I agree they are a scam with one notable exception:
Carmax will sell a bumper to bumper comprehensive warranty on their used cars. Look up Doug Demuro on YouTube. He bought a Range Rover and a Maserati with the bumper to bumper warranties from CarMax.
Those pos cars paid off the warranty in just a couple months 
Not worth it. Just because he was a tech doesn’t mean he wasn’t trying to sell you something you don’t need. I’d bet anything he still gets a commission from every extended warranty he “suggests.”
(OP speaking)
I’ve held my opinion in reserve thus far, but this response nails it. Particularly since the tech gave us the name and number of a specific salesman.
I’ve never bought an extended warranty in my life, and have become quite skillful in repeating the words “no thanks” until the salesperson gives up.
I did make a phone call. A 5-year extended warranty would cost me $2200 with a 100,000 mile cap, $1875 with a 75,000 mile cap.
Here’s the kicker: The 5 years starts the day I purchased the vehicle. In other words, since I’ve owned the car for 2 years, it is in reality just a 3-year warranty.
I am going to pass. Only task left is convincing the wife.
mmm
That is bad. Especially since the 2014 Explorer already comes with a 3-year/36,000 mile bumper-to-bumper and a 5-year/60,000 mile powertrain warranty.
That sounds like a good decision. I didn’t realize he wanted you to talk to someone specific. That reeks of upsell.
I don’t have a lot of experience with these, but I did read the fine print on a couple of offers that I received in the mail when one of my cars neared 5 years old. Both of them promised to cover absolutely everything on the car, but the fine print clarified that they were only insuring items that were defective when installed (the fine print never said it that clearly, but that’s the gist of it). So if the brakes need replacing because they had a manufacturer defect that just happen to survive 5 years - covered. If the brakes need replacing because they wore out - not covered.
So, yes, it will cover absolutely everything in the car, but it will not cover every cause of problems. That’s the first issue I see: since the manufacturer already covered things that fail quickly, the extended warranty is only helping for defective items that fail within a fairly narrow window of time.
The second issue I see, especially as it applies to the OP’s scenario: I’m no auto expert and I don’t know a faulty brake from a worn out one. If I’ve bought the warranty on the recommendation of my mechanic, and then I’m trusting the mechanic’s opinion about when the warranty applies, I’ve doubled up on the conflicts of interest involved.
In 2012, I bought a 2009 Ford Edge from Carmax, and let them sell me the extended warranty up to 100K. I hit 100k in early 2016, and I appear to have gotten my money’s worth on the warranty, with several thousand dollars worth of covered repairs, and several hundred dollars worth of rented loaners over three visits (including an issue with the suspension that was keeping the wheels from staying aligned, and resulted in extra-fast wear on the tires).
Of course, the fact that the cost of the warranty was folded into the financing of the car means I probably broke even, but an extra twenty bucks per month on the car payment was more doable for me than some several hundred dollar plus car rental episodes that I’d have had to pay out of pocket at the time of service.