TooCoolSC

Considering how many people on this forum alone have cited that the price of their warranty has already been paid for with warranty work completed, it appears that the service advisor was wrong. Although Lexus builds a highly reliable car, they are hardly "bulletproof." No car is. It's a machine, built by humans. When they break, they are very expensive to fix. Things happen.

To me, this is like a male breadwinner opting not to buy life insurance when they are young because, "chances are," they aren't going to die until a ripe old age. Well, what if they do? What will the wife and kids do without their only means of support? It would be a disaster.

Extended warranties are just another type of "insurance," IMO. We have to have homeowners insurance in case bad things (maybe even catastrophic) happen to our house. Same with car insurance. Like any insurance, chances are we won't need it, but it's good to have in case we do. I see extended warranties on even the most reliable of cars as making sense.....at least, just as much sense as any other kind of insurance. You just never know what kind of trouble lies down the road.

scdroptop

iTrader: (1)

+ 1 TooCool-well said!

I've chimed in many times on BOTH of the SC's I've owned that either my extended Lexus Platinum OR my CPO has more than paid for the cost of these "insurance policies" 2x even 3x over. To me, it's a slam dunk. If I still have my Ebony in 2012 when her CPO expires I would definitely buy the ESP Lexus Platinum 3/100 again for $2k or whatever the cost will be then. 3 ML speakers and motor mounts and you are there!!! $$$$ And those aren't even what I would call catastrophic for sure (really bad motor mounts that "fail" would certainly be).

I would say that not only did that service advisor give ill-advised advice, but also talked himself out of a nice sale! A more "fair-balanced" answer should have been like this: "Well, although SC's and LS's have shown to be practically bulletproof and typically don't have major issues, the value of an extended service plan can give you a tremendous piece of mind/insurance plan just in case a big thing does go wrong OR a bunch of little things that are known to go out like ML speakers, etc And oh, by the way, the replacement cost average of a ML speaker is about 1/3rd the cost of your ESP. Lastly, if you haven't owned the car it's entire life, how sure can you be that it wasn't abused and was properly maintained before you owned it?" That's why insurance policies are good.

Now if the warranty cost was $5k like a Range Rover or Porsche, forget it!!!

cjs18

This isn’t a challenge, but rather an observation - I think it could be that the dollar amounts are simply relative. In the preceding post the Lexus and Range Rover extended warranties are compared at about $2,000 and $5,000 respectively. This contrast involves what is undeniably one of the world’s most reliable cars and a vehicle that is more known for frequency of repair, to put it as nicely as possible. Wouldn’t you say that you could probably go to a Range Rover discussion forum and hear success stories about how some owners “beat” their warranties by collecting on much more than $5,000 worth of repairs? Keeping in mind that the $5,000 is still spent, depending upon the owner’s economic circumstances some of us might not consider the Range Rover warranty a better value but perhaps more necessary to keep the machine on the road.

bopc1996

One thing to consider is that these extended warranties I believe are no transferable. I know for sure the 3 year certified car warranties are not.

mrblister

I have a lexus platinum 3 year warranty and it is transferable for a fee of $ 50.00.
zero deductable . Got it from Troy Greenfield Lexus

scdroptop

iTrader: (1)

cjs18-perhaps you misread or misunderstood my post. I was simply comparing the dollar amount, not the warranty on the specific car. Comparing would be saying, "I think the value for the SC430 warranty is much better than the warranty for the RR". That would be bananas!

