shrano Posted April 9, 2004 Share Posted April 9, 2004 So this being our first new car purchase, I am asking as many people as possible about the extended warranty option. Thoughts? I'm being offered an extension to 6yr/60k on a 2004 Legacy 35th anniv (yes, we're going to get it) for $849 w/ a money back guarantee that if I never use the extended part only, I get the $849 back. What are the chances of that happening? HA HA! Advice is welcome. Oh yeah - is it common for a dealership not to allow you to pick up your car after 10am on a Saturday? Said they don't deliver new cars after 10am on Sat's cos it is their busiest day. :-\ I am tempted to ask if we can do it right before they close...(i have other commitments tomorrow morning which cannot change) Otherwise Monday it is. Which means finding two Thursday parking spaces at home. Living in Brooklyn means opposite side of the street parking rules...If you don't live w/ it, you don't know what I mean, cos it can be a hassle. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outback_97 Posted April 9, 2004 Share Posted April 9, 2004 Shrano: We got my wife's '03 TS extended for that same time frame, 6/60, for around $800, with $0 deductible. We felt it was a good idea, the extended waranty on my OB paid for itself, these cars are not inexpensive to fix. I think your deal sounds good, as long as the deductible is zero or close to it. My $.02. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
99obw Posted April 9, 2004 Share Posted April 9, 2004 I won't disagree with you Steve, but I will say, the day when an extended warranty is a good investment when buying a Subaru is a sad day indeed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderhound Posted April 9, 2004 Share Posted April 9, 2004 A sad day indeed...and I would want some interest on the 849 if you don't use it. Might be greedy but its the finance major in me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howards11 Posted April 9, 2004 Share Posted April 9, 2004 I would take the extended warranty provided it is with SOA and can be used at ANY Subaru dealer. I don't like the idea of not being able to pick up the car on Sat. But this is a minor point if everything else is OK. GOOD LUCK ON THE NEW CAR! ~Howard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commuter Posted April 9, 2004 Share Posted April 9, 2004 I'm starting to think a bit differently about extended warranties than I use to. Cars are just getting so expensive to fix now. And more complex. I don't tend to say yes or no to the question. It depends on your situation. How much driving you do. How much you can do yourself in terms of repairs. How long you tend to keep your cars. Your financial situation; if you can absorb an unexpected major repair. Etc. The price doesn't sound bad to me. If I got my money back in 6 years, I wouldn't quibble about the lost interest. Small price to pay for a vehicle that never had any major troubles. Of course, you have to know what it covers. Read the fine print. A lot of these policies don't cover stuff like alternators, starters, p/s, A/C, etc. Know what you are getting. One thing I advocate is putting aside the money into a "car repair" fund. That is, say $25 a month. If in 5 years something comes up, you'd have $1500 to put towards it. The money remains yours. You get the interest. If you don't have to spend it, you don't lose it, etc. The problem is, $1500 doesn't go that far today. Heck, I read of $4000 repairs on failed transmissions for my wife's Honda Odyssey. So, you might have to double that to $50/month. This is on top of making your car payments. It takes discipline that we don't always have. So I come back around to my first statement. If you can get the "bit hit" stuff covered like engine and transmission for $850, roll that into your payments, then maybe it is not a bad way to go. It's up to you. One has to assess their own abilities, finances, projected driving and timeframe to keep the car, etc. Commuter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rweddy Posted April 9, 2004 Share Posted April 9, 2004 I won't disagree with you Steve, but I will say, the day when an extended warranty is a good investment when buying a Subaru is a sad day indeed. I could not agree more. But when my father-in-law purchased his used 2002 I told him it was a good idea to get the warranty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueSoob Posted April 9, 2004 Share Posted April 9, 2004 Don't second guess on it either. Buy it. I bought mine at 35000 miles and I didn't have a single problem with the car for the next 6 months.. which was out of the ordinary from my experience with it. I was thinking that maybe all the bugs had been worked out by that time. One week later, I was just minding my own business, sitting in the middle of an over 55 trailer park at 4 am, idling away and all of a sudden, *Pop* Hissssssssssssss* Boom* Hisssssss* I was surrounded by a cloud of steam/smoke both inside my car and outside. What a bummer. Long story short- Buy the warrenty. Your spouse will love you for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joybell Posted April 9, 2004 Share Posted April 9, 2004 Gosh Amanda, isn't yours a 2003 Forester? