe the Carmax warranty is a good one.

Between Christmas and New Years my Wife and I took a road trip from Idaho to Arizoma just for the purpose of looking around in Phoenix and Tucson Boxster shopping. One of the cars we went to look at was a 2006 at the Carmax in Tucson. The salesman there gave us the detailed explaination of the extended warranty Carmax offers. The warranty is through an aftermarket company called Liberty something. ( I forget the full name.) The salesman took his time and showed us all the differant combinations of deductables and lenth of milage coverages of the plans he could offer on that car. For what I know from personal experiance from being a purchaser and user of aftermarket warranties, I would tell all of the forum members the Carmax plan is a good one. If you are considering buying the Carmax car, ask the salesman to show you the differant plans such as length of milage coverage and with differant deductable levels. The importamt part here is the warranty is designed to be honored at almost any repair shop including a Porsche dealer.

[Lucky]

I'll second much of what Red Rocket says. I'm also shopping for a car (daily driver) and have spent time researching the Carmax Maxcare warranty. It is an aftermarket warranty, not from the car manufacturer. You can choose different mileage and deductible amounts to adjust the price point to your desired amount. Unlike most dealers, Carmax doesn't generally negotiate on prices including those for warranty.

Something to keep in mind, all warranty repairs will require pre-authorization. You can use whatever shop you want, including dealers, but you must make sure the shop knows you are using a warranty and agrees to get work approved before they do it.

If I end up buying a car from Carmax, I'm going to ask for a few days to decide on Maxcare and see what I can get from other sellers. I'm confident you can get the equivalent at lower cost from someone else. However if the saving isn't significant, I may go with Maxcare as I think it would provide another avenue for recourse if a dispute arises with the warranty company.

[mikefocke]

Ask to read the contract. Read it 3 times. Not the sales literature, the contract. If they won't give it to you ....

A warranty does you no good if it doesn't cover the things that can cost big money on your car.

And research the financial strength of the company that is behind the warranty. Does you no good if you find the company went out of business (they often do). Oregon has a list of who is behind what warranty sellers policies at http://insurance.oregon.gov/insurer/financial_regulation/obligors.pdf

Third party warranties (aka service contracts) have interesting reputations with the insurance commissioners of the various states. Consumer Reports says they pay out very little compared to what you pay in.


Something that sounds too good to be true probably is. And $2,200 for 6 years coverage on a car whose engine can cost what our does just doesn't pass my smell test. Becasue I've priced these things from companies and they would only go 3 years and for a lot more. There may be something we don't understand, some exclusion, some deductible, etc. Because the sales guy has to get paid out of that, the sales manager, the dealer, the insurer, the people who administer the policy, etc. Leaves very little for parts and labor does it? What is the limit on the labor rate per hour? What book do they use to define the number of hours covered for a specific repair? Does your mechanic work with that company? Are they slow pay or slow approval? Some shops insist you pay and then you have to negotiate with the insurance company which makes it impossible because they want to approve before the work is done...and you may have to wait for an inspection.

Bumper to bumper like a new car with every part covered? So what is the difference?

Extended warranties are like a casino:

* some who play will win
* a very very few will win very big
* most by far will lose
* the casino will make a lot of money.

Only the casino odds are so much better...there the percent returned to the person who places the bet is generally more than 80% as opposed to the extended warranty where it approaches 20-30%. Like a casino, you hear the stories of the people who win big and that persuades you to play. You mostly don't hear about all the many, many more people who lose.

[baxster]

Originally Posted by mikefocke

Extended warranties are like a casino:

* some who play will win
* a very very few will win very big
* most by far will lose
* the casino will make a lot of money.

This would have to be true for the warrantee company or casino to stay in business. I've dropped a few bucks at casinos never expecting to get anything back except for entertainment. Maybe I could say that the warrantee could buy me piece of mind to enjoy the entertainment of my car more. My main concern is that an engine failure would be covered.

Otherwise, you make some good points. I'm going to check out the salesman's claims and the other details of the warrantee that you suggest. I'll get back to this thread when I find out more.