This is probably wishful thinking, but, do any extended warrantee companies cover a used (5 y.o.) car with high (150K-ish) miles for wear and tear in addition to breakdown?
If you are talking about a third party warranty the best advice is not to buy one at all.
What’s the point of a wear-and-tear warranty? On a car that age you can expect to pay for regular maintenance and replacement of worn parts. It should be a pretty regular and predictable set of expenses. If it’s around, say, $1200 per year, you could just put $100 per month into a repair fund. If a company wanted to sell you a wear-and-tear warranty, they’d essentially do the same thing, except they’d want to earn some profit so they’d charge you $1500 for $1200 worth of regular maintenance.
Warranties (and insurance) really only make sense as a way to pay more money to avoid risk. On average, a warranty company charges customers more money than they pay out on repairs. The customer pays extra but in return doesn’t have as much risk, i.e. they won’t have to suddenly face a $3k repair bill.
Generally though, auto warranties are a pretty bad deal. You’re almost certainly better off putting your money into an emergency repair fund.
I’m sure that you could find someone to provide you a warranty to meet your terms, but I doubt that you would like the price of the premium.
In fact, you give me the make and model and milage of your car and I’ll quote you a price.
What you are looking for is insurance, not a warranty. Remember, anybody selling such a product has to make money. This means it costs you more than if you simply paid for the repairs yourself. So I suggest you do that. The best thing to do is choose the right used vehicle to begin with and maintain it. If you don’t know how to inspect a vehicle, be willing to pay someone with knowledge to inspect it. This is your best insurance.
PS> Used vehicles are a bit of a crap shoot. Always hold some extra money aside for repairs that will inevitably occur.
This.
And in my case I bought an old jeep without looking at very close…nuf said. 
Honestly, the only coverage I’ve ever seen quoted for cars at that mileage was high-priced insurance that only covered the engine and maybe the transmission.
The premiums were, in fact, high enough that you could probably have bought a remanufactured engine and transmission for a price within dollars of what you would have paid for the transmission.
With vehicles at that age and mileage, the annual premiums would probably, frankly, be enough to buy a replacement vehicle.
It’s an ‘06 Ford 500. It has 150,00 miles on it.
The trannies can go in these, they can cost $7,000 to replace. More than the car’s even worth.
My air is gone. That’s an easy $4-600, or more.
I just got hooked (so embarrassed!) by this BS the guy gave me when I called to just find out about what AutoAssure was. He said if you don’t buy now, you cant’ get it, b/c of your car’s mileage. Can’t believe I fell for it. Then thought about it–it only pays for breakdowns. It pays for engine/trans/air/heat/fuel system, axles…maybe a couple other things. And 24hr roadside assistance, and car rental. $100 deductible. Its paid off in 18 mos @ $158/mo, and it’s good for 5 years or 100,000 miles.
Then I thought about all the cash I put out just for brakes, rotors, labor around here is $100/hr, and wondered if I could get a plan to cover these too. Just got brakes in June, I think I’m going to need them again soon! These 90+ degree days.
I like the $100/mo repair fund…I’m going to just do some more research about Ford 500 trannies. If I ever need a new tranny, the plan would pay for itself. Twice. This car has to last me another 3-4 years.
I still have 29 days to cancel for a full refund.
Thanks for the feedback.
zephyr,
If you can’t find a paper copy of each and every single receipt for each and every suggested service for your vehicle, they will deny all of your claims.
If you can’t find the receipts, I suggest you immediately cancel your plan.
You can spend a few weeks straight reading folks’ horror stories of their claims being denied for stupid reasons.
:eek:
I probably will cancel. I like the more conservative repair fund.
Although, they do have an “A” grade w/the BBB. Doesn’t that count for something?
So it costs you $158/month for 18 months? That comes to almost $3,000. What did the car cost to purchase? Because $158 sounds like a lot. Too much really. And it doesn’t sound like you get coverage for “wear and tear” either, which is something you mentioned in the OP. And actually, do the manufacturer’s extended warranties (the ones that the dealers sell at purchase) cover wear and tear?
Only if the car is MUCH newer than mine…much lower mileage. You have to get the extended warrantees before the original one runs out, or you can only get wear and tear warrantees if the car has <50,000 miles on it, etc.
Oh, and I also learned that there’s a limit to how much they’ll pay on a claim for each type of repair. The limit they will pay on a trans on this plan is $2500. That’s a LOT les than it would cost to repair or replace my trans.
.
The car was a gift. Blue book value on this car, now, is <$6,000.
I think I’m going to cancel.
Appreciate the feedback!