Extended warranty or no? I’m buying a 2008 Mazda 3 for 14k from carmax.?
The existing warranty has a year and a half left (through 07/11) and it only has 11k miles. I won’t drive the car more than 5-6k miles a year. Their price is $1450 which will cover me through 2014. I’ll easily arrive at the date prior to the miles as I wont drive it much. I went through another outside company called Carchex and they want to charge me 1550 for the same warranty and will do an 18 mo / no interest payment. Obviously with the Carmax warranty, it gets financed and I’ll end up paying a lot more.
I’m on the fence on this one. I’m leaning towards not taking a warranty at all.
Any ideas??
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Extended warranty or no? I’m buying a 2008 Mazda 3 for 14k from carmax.?
The existing warranty has a year and a half left (through 07/11) and it only has 11k miles. I won’t drive the car more than 5-6k miles a year. Their price is $1450 which will cover me through 2014. I’ll easily arrive at the date prior to the miles as I wont drive it much. I went through another outside company called Carchex and they want to charge me 1550 for the same warranty and will do an 18 mo / no interest payment. Obviously with the Carmax warranty, it gets financed and I’ll end up paying a lot more.
I’m on the fence on this one. I’m leaning towards not taking a warranty at all.
Any ideas??
Comments
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Uncle Bo December 21st
Warranties are always a gamble. Mazda makes a good car and if you are not going to drive it alot, there probably is not a need for one. You have plenty of time left on the factory warranty to have any problems taken care of. In your case, I’d skip the ext warranty.
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strt_stone December 21st
ARE YOU A EXPERIENCED ME CH I THINK NOT BY THE EXTENSION
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MarJoe December 21st
Those extened warrantys aren’t worth the paper they are writing on. If you read them over real close you will see that they don’t cover anything that might go wrong. save the money put it in the bank and you will see for your self.
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bgibby62 December 21st
Don’t buy the extra.Waste of your dollars when even a lowly Chevy can last 200k with no problems.
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T.J. Sersen December 21st
Honestly, extended warranties can go either way. Sometimes if you choose not to get them, and something breaks, you’re kicking yourself for not taking it out. Then there’s the times you get the warranty, and never have anything go wrong with the car.
However, you have to be careful with the extended warranties you purchase, because you may pay $1,400 for an extended warranty figuring it’ll cover the whole car, but in reality it only covers the big components, which usually never need to be replaced, especially in a good car such as a Mazda. It’ll cover your engine, transmission, your drivetrain, and all that, but if your clutch goes out, your power window motors die, your sunroof falls off track, or anything like that, they usually aren’t covered. You really have to make sure you look into exactly what a warranty covers, and don’t take the salesperson’s word for it. They should have complete literature at the dealership of their extended warranties.
Personally, I used to work for a car dealership selling cars, and we would charge $1,400 for a warranty that only costs us $400 to take out. So, the dealership would make a very hefty profit from that warranty sale, and the salesperson usually makes about an extra $200 on the commission of the car for selling that warranty. My best bet to you would be to not get the warranty, and wait until your factory warranty expires. There are many well-known warranty companies out there, for example Universal Underwriters, and you can get an addition three-year warranty that covers 100,000 miles, for about $400. Don’t overpay for a warranty you may never end up using.
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Dale M December 21st
I often wonder that warranties aint worth the cost on the other hand for some people I know it is, especially if your factory coverage ended. They are a life saver if you dont have extra money to pay for for repairs.
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DavidH December 21st
All I can say is that I’ve had several cars (new and used), and I’ve never had to rely on the warranty to have something fixed. Now a days, cars are built very well.
I have a Mazda CX7, 2007, and after 26K miles, it runs great.
Usually the things the warranty covers, never break…lol.
Also, since your Mazda3 is NOT the first year that model debuted, it’s unlikely there will be any of those gremlins lurking that a warranty covers.
I would not pay $1450 for an extended warranty….the car is still very new!
mark_hensley@sbcglobal.net December 21st
If you decide to purchase the extend coverage, like most others, their is a sense of satisfaction that a good decision was made, just in case. You can or will have car insurance coverage that does the samething if necessary. I would suggest absolutely not.
Daniel A December 21st
Do not buy the extended warranty. They are a waist of money. That car will easily drive to 100k miles before anything will be needed. I own an ‘07 3 with 50k miles and I completely expect to be driving it for another 100k. Mazda has a proven track record before the 3 came along and by the time the ‘08 model was manufactured the car had been in production and high demand for five years. Any kinks that might have been in there would have been worked out long before yours was built. If you are nervous about repair costs down the road put the money that you would have put into the warranty into a savings account. By the time anything happens that needs repair you will have enough to simply pay cash and you earned interest instead of paying it. I have owned a few cars over the years and driven them way beyond factory warranties with no problems. Your buying a high quality car built by a high quality company. Just do all the recommended maintenance… that’s a warranty in and of itself.
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