Worth getting an extended warranty?

[Focused]

Hi all,
I've got a LV Focus which is about to hit it's 3rd birthday and lose it's warranty. While it's hit the limit of the warranty (time wise), it's only done 30,000kms.
So my question is, is it worth buying an extended warranty through Ford? Or should I just hope for the best and save the money to spend on the future repairs?
Here's the options on Ford's website: http://www.ford.com.au/ownership/myf...ers/warranties

[Franco Cozzo]

I got the same thing but I think my offer expired and I'm out of warranty now, oh well.

[deesun]

Its been recomended on here that if you get an EW then get the manufacturers one. You dont seem to do many klms and you need to remember that a warranty only covers things that break down NOT wear out though some offer a % I think. Make sure it covers things that hold/ carry/contain water. My experience, wife wanted, I didn't, heater core leaked, not covered. Turned out the Ford one would have but not the aftermarket one she was offered. Money wasted. Your call.

[Rodge]

Price ?

[Herrod Motorsport]

Never liked them never will , they will use any excuse not to pay .
Find out who the underwriter is and google them , that will make your mind up

[MattSAU2XR8]

I just bought a FORD FACTORY extended warranty with my near new G6E which has done 4000 kms. Net result is that the car which was first registered in January 2013 now has 5 years and 96,000 kms warranty remaining.

This cost $1685 which brought the total cost to $30,000 on road. I think it MAY be worth if for peace of mind if you have a car that is known to have potentially expensive problems in spite of being overall a nice car. So with the FG it hopefully means I don't need to worry about coolant milkshakes, diff whines, diff bushes, or for example an Ecoboost high pressure fuel pump or some electronic gremlin in the dash playing up during this time.

On the flipside I could have used this money to pay for a transmission cooler and some diff oil changes and so on up front.

Obviously FORD are making a profit so it suggests that the average FG falcon won't have anywhere near $1685 of problems after 3 years and before 100,000 kms. And given that extending to 200,000 kms would only have been an extra $300 they probably don't expect a lot of additional problems before 200,000 kms.

But I suppose the selling point for me is that I'd actually been considering Hyundai's (shock, horror) and Mitsubishi's for their longer warranty, and Toyota's for their apparently better reliability. So the long warranty meant I could drive a car that I liked with the 'security' of an Asian car.

I imagine the warranty extension would be less for the Focus since its a smaller car with less things to go wrong, possibly $1200 or so to bring it up to 6 years and 100,000 km. Which probably means the AVERAGE cost of warranty repairs during this time is $600. So on AVERAGE you'd be paying an extra $4 per week for peace of mind for the next three years. I think it might be worth it if it - particularly if:
- You might otherwise consider trading the car for a new one, which would cost a lot more,
- You can afford $4 per week (perhaps $5 with 'opportunity cost') and would have trouble paying for a large repair if it were needed,
- The Focus has any known issues, eg. Milkshakes, that have a good chance of happening.
- You planned to sell it in two years time which would mean the next owner could get it checked out before the warranty ran out and having anything that needed fixing seen to.

On the other hand if Focuses do not have any known issues then in a way there is little reason to expect it to play up.

M

[Focused]

Thanks for the comments. I may give them a call tomorrow and see how much they're asking.
I plan to keep it for another 2-3 years so it would be nice to have the peace of mind.

[Yellow_Festiva]

If it isn't the factory backed product don't even bother. If you plan to hold onto your car def get it. PS my lv developed a major tranny issue 2 months out of warranty and the Ford clowns were trying to convince me to fork out for the 7k repair.

They paid 6.5k, I paid 5oo for oil that was only 2 months old after a lot of huffing and puffing and got the car back just as bad as when I dropped it off 2 weeks prior.

Sold it a month later.....

Get the factory extended warranty.... not worth the gamble.

