My biggest problem with extended warranties is what they call them. The marketing salesmen are pretty good at disguising something without coming flat out and lying.
Let's take a new car for example. They want you to buy the extended "5-year, 60,000 mile warranty". Well, the trouble is... that's not what they're REALLY trying to sell me.
The car already comes with a 3-year, 36,000 mile warranty... so what they're REALLY selling me is a 2-year, 24,000 mile warranty. They're not trying to sell me another 5 years & 60,000 miles on top of what the car already has.
So that's how I look at it when comparing the price. Is $X.xx amount of dollars worth the extra 2 years & 24,000 miles.
Now, I'm not making a blanket judgement as to whether extended warranties are good or bad. I'm just saying that same type of analysis should be done when considering one.
My general feeling on this is this:
If the cost of repair or replacement will cause you great financial difficulty, then buy it. If the cost of repair or replacement is something that would only cause a small burp in your financial picture, or if the item is something that I could do without if I had to... then I don't buy it.
And that's simply a fancy way of saying this: Based on my budget, I have a dollar figure in my head that I could spend on repairing or replacing something that wouldn't cause me too much heartache. If the item I'm thinking of buying the extended warranty on costs more than that... then I buy it. If not, I don't.
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Tom
2013 VOLTAGE 3200 (EPIC I & II)
2014 Ford F-450 PLATINUM
2018 BMW R1200GS RALLYE
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