I simply said, "Now if the warranty cost was $5k like a Range Rover or Porsche, forget it!!! ". I could have said MBZ, Crysler or Fiat...just a point of reference due to the research I have done personally for myself when I was thinking about buying a 911 996 C4S and a RR SC. Two cars that I knew were much more than the SC, so I chose them as a point of reference. Both were $5k+, and for the RR it did not include the rubber grommets that are instrumental to the air suspension and always go out. $5k for an SC warranty would be a no deal. I paid $1850 for a 3/100 Lexus Platinum ESP, zero deductible. Good deal, IMO. Hope this clarifies.

cjs18

Sure, I think I pretty much get it - In your statement it's about price point. And what I think I get from a warranty price point is a sense of what the average SC owner would pay for covered warranty repairs during the warranty period. Some could be much more, others much less, and there are surely other factors at play. (Some of us would really like to know the standard deviation of payouts around that price point, eh?) In its simplest terms it's a matter of playing the odds as with all insurance situations. For me this one seems fairly low risk with a reliable car that I don't depend upon for daily transportation - so my choice is to self-insure. But I completely understand the value equation that could make it a great deal to have the coverage at a reasonable price and I absolutely respect that folks feel good when a warranty pays off (and perhaps even when it doesn't).

scdroptop

iTrader: (1)

I can't think of anyone on this forum that I've talked to in the last five years that has bought an ESP and not felt like they got their money's worth.

IMO you are not taking advantage of the plan if you don't bring the car in for anything. Surely a 4-8 year old car with 5,000 gadgets, technical and mechanical devics SOMETHING would not be running correctly. Trust me, I could find it. Motor mounts, nav door, top closing, control arm, speakers, rattles, shifting, a/c, power steering. I'd make up some stuff just to have it checked out at least LOL! But then again, if you are like my wife who notices nothing on a car then perhaps you shouldn't get the warranty and just drive it till the wheels fall off or till you have a major issue and roll the dice.

I have a 2009 Chevy Malibu LT for a company car. It has 38,XXX on it and is out of warranty already. Luckily my company pays for all maint and they usually retire cars at 50k. I currently have these issues on the car: Gas cap door won't close properly, rear seat belt (one of middle ones) doesn't fasten, front wheel bearings are out and front wheel TPMS are out...and oh by the way it knocks and pings like crazy (plugs)! Dealer wants like $1200 to fix all of this. Although the car looks great and was a major step in the right direction for GM...sold a bunch of cars and got GREAT reviews, bottom line is that it's performed just like all GM cars that I've experienced...just after warranty everything goes bad. Had this been a personal car, I would have definitely gotten the ESP if they offered one, or sold it as it was out of warranty. Difference is...Lexus vehicles don't behave like this generally but if these things were bad on a Lexus-the repairs would be $3k alone! Car is 1.5 years old and just out of warranty. Good ole GM

cjs18

Points taken. I appreciate the insight and hope all our cars avoid serious issues.

KaiserSea1

You guys also have to figure the true break even point for Lexus. If you claim $2000 in repairs over 5 years, Lexus has investment income, and an actual cost of maybe $700 parts and labor to fix the car. I paid well over 3000$ to get my 03 covered until 2014. I figure if Lexus pays out $6000 in repairs, they still make money on the deal. We both win.

The curious factor is how many of us would not repair non-critical systems if it was out of pocket. I know the big repair bill I had in getting a new ML when my GPS went bad would have been resolved with a 100$ tom-tom if the repair was out of pocket.

KBALL

Damn. I got 155k on mine and no extended warranty.
And reading these posts makes me wanna keep it garaged so nothing happens!
That and the closest dealer is 100 miles from me.
Thanks everyone

Peter_Klim

Don't worry. There are WAY more people who don't have problems then do.

fotch

Will Lexus sell an extended warranty on CPO's past 100,000 miles? I have an '06 and covered through 2014 but since mine's a daily driver I'll probably see 100k well before that.

scdroptop

iTrader: (1)

It's possible. I think the dealer is given some wiggle room with corporate to make exceptions. I do know for a fact that you will have a better chance doing it before 100k miles and certainly before your CPO expires. I plan on doing the same thing with my CPO as well, but I'll only have 40k miles probably on a 2005 (garage queen). If you bought the car from that dealer and kept up with the maint, I think this also helps your case. I would also check with another lexus dealer too, as well as a toyo dealer to compare/contrast prices and options of the ESP.

76210Guy

One of the options for the extended warranty they had on my deal was to extend 6 years and 125K miles. It was about $800 more as I recall.