It covers the battery and drive units. Anything physically outside of the drive units and battery are not covered. Those are probably the most reliable parts of the car, though.
That is the warranty that is expiring for me.
I was reading to see if the extended warranty is transferable, not that I plan to sell the car, and came to a full stop when I saw the extended warranty does NOT cover capacity degradation. That is from sites advising if the warranty is worthwhile, not the actual warranty agreement. People claiming to be Tesla service technicians recommend avoiding the warranty.
I never buy extended warranties. Except once, at Best Buy for a VCR, which died on me. When I brought it in for repair or replacement it was determined that it was beyond repair and I was offered a replacement. Of course, by that time that particular model had been discontinued, so I got an upgrade to another at the same cost as the old one. Out of curiosity I asked if the warranty still applied to the replacement, and was told that it did.
Believe it or not, the replacement also died. Lather, rinse, repeat; upgraded to a new model with more features than the original purchase. Never had any problems with that one until after the warranty expired, at which point I was ready to buy a new one anyway.
Ha! That sounds like the first DVD recorder I bought. Crashed right at 30 days. Got another, same model. Lasted just over 30 days. Got a different model when I took it back.
They are just a dealer add-on they make money from.
Did you pay for Scotchgard on your seats? They don’t need it. It is already there. Did you pay to have your paint “sealed”. That Tru Coat is installed at the factory (Fargo movie reference). Extra undercoating? Last car I bought the owner’s manual specifically said “no extra undercoating is needed or recommended”, after the dealer tried to sell me that.
And they usually will not pay for the full cost of the warrantee repairs. Repair costs $1200, and you will only pay $150 because you have an extended warranty. Actual cost to the dealer or shop: $150.
Celebrity advertized warraties like CarShield, are being shut down by the FTC. IceT is in the business of screwing over black people, a major market for these programs.
I presume “drive units” covers the electric motor(s) and any associated gearing. If so, then in an EV it seems that things that can go wrong that aren’t covered are things like brake components, wheel bearings, steering components, power windows and locks, the electric system itself (I’ve seen one-eyed Teslas – maybe the headlight LED failed, maybe an electrical problem) and probably other stuff like if the fancy iPad glued to the dash suddenly stops working. That’s a fair amount of potentially expensive stuff, and I’m sure that things like brake pads and light bulbs are considered consumables and not covered.
I’m not giving advice here – have never owned an EV – but I agree with you that $2000 for a 2-year extension with all those exclusions sounds too expensive. And as per my earlier ruminations, Tesla has undoubtedly priced it so that the most likely outcome is that they, not you, come out ahead.
Yeah, pretty much. As you mention, much of those are consumables, so it would be a fight to get covered even under the original bumper-to-bumper warranty. As it is now, I’ve had one major out of warranty failure on the Tesla—the cabin heating unit—and a few minor things.
At 80,000 miles the plastic covers on the passenger seat controls broke off, and there is a loose wire for one of the restraint sensors on the driver’s seat. This is very similar to the kind of stuff that started breaking on my old VW at a similar mileage.
Different tangent: Buying an extended warranty launched Doug Demuro’s career, with his whole “I bought an extended warranty on a Range Rover” series. He’d been an automotive journalist, and made a few videos before that, but it was really that epic story arc which pushed him to the forefront of YouTube car videos.
He had the unique combination of a very unreliable vehicle in the Range Rover, and a very underpriced warranty from CarMax. He came out so far ahead on the warranty that now he owns a Ford GT and a Lamborghini Countach.
Funny side note to this is that the original Range Rover was launched in 1970 by British Leyland, a car company so bad that it gave the entire British auto industry a bad name! They famously made cars that rusted, leaked oil, fell apart, could barely start in summer, and not a hope in winter! Fortunately for the world, British Leyland workers were on strike so often that the inflicted fewer cars on the world than they otherwise might have!
Range Rover has since moved on to multiple corporate ownerships and I have no idea what the quality is today. I see a few of them around, and I know they’re expensive.
My pal who owns a car shop makes a hefty living fixing broken Range Rovers and other infamously unreliable breeds. 'Rovers are unreliable, but at least parts are hard / slow to get and cost a lot.
Warranties and service contracts are forms of insurance. My policy is only to insure for catastrophic loss. All insurance companies (warranty providers included) have to make more on premiums and fees than they pay out in settlements (or service). They’d lose money otherwise. So, on average, you pay more in premiums that you receive in benefits.
It makes sense to insure for a loss that would break you. That’s why we have homeowner’s insurance (losing a home to a fire would destroy most people financially). But I can afford to replace or repair a broken fridge or damaged tire, so I don’t insure for those smaller risks.
The equation can change if you know your risk is higher than average. @DSeid ‘s wife has a high risk of flat tires, so it may pay for them to pay for the roadside assistance package. But be careful and read the fine print. There may be limits in the contract to how often you can use the service, and it may allow the warranty to be cancelled at any time.
Look at an extended warranty like you would insurance. Buy it to cover the really bad stuff in life that might happen. Life will give you some of the sorta bad stuff. Paying for it as it happens will average out to less than trying to cover everything whether it happens or not. If it is under a warranty you are also paying for a professional paper loser (PPL) to second-guess your decision.
I think of the extended warranties as forms of insurance. Generally insurance should be used for making risk more manageable for the consumer, and profit for the underwriter. I generally only buy it when the risk seems hard to accept without it. So, for health, house, and total loss of cars. Any repair for cars or house, or replacement for appliances, I can handle without planning for it.
The one exception was my iPhone. I thought my psychology would tend to make less use of the phone for fear I’d drop it, even though I could just replace it. But that’s dealing with my own brain malfunction, and not reasonable otherwise.
I stopped getting extended warranties for most electronics early on, but that’s because I figured I might as well buy something I can afford to replace once past original warranty, and if something’s defective from the factory it’s likely to show early. For some more expensive items like the “nice” notebook computer I may get the plan with physical damage repair protection, but again not for that much longer.
Never have put an “extended warranty” on a vehicle but then again I make a habit of sticking to models with good reputations for reliability and for which parts and shops are more accessible where I live.
Ah, Sears, how we mourn what was taken from us. Mom’s laundry room and garage door were well served for years.
I’ve bough an extended warranty exactly once in my life, for my washer and dryer, because I’d heard claims that front-loaders were less reliable than top-loaders. It turned out to be a complete waste of money. I’ve literally never had a problem with that washer. I still have it, in fact, 17 years later. I did have to replace the controller board in the dryer – after the warranty expired, but I literally just ordered the part from Sears for ~$100 and replaced it myself.
When I bought my current car, the first car I ever bought brand new, the dealer really tried to push the extended warranty. And when I declined, they demanded to know why. Did I not think it was a good value? Now, with the benefit of hindsight I can safely say, no, it wasn’t a good value. The car didn’t require any sort of repairs during the extended warranty period. Buying it would have been a waste.
Because none of your fucking business, that’s why. By the end of the sales process when I bought a few new Hondas, they knew better then just to perfunctorily ask and move on.
Oh there is a simple answer- “Oh, I didnt know this car was so unreliable it needed this. Okay, I will go pick another car company, thank you for that advice!”