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted April 9, 2004 Share Posted April 9, 2004 a major repair. Unfortunately subies seem to need major repairs more than they used to. Let's see, mine needed clutch, head gaskets, an exhaust pipe, clutch master and slave, and the engine seals and that interesting oil slinger you have to pull the engine to get to. In the end subaru ate the head gaskets but if I had the extended warranty I would have made out. All the rest of the things I have done to my car I would just consider normal maintenence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrano Posted April 9, 2004 Author Share Posted April 9, 2004 thank you all again. good advice. i think for $850 it's a pretty good deal. it is not a dealer thing - it is a SOA warranty, so I can do to any dealer which is good. picking up the car tomorrow morning. yay! bidding adieu to our foxy lady, a 93 VW fox that was a 5 spd but when the tranny blew, it became a 4 spd. been that way for a few years...that's going to charity cos no one wanted it for free! ah well...too many issues with that car, but she served us well for over 5 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benebob Posted April 9, 2004 Share Posted April 9, 2004 Here's my 2 cents. DON'T get the warranty now. You'll get letters weekly/monthly almost every day from subaru telling you about the warranty program and that you can join for that price up until 35,999. Just think you'll have nearly 3 years to think about it and see what goes wrong with the car over that time. Oh yeah, when you are ready to do it, go back to the dealer and give your salesman the $$$. They get a percentage if you buy it from them but they don't get crap if you get it from Subaru. Only issue is that you can't finance it by waiting. My guess is you can do a payment plan or something though. Congrats on the new car. As for not being able to pick it up after 10am on a Saturday it makes sense. Sounds like you have a good anal dealer who wants to be sure the car is prepped, clean and ready for ya rather than in and out, time to sell the next widget. Keep in mind to properly have a car detailed and prepped according to Subaru's specs takes something like 4 hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howards11 Posted April 10, 2004 Share Posted April 10, 2004 Here's another idea. Around here (Philadelphia) AAA offers an extended warranty plan for new and used cars. How about checking into something like this in your area? ~Howard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SevenSisters Posted April 11, 2004 Share Posted April 11, 2004 Subaru already has a 6 year 60K drive train warranty. So what does the $850 cover in addition to the standard warranty? Extended warranties are strickly insurance. Subaru figures the average cost of extended warranty work and then adds some profit. The dealer also gets a cut. The salesman or person gets a cut too. Everybody makes money. Download the service manual and buy a set of tools. Put the rest of the money in the bank. PS: 2.5 Head gaskets go out at 60,001 miles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrano Posted April 13, 2004 Author Share Posted April 13, 2004 Thanks again for the 2 cents. We wound up getting the extended warranty - neither of us are mechanically inclined and i can't say that we are all that interested in learning much about how to fix something in a car. therefore, purchasing a set of tools for the car ain't gonna happen. we live in brooklyn, and there is no driveway to kick back in and start tooling around with the car should we be so inclined. we could have done either a payment option or tacked it onto the financing. i didn't see the post here about subaru flooding me with the option to purchase it later or the AAA option otherwise i would have investigated either of those sooner. regardless, it was a good experience, it's our first new car and we REALLY needed it. i think i mentioned what we parted ways with and there was always another $500 problem happening. For a laugh, we replaced a 1993 VW Fox (the color is raspberry but looks more purplish) that was a 5 speed but is now a 4 speed. The windshield has two cracks, the drivers side seat no longer moves forward, so rear passengers can only exit on the passenger side, the drivers seat is missing a bolt so that when you turn, sometimes the seat "jumps", its all manual everything - windows, locks, steering. There IS A/C and heat and both work fairly well. The glove box is a 2 inch square and the trunk is just slightly bigger. And the passenger side door has to be slammed really hard in order to close properly. But other than that, the Foxy Lady was a great first car and we have nothing but fond memories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HPNG Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 Hello Shrano: Is the extended warranty offered to you for your 2004 Subaru Legacy called "Added Security" Extended warranty by Subaru or a third party warranty? Did you purchase the warranty? And did you include the zero deductible option? IF so, how much does it costs? Thanks. HP Ng Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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