Extended Warranty

[pinzabu]

Hi,

Car: I usually keep cars around ten years drive around 12,000 miles a year. This is my first Lexus, just came out of a Volvo. Picked up the Rx400h two days ago and love it. Already getting 26.0 mpg. Very sweet. Purchased the car outright, did not lease it.

Background: The dealer offered a number of additional finanical 'products'.

One was an extended warranty also called vehicle service agreement for 2260$ that extends the warranty to seven years/100,000 miles. If not used, it is 100% refundable.

Question: Did anyone else buy this, or decide not to buy it? What would be the pros and cons?

Other products were ding shield, road hazard, road block = clear coat.

Any and all thoughts are welcome. Thanks in advance. L

[Lexusfreak]

Hi,

Car: I usually keep cars around ten years drive around 12,000 miles a year.  This is my first Lexus, just came out of a Volvo.  Picked up the Rx400h two days ago and love it.  Already getting 26.0 mpg. Very sweet.  Purchased the car outright, did not lease it.

Background:  The dealer offered a number of additional finanical 'products'.

One was an extended warranty also called vehicle service agreement  for  2260$  that extends the warranty to seven years/100,000 miles.  If not used, it is 100% refundable.

Question: Did anyone else buy this, or decide not to buy it?  What would be the pros and cons? 

Other products were ding shield, road hazard, road block = clear coat. 

Any and all thoughts are welcome. Thanks in advance.  L

←

I'm not sure what you mean when you say if it's not used, it's 100% refundable? You had better read the 'fine print' of the contract VERY carefully befor you go ahead. Please specify. B)

[RX in NC]

Most extended warranties are heavy profit centers for the dealership. But the RX series has suffered from a number of flaws for which extended warranties have paid off for certain owners. Personally, I'll never buy one - I prefer to battle the dealership with solid research and strong documentation when problems arise (and they certainly have with my wife's 2000 RX300 - over $9,000 worth of necessary repairs to date). Thus far I'm batting 1.000 with our local Lexus service manager in getting these repairs accomplished at no cost to us, all since October 2003.

The hybrid version is a different animal and it is difficult to predict where and when the flaws will arise. Some folks suspect that issues may show up with the batteries. Before you purchase any extended warranty from any source, thoroughly study the Lexus base warranty on all of the components of your vehicle. Understand where the coverage is strong and where it may be poor. At that point you'll be in a better position to make an informed decision.

Driving only 12,000 miles a year, an extended warranty may be a big waste of money for you. I'd spend the time boning up on the Lexus coverage you're provided with and then holding them to it as time goes by.

[patt]

Generally, for Toyota products, I would agree with RX in NC. We were offered a very good price on the warranty when we got our Camry years ago and took it (based partly on adding up the repairs on our previous Toyota during the period that would be under the extended warranty and finding that they added up to more than the warranty plus TVM). It turned out that we had almost zero repairs under the extended warranty. One of the few things that came up during that period was kind of borderline - they tried to argue that it wasn't covered and I had to argue with them to get it covered. On the other hand, when I bought a year old Taurus for my son, I got the Ford dealer to sell me the extended warranty for the same price I'd paid for the Camry extended warranty. They didn't want to say, hey our car is less reliable so our warranty is more - that one really paid off.

But, for our RX400H we did go for the 6 year /100 K miles warranty (with our driving we will hit the miles before the years run out). We did get it for some discount under list price - a couple of hundred knocked off.

The batteries on the hybrid weren't a consideration in the decision - they are covered under the original warranty for 100,000 miles. It is a new model with a lot of new technology. One of my concerns was the number of motors in this car. Electric motors to drive many of the things that would be belt driven in a traditional car: the AC compressor, the water pump, etc and the drive train motors. These aren't covered under the hybrid components extension to 100 K miles and some aren't even under the drive train warranty.

[pinzabu]

Thanks for the feedback. The extended warranty is the same as the regular, just longer in time and miles. As this is only the second new car of my 53 years -birthday today - I have not faced this decision before, but in general do not buy extended service contracts for other big ticket items.

My concern is ALL the new technology. And although operating flawlessly now, in several years, it may be an issue.

PATT - how did you get them to knock some dollars off? L

[Lexusfreak]

Thanks for the feedback.  The extended warranty is the same as the regular, just longer in time and miles.  As this is only the second new car of my 53 years -birthday today - I have not faced this decision before, but in general do not buy extended service contracts for other big ticket items.

