slo007

I bought the extended warranty after about a year of ownership. I read of a lot of problems with the NAVI stack in early 2004 models, which mine was one, and was afraid of getting stuck with a steep bill later in the car's life.

Unbeknownst to me, the extended warranty actually runs concurrently with the original warranty. I got a 5-year plan, thinking I had a 10-year warranty on the car... but when I decided to sell the car, I found out I only had an extra year of coverage (std warranty was 4 years, hence 5-4=1). I paid $1,100 for it -- you can get it for as low as $800 if you buy online from a certain Acura dealership in NY -- from a local dealer here in San Diego.

During negoations with the buyer of the car, I offered him a $500 rebate in exchange for me getting a refund on the ext. warranty. He agreed, and I though I was going to make a profit... it didn't happen. I got the check recently from Acura, and only got a $400 refund. I never used the service, yet I lost $700.

Henceforth, I strongly recommend against buying this service. Acuras are reliable cars and if anything does happen in the first 4-5 years, it's all covered in the original warranty.


Obs: you can get a full refund if you cancel in the first 60 days or so.

jlukja

Just to add to this info. You can purchase the extended warranty only if you are currently within your original factory warranty period.

dalieu

hmmm... when we were discussing warranty during my purchase, they told me the total years covered and up till what mileage. for example, 7 years/100,000 mile. subtract the given 4 years and 50,000 mile = you're really buying 3 more years and 50,000 more miles. at least that's what i understood.

LuvMyTSX

You can buy different plans based on mileage. The one the OP bought was only for 5 years, xxx amount of miles.

clee109

I sold acura's for a while hehe, here are the F&I add-ons to stay away from:

Extended Warranty: Dealership offers it and rarely ever honors it
Paint/Interior Sealant: This is just WAX!!!!! Do it yourself!
Viking Shield: Undercoating, "sealants" and some other crap. Yet again, undercoating does nothing but reduce sound A LITTLE! and like I said above "sealants" are just wax, you can do it yourself for a 16th of the price!

Somewhat Ok:
Etch: logs car with individual number into national anti-crime network (insurance sometimes likes it)
Lo-Jack: A transponder in the car to locate and catch thieves. However; good thieves get around it and the 48 hour return is B.S.
GAP: Covers up to 5,000 the difference between what you owe and what the car is worth in the event of it being completely totaled.

Master47

I bought the 7yr/100,000 mile warranty for around $1200 at the time of purchase. The deal is, the dealership refunds the entire amount I paid for it if I never use the warranty in the 7 yrs. or 100,000 miles (whichever comes first). I couldn't see a reason not to do it, other than the interest I am losing on that money during the course of the warranty - to me this pays for my peace of mind.

VegaTSX

They offer me an extended warranty, i didn't even bother with negotiations for them. So i said "no" to the financing guy that offered it to me. Since i don't drive over 10k mile per year anyways i'd rather save that extra $1k for warranty on after market parts.

dalieu

i know, i meant that they usually don't state it in a way to make you think it's additional to the standard warranty. but hey, i wasn't in there with the finance guy, and they can be confusing if they want to be.

Nogard13

If you're going to buy an extended warranty, wait until you are 2-3 months from terminating your original, factory warranty and then add it on to that. It's the best decision if you want to have an extended warranty.

Ronin317

That's what I have - 7year...I guess there are different warranties out there...

bz268

exactly what they wanted to sell me.
I looked at the thing and asked the guy if he was trying to rip me off.
He told me that he didn't mean to rip me off but he just wanted to make a profit.

