Aftermarket Warranty?
 

I just read someone's post about how they got an aftermarket warranty....... and that company had already spent around 20K on their car, etc.......

Does anyone recommend these...... how much are they...... and where can you get one.......sounds like a potentially good idea versus paying for a blown engine.......Whaddya guys think.........

Thanks,

David

www.warrantydirect.com

2 year/25k full warranty with no deductible for $1250. Car must have less than 60k miles though.

My car came with one and it works well. Go to any certified mechanic. Have him look at the car, call the company with a quote, he does the work, calls them with actual bill, they give the mechanic a CC number to charge it to and voila -paid for.

OOPS.......... i've got 68K miles........ Oh well.......... any other companies anyone?

Thanks for the reply.........

I just bought one from www.continentalwarranty.com. $1318 for 37month or 37,000miles w/$100 deductible.

Two things to watch out for:

*how do they charge the deductible: per visit or per repair

*all aftermarket warranties will not pay to repair things that failed because another part failed. In other words, if your radiator fails and your car badly overheats, destroying the engine, they will pay to replace your radiator, but NOT the engine. Depending on the warranty company, they could demand an analysis of the engine to determine reason of failure. This could mean that if you detonated and killed the apex seals, they will not cover the engine.

Of course, they can refuse to fix anything if you have performance mods.

All that said, I have enjoyed my Honda warranty (bought my FD from Honda dealer), since I have charged over $3000 on them in the first 3 months (bushings, antenna, oil metering pump).

Carmax has warrantees with different levels of protection. Don't get less than a Gold or Platinum plan. The Gold plan has already paid $5000 for my remanf engine. A good selling point is that the warantee is transferrable.

So how far can you go with modifications before they void the warranty? Say I just want to do reliability mods like DP or silicon hoses, can I do that w/o voiding the warranty?

Technically, the downpipe could easily be used to deny an engine or turbo claim. Obviously, if your radiator went out, they would cover that. I doubt the silicone hoses would not affect your warranty.

Of course, depending on the warranty company, they may or may not send out a field representative. If you are at a reasonable tuner, they might help you out with a pre-cat swap if the company is sending out a rep....

Does the car HAVE to be bought from carmax to get the warranty?

Warranty has certainly covered more then what I payed for the coverage, but my advice to everyone is read the fine print.

If you have mods, make sure you have stock parts to swap back in case of a claim. They absolutely will not cover a modified vehicle - none of them. When I mean stock parts, I mean everything. I've heard of people getting thier claims denied for the silliest things. If the sales rep says otherwise, get it in writing cause he's not telling the truth.

There has been discussions here in the past about doing this, and I'm not going to argue morality - but while you may be doing the right thing by installing a DP, aftermarket AST, etc, the warranty company will use every trick in the book to try to weasel out of coverage.

Honestly - would you go into business just to hand out thousands and thousands of dollars in claims? You could argue that they are obligated to the warranty they provided you, but believe you me they know that warranty down to every ink drop. Don't think they are not going to fall back on what is 'not written' should a claim for $5000 come thru.

When you do put in a claim, be prepared for the red tape, and the waiting.....and waiting....and calling....and calling....and waiting...

As for your 'choice in service shops' - maybe true for the most part, but sometimes in reality that does not work out to be the case. I took mine to a reputable Mazda specialist and the warranty company gave them the run around until the service manager - who I know - finally gave up and suggested I take it to the dealership where the warranty was purchased.

After another two weeks of run around at the dealership - they finally approved it. The end result though, was that I got a reman that was put in with questionable effort and workmanship. They did not bother to replace the vacume lines (even thought they said they would) and actually superglued on a nipple they broke off of one of the vacume tanks.

I believe the only reason that I got my claim covered in that case (with about $800 out of my pocket, btw, so much for the $100 deductable) is that the dealership sells thier warranties, and probably applied some of that leverage to get the claim passed. You probably will not have to go thru the same if you buy using another method.

If I add up all that I have spent for the warranty and the parts/labor that came out of my pocket during 'warranty' work, I still come out ahead by a bit. However, taking into consideration the less then stellar workmanship that went into my 'repairs' along with the iinsane run around you get (ever been on hold for 40+ minutes and still never get thru to 'customer service' - long distance I might add?), I have difficulty feeling I came out ahead.

This is neither an endorsement or my saying not to get an aftermarket warranty - just be careful and read the fine print (and be prepared) Aftermarket warranty coverage isn't the magic bullet it may look to be.

Best of luck to everyone that decides on this route.

I checked the Carmax's FAQs, and it didn't say. There is a phone number you can call though

http://carmax.com/CompanyInfo/faqs/index.asp#warranty

Any aftermarket mods can and will void your warranty if you take it to a mazda dealership.... If you take you car to a performance shop they might accedentally "over-look it" :D
Ryker

It's all about the adjuster
 

I had a DP, and the oh so hard to deal with Mazda Warranty. The adjuster came out and glanced at the motor, looked at the compression readings and said it was approved. And when I got the warranty to pay for new upper and lower control arms in order to get new bushings for my clucking. The adjuster came out the Mazda Tech. told him they were bent (which they weren't) and the adjuster said okay. I figured he would want to know why or how they were bent, but the tech said half the adjusters out there don't really care.

I think you have a fifty fifty shot on after market parts voiding your warranty. The problem is you have to prove it didn't cause the problem and more than likely they will cover it. I wish they had to prove it did, but they don't.

Basically it's all a gamble. Hell I had to show that I changed the oil every time the owners manual suggested I should. I smiled right at the guy every time I pulled a reciept out for oil. I had one for every 2000-3000 miles. I think I had like ten more oil changes than required. I had everything either done early or more than they required... It was funny.

I've never heard of a warranty covering vaccum lines or hoses. They are considered a part that wears out. Just like break pads, or tires. The reman motor is basically a block, and they put all your parts on that block. If you have bad or brittle hoses, I'm sure they will let you know you need to replace them, but if you don't choose to they put them back on. That's your call. I spent almost $600 out of the $8700 the warranty covered.

I had one from Checker...I will NEVER, EVER get another extended warranty again in my life.

Are they in business to make money or fix your car? The original warranty is part of the manufacturer's package to get you to buy the car. What is an extended warranty company trying to get you to buy????

I had a hose pop off under boost. This *supposedly* allowed dirt into the engine. Dirt is a foreign body that is not supposed to be in the engine. The engine failed becuse of the foreign body RATHER than something inherent to the engine, therefore......no can cover your repairs.

BULL$HIT.

Not only that, but they requested that the mechanic remove the engine and everything else so a full diagnosis could be made. Guess who had to pay for all that labor?????

carmax only sells warranty on the cars they sell period....there are only 2 types ,maxcare and valumserve....
maxcare covering everything except whats is said in the maintence section of the owners manual...valuserve..only powertrain....if you find a 3rd gen at a carmax you'd be lucky...
if you are gonna keep a 3rd gen stock with a k&n drop in filter and a cat back you are okay...you can do ecu dp mp but be willing to switch back to stock when taking car back for service........
inspectors only come out if they suspect the owner is abusing vehicle, repairs are expensive over 1000.00 or if the adjuster over the phone is "dick"

warrentydirect.com does allow twin turbos.... i wonder if you get a single and then are able to get it..

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