Good Afternoon,

I purchased my 2018 ES 350 back in April of 2019 and currently have 14,5K miles. I didn't purchase an extended warranty and now not sure if I should now. I have no issues with the car and I'm getting emails and texts from my Lexus dealer requesting me to call to get pricing on it but haven't replied yet. Just wondering if the extended warranty is sold and backed by Lexus and is it worth it and what is the average cost you may have paid? Any help before I have to endure the sales pitch is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
fdiphll
Boston.

 

Regarding the specific terms of this warranty, you'd have to get a copy and read it. If I had to guess, it's not backed by Lexus, it's sold by the dealership, and it is not a warranty.

I just ranted about this in another thread, but many "extended warranties" are actually service plans. The difference is that with a warranty, if something that's covered breaks, you take it in and they fix it for free. With a service plan, if something breaks, you take it in and you pay a "deductible," with the rest being picked up by them. As I said in the other thread, in my opinion it's fraudulent to advertise service plans as warranties.

There are two big problems with service plans. First, you have to pay the deductible no matter what the cost of the job is. If the deductible is $100, and the job would cost you $50 if you paid for it yourself, you will still pay $100 for the job unless you already know what the problem is, and that it's cheaper than the deductible, and bring it in to have it fixed on your own, not under the service plan.

Second, they often don't cover nearly as much as they claim to cover, and oftentimes the expensive stuff is excluded in the fine print. You might get a bumper-to-bumper "extended warranty" and then discover that your $5,000 navigation computer is not covered.

I personally avoid service plans like the plague, especially when they're falsely advertised as warranties.

Actual extended warranties that are real warranties and not service plans can be worth it on some cars. If I drove a BMW, I'd absolutely want one, because those reliability-nightmare hellspawn cars need a lot of expensive repairs. Doug DeMuro once famously took Carmax to the cleaners by getting an extended warranty on a Range Rover and then actually using it. He paid something like $3700 for the warranty, and it ended up needing more than 20 grand in repairs. That particular Range Rover model is apparently no longer eligible for their extended warranty coverage.

But on Lexus? Eh. You're not likely to use it very much if at all, and you're likely to spend more on it than you would spend on repairs during the warranty coverage period. That's no guarantee - you could have the unicorn Lexus that was built by the job-shadow from Fiat and end up with an expensive repair, but odds are strongly in your favor that that won't happen.

 

I believe Lexus corporation only offers extended warranties at the closing of a new car sale. Sounds like you bought a used car that has the balance of the original factory warranty on it. I ignore solicitation type emails and texts from the dealer. It's all automated. That's what you're getting.

1) If I'm wrong and the warranty is an actual Lexus extended warranty. It's worth considering as a personal preference. If it's not Lexus, no way. If it's a service agreement (which are sometimes misrepresented as extended warranty), no way. If there's a copay or deductible that usually a clue that's it's a service agreement.

2) Lexus vehicles are considered to be amongst the most reliable, least often to have warranty type failures. So, from this perspective, most folks here are likely to say, skip the warranty. I agree with them.

Call them and ask if you're still curious. But remember, you're dealing with sales staff with fat commissions for this product.

 

Great thank you all for some good input, much appreciated my fellow forum friends!

 

Yes, ignore the request, which may continue for the next several years and save your money.

Enjoy the new car.

Dave Mac

 

Additionally, these "dealer service plans" are notorious for having escape clauses to eliminate their paying for repairs. As has been stated on this forum so many times, extended warranties are gold mines for dealers. These cars do not break often and have very high quality reputations. Take a few dollars each pay or at the end of the month and throw it into an interest bearing savings account for a car rainy day. Dealers love to sell you a policy because it's usually about 90% profit. Search and read some threads regarding extended warranties and you'll find that most who bought any extended warranty was disappointed and regretted it. Especially one that is backed only by the dealer... Same for maintenance plans that are overly expensive and don't save you a nickel.

 

If you are going to get an extended warranty it should be for a cool car. The whole point of a boring car like the ES is you don't need a warranty, hahaha.

 

I think that you can get extended service plans after the sale including through other dealers.

I remember reading about the Land Rover carmax warranty story-funny stuff!

 

I wouldn't buy one for the ES. The ES is a pretty simple car, not a lot to go wrong. Macpherson strut suspension, no power closing doors or air suspensions or climate sensors or anything like that to fail. On my LS if I keep it I will buy the warranty, but there is so much more there to go wrong.

You can buy the factory Lexus platinum warranty at any time up until the expiration of the factory warranty.

 

That's good to know about Platinum. The last finance/closer guy I dealt with at the dealership was trying hard to get me to buy the warranty at closing. I thought he was lying when he said that it was my only opportunity. You just confirmed my suspicion.

 

Oh sure, he wanted the commission.

 

I would not buy the warranty.. I didn't and so far it hasn't been an issue.. I guess there's a lemon every so often, but the ES is a very good car.. very dependable... My 2013 ES was purchased new in Jan. of 2014 and I have not had any "post" warranty issues.

 

I went ahead and bought an "extended warranty" on an INFINITI G35 years ago, and I felt good about it....until an expensive part broke down. Sure enough, there, in the finest print, was the exception. I asked my wife (an attorney) to look into it and she stated they were right.

On another note, based on this logic, I didn't get one for my IS350 F Sport because they are so reliable and warranties are ripoff's. Today, I wish I would have spent $2.3K as the car is a lemon and the issues started within 6 months of the warranty period ending. Bottom line, warranties and cars are a gamble and the real question is whether peace of mind is worth $2-3K over a 5 year period.

bc6152 is correct, sock away $50 a month for that rainy day and the pain will be minimized.

 

>The whole point of a boring car like the ES is you don't need a warranty
Them's solid words on so very many levels.
=================================
My karma just ran over your dogma
Current Hers: '13 Lexus ES350
Current Mine: '15 Jaguar XF (it's aubergine)

 

The other side of that coin is that, for a car with a higher potential for expensive repairs, the price of an extended warranty is likely to be significantly higher than would be the price of an extended warranty for a car with a lower potential for high cost repairs.