I would never buy an extended warranty on a Honda. When have you ever heard of a failure between 36k and 100k miles that would have made the warranty worth it, or a situation in which honda corporate would not have good-willed the major portion of the failure (i.e. total transmission failures on Honda Odysseys up until 100k (and longer) miles even if you only had a 36k factory warranty).

Heck on Toyota they don't even honor their factory 60k warranty in my experience, wanting to charge me hundreds to clean or replace the IAC valve on our Rav4 even though failure to idle should have been covered!

 

Hondas are great cars but are not infallible and granted, most issues will happen under warranty but not all issues (including major ones) will be covered by Honda. One thing that hasn't been mentioned(or at least I didn't see it) is that the factory warranty also includes roadside assistance and other perks usually only associated with 3rd party programs like AAA. so or us, for about $13/month I not only have AAA-like coverage, but have full coverage in the even of some failure happening. Granted I may never make back the $1000 (and I hope I don't) but $13 a month for "insurance" for a family on a budget is MUCH more palatable than a $1000 repair bill required in lump sum when the repair is due. And, I'll have a rental while the repairs are done.

~SB

 

I see it a totally different way. If you are a family on a budget you are being reckless with your money throwing $1000 based on your insecurity and feelings rather than a real issue. Using that same money to prepay your mortgage would shave $4,000 off a 30 year term if you've recently purchased a home. Save idea goes to saving for college.

If you had an example of any Honda failures that were not good-willed please let me know as I am open minded to evidence to the contrary.

 

My car insurance offers roadside assistance for ~12 bucks a year. Paying 13 month for that seems a bit overpriced.

And really, if you rolled the warranty into the loan, you'd have been better off not getting the warranty and putting that cash into a savings account to save for future repairs.

 

That's harsh.

A lot of people spend money on peace of mind in the form of insurance. The insurance companies are always going to make a profit. How much this peace of mind is worth is entirely subjective.

My wife bought the warranty on her car (pontiac, yeesh). I didn't argue, except to state I didn't think it was worth it. If I had, I never would have heard the end of it. Sometimes peace of mind is priceless.

Most small stuff (electronics) will fail within the 36month/36k. Most other stuff will wait until after 150K to go bad (radiators, water pumps, alternators, starters, CV joints, A/C, etc.). My insurance was buying a Honda and not a Kia or Hyundai.

 

But peace of mind isn't what insurance is for. Insurance is to cover against rare, unpredictable, costly events. But needing car repairs are not particularly rare (most older cars will end up having something go wrong), reasonably predictable (again, most older cars will end up having a few things needing repairs), and relative to the cost of buying the car or even the cost of the warranty, not particularly costly. Repair costs should just be a budget item.

Compare this to car insurance. Major car crashes are pretty rare, unpredictable, if there are medical issues or you hit a fancy car they can be extremely costly, etc.

 

sigh, yes you're right.

 

I almost never buy extended warranty. But $8.95 a month? Gotta think about it. Especially if you are from the school of the mechanically declined or just don't have the time or inclination to play with a car!

• #1: power steering failure on the 2007 FIT
  
  
  • Number of Complaints: 4
  • Average Cost to Fix: $800
  • Average Mileage: 56,875 mi
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VEry low failure rate unless you are one of the 4

Google search turns up less than 100% dependability, very high rate but still not 100%

If you think its worth it buy it, I'm still on the fence!

AT my age I am not concerned about the money quadrupling by the time I retire, 13 years too late!
JIm 0311

 

But that's not good evidence to get a warranty. Spending money to break even doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

 

At $1600 I agree with you. At $860 I'm on fence! If I had to pay $1600 for the warranty, with the price of used Fits, I would do a private sale in two years and spend the $1600 on a new one.

If I decide to keep car I will go for the warranty.

I also carry car and health insurance, homeowners, and flood. I also have ERS, used it 3 times in 10 years!
JIm 0311

 

Yeah, that's what I don't get. citing a $800 repair as a reason to spend $860 seems illogical IMO.

Car, home and flood insurance all make sense. Health insurance in the US is its own screwed up thing, but you're still better off with it than without it.

In the age of smartphones, I'm not sure that roadside assistance makes as much sense as it used to. But the cost of it is so cheap (10-20/year) that its not worth nitpicking over.

 

Brakes are a common out of warranty repair usually in the neighborhood of $400-$600, and that is usually an item which MANY cars have to deal with. I had to have a caliper replaced on one of my integras and that was about $400 including two rotors, then if you have an issue like the one above... another $800, that's $1200 for a $860 warranty. Then there are other issues which may creep up. Honda makes a good car but when you rely on that vehicle, spending a few $$ extra every month to ensure you will have nothing to worry about is worth it.

As for the Roadside assistance, I'm not paying $13 for strictly roadside assistance, it comes with the extended warranty which covers many items including calipers, the water pump, cv joints, Clutch, etc... all of which can get to be expensive.