[Taily]

We opted for the Ford extended factory warranty when we bought our XR50T. Glad we did as we had a wheel speed sensor pack it in a couple of weeks ago and it disabled the ABS/traction control etc (warning lights continually illuminated), so it has covered the sensor replacement so far. I think from memory we only paid a shade over a grand for the extended factory warranty at the time we bought the car, but the plan was always to keep this one for quite a while anyway.

I'll probably do the same thing with the next one, depending on what state of tune the XR8 comes in from the factory... Will have to weigh that up when the times comes I guess.

[superfly]

I'm seriously considering it before my warranty runs out in October. I was quoted the following prices. At the end of 6 years, my car will have done around 105K.

The warranty can be extended for the following periods and the prices are as outlined with each of these options:
• 12 months and up to 100,000 kilometres (maximum odometer reading) - $1,295.00
• 24 months and up to 100,000 kilometres ( “ “ “ ) - $1,415.00
• 36 months and up to 100,000 kilometres ( “ “ “ ) - $1,575.00
• 12 months and up to 200,000 kilometres ( “ “ “ ) - $1,465.00
• 24 months and up to 200,000 kilometres ( “ “ “ ) - $1,595.00
• 36 months and up to 200,000 kilometres ( “ “ “ ) - $1,895.00

[Rodge]

Originally Posted by Herrod Motorsport

Never liked them never will , they will use any excuse not to pay .
Find out who the underwriter is and google them , that will make your mind up

Hi Rob,

Are we talking about the same thing here ?
The bumph I'm getting from Ford is that the warranty extension is on exactly the same terms as the original warranty from Ford and that effectivly it confers an extra 3 years Ford warranty protection.

If Ford are marketing it as such they would be legally unable to get out from cover on the basis that they held out the warranty to be exactly the same as the manufacturer warranty, (doctrine of holding out, sorry for the commercial law reference). It would also be a breech of the Fair Trading Act to try and get out from cover on the basis that the policy was underwritten by a third party, seeing as they specifically mnention the extended warranty is on exactly the same terms as the original factory warranty, so effectivly it wouldn't matter who the underwriter is...that's my reading of the situation for what its worth.

On a lighter note my 85 year old Mum was offered this warranty by Ford N.Z. on her little $18,000 1.4 litre Ford Fiesta auto in which she does about 4,000 km's per year, mainly local shopping from the neighbouring shops near her retirement home. $1,800 appears to be full retail in N.Z.for 3 years cover.

My dealer offered me a 3 year Ford factory warranty extension on my $90,000 SC GT-P for $1,300 Kiwi, discounted to me.

Pricing of this policy doesn't appear to make sense as I would have thought its perfectly obvious which vehicle is more liklely to break something, go figure...

[jpblue1000]

I would have though the cost of repairs is more likely the cost driver rather than the likelihood of which car breaks. All cars have pretty much the same parts, like an engine, a gearbox, 4 doors 2 headlights and 2.23 km of electrical wire for example despite their size or configuration.
A falcon is probably cheaper to repair for the dealer than the imported fiesta. hence the lower price.
But I have no idea really just wanted to hear the sound of my typing.
JP

[mcnews]

Originally Posted by Herrod Motorsport

Never liked them never will , they will use any excuse not to pay .
Find out who the underwriter is and google them , that will make your mind up

Hey Rob, I have to disagree with you here.

I took the optional three year extension through Ford on our Territory.

Every single thing found at service was fixed without question just as it was in the first three years. There was no difference in the first three years, or the three years after, every process was exactly the same.

A phone call from dealer at service saying we found x problem, we will arrange for it to be fixed under warranty Mr Hedge, but your car might be here for a day longer than expected as we wait for parts. Or on pick up we found x issue and fixed it under warranty.

It impressed me so much I took it out on the GT-E as a matter of course, as even if I tune it there is that big colour screen and a million other things to go wrong that out of warranty cost a motza. I can only recount my experiences with the optional genuine Ford warranty extension, and in my experience it has been faultess.