Hahaha!

slo007

If you read the tiny print in the warranty booklet Acura sent, you'll see they will only give you a partial refund on a pro-rated basis.

slo007

This is a fine suggestion.

jlukja

How could they rarely honor it? Do they find some excuse for voiding the warranty? I thought that if its the Honda factory warranty then the labor and parts are charged to Honda and it doesn't come out of the dealers pocket. Please elaborate.

clee109

Typically the extended warranties are through the dealerships, or at least around here they are. Not always, but mostly, also if you read the fine print these warranties rarely ever cover things that TYPICALLY go out. For example, fogging headlights, rattles, power windows and locks, etc.... are not covered. It covers driveline, tranny, and SOME engine work. Things that rarely ever go bad in Honda's. Plus if you bring the car in for extended work the dealership will find every single way to find a reason for why it's not covered. Here is also a good little tid bit, when you bring your car in for non-warranty work the dealership tech makes on average 50 - 75 an hour plus diagnostic. AHM pays WAY less than that!!!!! So they HATE it! They are losing potential profit every single time you have it done. But they back it because if not they will lose their ability to sell Honda/Acura.
Keep this in mind: A dealership never ever loses money...NEVER...no matter when you are making a car deal or having your car serviced, they will not lose. On another forum I moderate I wrote a whole tutorial explaining how to buy a car, what to expect and what not to buy. Oddly enough it works! So if more people have questions as to what to buy and not to and how to negotiate let me know! Plus for need of proof, I was highest gross profit at my dealership 3 months in a row hehe I was a master at ripping people off LOL

Master47

I have the Wynn's policy that the dealership was selling...the certificate I got with it, that I need to return to the dealership if I don't use the warranty, says 100% refund of the selling price of the warranty.

Michael05

When you really think about it, an extended warranty is pretty similar to an insurance policy. You're paying money up front to protect your financial interests in the event big stuff goes wrong. It's simply a transfer of risk. They assume the risk...for a price.

clee is right -- in the long run, they have to be making money on these things, otherwise they wouldn't sell it...just like an insurance company. There's some actuary in a Honda office somewhere (or maybe they're working for whomever the backer of the warranty is), and the only thing that guy does all day is calculate how much it costs to fix various things on cars, the expected rate of failure, etc. They build in a set profit margin, and voila, there's the price of the extended warranty. If the car (meaning ALL cars under warranty, not just YOUR individual car) is less reliable than expected, then they make less money. If it's more reliable, they make more money.

So if you're risk-averse and you don't want to worry about what'll happen if your car needs a big repair (or a series of medium-sized repairs), go for it...it's worth buying the extended warranty. But on a grand scale, looking at thousands and thousands of cars over time, they're making money on extended warranties. (If they weren't, they'd either stop selling them, or they'd raise the price!).

It's no different than going to Vegas and playing blackjack. In the short run...as an individual car owner...you can definitely improve your financial position by saving yourself money...just like you can make a killing at blackjack if you have good cards. But in the long run...over thousands and thousands of cars or thousands and thousands of blackjack hands...the house always wins. The odds are in their favor.

That, my friends, is why I'm not buying an extended warranty. I'll assume the risk myself, thank you very much.

rpcmx

I got the feeling that the OP was talking about the Acura Care extended warranty... I think some of the stuff you said (especially that they always make money) still probably applies, but I feel like a dealer would find it harder (and not necessarily in their interest) to try and dodge a repair under an AHFC-backed warranty program.

Which is the reason I bought the damn thing. Also, because I was reeling from PTSD with my Audi. In the dealership at least once a week for four months in the last four months of ownership...

-rpc

clee109

The extended care warranty is offered through AHM. That makes a really good point, make sure it's not the dealer warranty extension. BUT, still the dealership gets shafted on AHM sponsored repairs and they hate that. There have been many a time I have had fellow honda drivers complain that something on their car voided the extended warranty all together. This applies especially for tuners. The don't call it a "stealership" for nothing.

On the topic of warranty, the best honda warranty is a certified honda used car warranty. But there are alot of reasons on the dealership end that make it so nice....like used car pounders, back end, etc... If you want to know more just ask. It can get interesting but would take alot of space in a reply to go through the terminology breakdown plus a lil pre-alg math lol. If people want to know and the mods/admins don't mind an exceptionally long reply I'd be happy to post the whole break down with numbers and real-world examples.

TSXnTEX

Thank you so much for this info! I purchased my 07 about three weeks ago and they talked me into the 5 year extended warranty for $1900!! I lately felt its not worth it and after reading your post I am going to cancel it and get my money back!!

Mokos23

Here Here I'm not getting an extended warranty either.