With a family, having a vehicle that can get me to and from work when I need it is of prime importance. Doing what seems financially sound for the long run isn't always what is BEST.

~SB

 

[quote=specboy;1003325]

With a family, having a vehicle that can get me to and from work when I need it is of prime importance. Doing what seems financially sound for the long run isn't always what is BEST.

~SB[/quote

Very well put. Shot myself in the foot many times trying to do what was the best move.

Penny wise and pound foolish is what the old people called it! JIm 0311

 

Another benefit of the warranty is that if you put away $15 a month and opt out of the warranty, by the time the warranty begins (at 36K miles), you have $375 put away which doesn't cover all that much. If you have a Major failure at 40K miles, and only have $400 put aside, you are SOL. The warranty gives you full coverage the minute it starts.

Warranties aren't for everyone but a blanket statement saying they are not worth getting isn't accurate. They have value for many.

~SB

 

Hope you don't think I made a blanket statement, but one within the context of this particular make of car. I have owned ~10+ honda/acura products over the years and currently own two. One of them is a 2nd-gen Honda Odyssey which has been on the road for 150k miles and is 10 years old. This Odyssey is one of the least reliable vehicles (in honda terms) that Honda has produced recently, and it only was purchased with the 3yr/36k factory warranty. It had a transmission failure right at 100k miles and Honda good-will warrantied it! Other known failures were recalled because they are safety items (most are!) and replaced for free, such as the ignition switch. You are right that in the rarest of rare instances, the warranty might be worth it (saving you a call to honda corporate, etc). The real issue is that the dealer will try to make a buck whether you have the warranty or not, and you always need to be proactive if they are talking about charging you anything.

Normal things that will fail, like shocks, spark plugs, motor mounts, etc, get categorized as wear items so you will pay whether you have the warranty or not.

For most, you are paying for peace-of-mind but you only receive the idea and nothing more. One of my friends, that I nick-named "spender," always gets the extended warranty and then trades in the car within 2 years. That happens often enough to make a lot of happy dealerships

 

The house odds on craps can be as low as 3%, if I remember right, depending on how you play/bet. On roulette it's around 6% if they have both 0 and 00 on the wheel.

The profit margin on a life insurance policy is pretty low, same goes for car insurance. For an extended warranty, that's not price-regulated by any state that I know of, the profit margin is huge, and that's ignoring administrative and marketing costs. The reason the dealer pushes it so hard is that the dealer gets paid money to sell the warranty, and they're not the only ones making a profit from it.

Buy it if you want, but from an economic point of view it's a bad bet because other people, on the other side of the bet, are making money.

 

Spock, no matter how long you serve amongst us you will never understand.

LIve long and prosper JIm 0311

 

Yes, i do feel blanket statements were made. Maybe not HUGE blanket statements but saying that no one that owns a fit needs a warranty is definitely a blanket statement.

Warranties, like auto insurance are all about what-if's and peace of mind. I've had a few Hondas in my day as well (2 integras, a prelude, civic, Ridgeline) and have had a few repairs that have cost hundreds. As I mentioned before the Ridgeline had brake issues where I had to have a caliper and both rear rotors replaced at right around $600. Had the Ridge not been under warranty, I'd been out $600. My prelude had a clutch failure which cost me $400. My Integra Distributor Siezed which locked up the timing belt. Fortunately, it didn't destroy the engine and the timingbelt, distributor, (and I opted for the water pump at that time). The whole thing was over $900 which Acura picked up half the tab.

During all of these issues, I was lucky that I was still living near my parents house (or in college) and could barrow my Parents Van or else I would have been out for Rental vehicle costs as well.

What if the Odyssey Transmission hadn't been good willed? Should we be Expecting that Honda will always good will everything major? That's not a smart move when you have to ensure that you can put food on the table for a 4 year old.

Like I said, warranties are not for everyone but they are for some.

~SB

 

Yes, the extended warrantees are good for those who might suffer a loss greater than the cost of the warranty. And a bad bet for everyone else.

But since none of us can predict the future and know who will be in which category in the future... economically it's a bad bet. Insurance is for losses too great to bear the risk of, like fire insurance on your house. Whether a couple of thousand dollars is that big a loss for you depends upon your economic situation, but over your lifetime you'll spend a lot more on extended warrantees than you ever will on repairs, unless you've got really bad luck.

 

No, not really. If you want to argue that they are about smoothing out cash flow projections or something, then maybe. But insurance isn't about piece of mind, but for hedging against rare but costly events. For repeatable, reasonably predictable events (ie, 10 year old cars are going to have something go wrong eventually, and repairs will cost between 500-2000 bucks generally), insurance against it just doesn't make sense.

Also, what's this whole per month thing? Are people really borrowing money to pay for an extended warranty?