My concern is ALL the new technology. And although operating flawlessly now, in several years, it may be an issue.

PATT - how did you get them to knock some dollars off?  L

←

That remains to be seen thus far as the Rx400h is in it's first year & too early to know if any cronic problems effect the vehicle yet. B)

[RX in NC]

There will be common flaws in the 400h - predicting where and when they will occur is the challenge at this very early stage of the game. That's why it will be crucial to know the cumulative coverages of your base warranty like the back of your hand whenever a problem arises.

On-line sites like this give owners the opportunity to expose and discuss common problems that manifest as time and mileage passes. This is extremely powerful information to have when attempting to get Lexus to resolve your particular issue. It is my belief (and proven history) that this information, when used properly, allows owners to achieve post-warranty repairs in lieu of needing to purchase extended warranties.

[speedyg]

I went with the extended (7 year) warantee. I figure if there are repairs that need to be made after the regular warantee expires, it could cost a lot more than the cost of the extended warantee. I forget the exact amount I paid, but I think it was a little over $2000. Be sure to bargain with the dealer!! I was so excited by getting my RX400h that I didn't remember to do so, and didn't think about doing it until I refused a car wax/sealant service and they tried to offer it to me at a lower price.

When they first offer the extended warantee to you, pretend to think about it for a very short while, then turn it down. If there is room for them to bargain they will then say something like "how about if I offer it to you for $X". Then you can think about it (a little longer this time), then turn it down again. Keep doing this. If after you refuse the last time, they don't go any lower, then you have found their lowest price. Then you just tell them you change your mind and you pay the lowest price that they offered :D

[patt]

I went with the extended (7 year) warantee.  I figure if there are repairs that need to be made after the regular warantee expires, it could cost a lot more than the cost of the extended warantee.  I forget the exact amount I paid, but I think it was a little over $2000.  Be sure to bargain with the dealer!!  I was so excited by getting my RX400h that I didn't remember to do so, and didn't think about doing it until I refused a car wax/sealant service and they tried to offer it to me at a lower price.

When they first offer the extended warantee to you, pretend to think about it for a very short while, then turn it down.  If there is room for them to bargain they will then say something like "how about if I offer it to you for $X".  Then you can think about it (a little longer this time), then turn it down again.  Keep doing this.  If after you refuse the last time, they don't go any lower, then you have found their lowest price.  Then you just tell them you change your mind and you pay the lowest price that they offered  :D

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That's pretty much the technique we use too. It also helps to go in with an idea of what is already covered under the regular vehicle warranty so you can say things like, "That seems like a lot considering the powertrain warranty is already covering the first 70,000 miles." Also, look up list price for the warranty that best fits your usage on lexus.com. Unfortunately, they don't have the RX400 up there yet. We were told by the dealer that the RX400 is in the tier with the LS rather than the RX330 tier.

If there is something that is having widespread failures out of warranty, there is always the possibility that Lexus will cover it without the extended warranty as RX in NC suggests. When the fabric on the seats in my 76 Honda Civic started to fail after two years and a lot of others were too, Honda covered replacement even though the cars were out of warranty. They had clearly made a mistake in the material they chose and they took responsibility.

Where the extended warranty will help is if there are scattered problems here and there 5 or 6 years out.

[leejia]

Hi,

Car: I usually keep cars around ten years drive around 12,000 miles a year.  This is my first Lexus, just came out of a Volvo.  Picked up the Rx400h two days ago and love it.  Already getting 26.0 mpg. Very sweet.  Purchased the car outright, did not lease it.

Background:  The dealer offered a number of additional finanical 'products'.

One was an extended warranty also called vehicle service agreement  for  2260$  that extends the warranty to seven years/100,000 miles.  If not used, it is 100% refundable.

Question: Did anyone else buy this, or decide not to buy it?  What would be the pros and cons? 

Other products were ding shield, road hazard, road block = clear coat. 

Any and all thoughts are welcome. Thanks in advance.  L

←

I'm also in the market for a vehicle service agreement. Just picked-up my 400h from Lexus of Rockville (MD) last week. They offered me a "discounted" price of $2400 for Platinum coverage, but for only 5 years and 100k miles. You got two extra years and for $140 less. Was your price for Platinum or Gold coverage? Can I ask which dealership you got your extended warranty from?