Extended Warranty - review and comments please

I am in the final stages of purchasing an extended warranty. It is down to two options, both from local Porsche dealers (Hoehn and Pioneer in San Diego). One of them tops out at an exclusions list, and I wanted to get opinions about the exclusions. Some of these scare me, but I'm not really sure... So, here is the verbiage: All parts are covered with these exceptions: Glass, lenses, sealed beams, light bulbs, wheels, wheel covers, tires, interior trim, moldings, brightmetal parts, sheet metal, flexible body parts, weather strips, upholstery, convertible and/or vinyl top, paint rust, physical damage, catalytic converter, exhaust system, brake rotors and drums, wiper blades, hoses, shock absorbers, batteries, carburetor, and throttle body assembly (except the injectors). Spark/glow plugs, drive belts, brake pads, brake linings and showes, and manual clutch disc. In addition, repairs of water and air leaks, rattles, squeaks and wind noise; alighment of body parts, bumpers and glass are not covered. Any parts or components which are not factory installed are not covered. (In addition, the normal maintenance services and parts required or recommended by your vehicle manufacturer and other normal maintenance services and parts including engine tune up, suspension alignment, wheel balancing and filters.) The catalytic converter and exhaust system concern me. What exactly is covered by 'exhaust system'? Anyway, this warranty is for longer and farther than the other one, so I'm leaning towards it, unless y'all see something scary. $3159 for 60 months (from date of warranty purchase) and 50,000 miles (odometer), with a $0 deductible. I'm sitting at 9300 miles right now, and drive 7,000 miles/year or so. If I felt like it, I could even go to 84 months, 75,000 miles for $5698, but I'm not sure I'm committed to owning this car that long. What do you guys think? Keep in mind that I live in California, and I've called most of the companies others have recommended here, and they all say they will not offer warranties to me, either because of California laws, or because they don't want to touch Porsches.

did you try Warranty Direct??

yes.

I have Warranty Direct, Majorcare. It was around $1700 for similar coverage. 4 years/60k, which ever comes 1st. I bought my car w/17k miles.

The dealer that I'm buying from deals with GE AWS for extended warranties. Anyone ever dealt with GE (aside from light bulbs and washer/dryers)?

I'm really looking for feedback on the exclusions list, to make sure I'm not missing something painful. Anyone?

Compare it to coverages at www.warrantydirect.com http://warrantydirect.com/compare_coverages.asp

The list looks pretty standard. My guess about the exhaust system is since it's exposed to the road (think salt spray in east coast winter), it's a wear-and-tear item. The price is about right. I bought mine from WarrantyDirect in Dec '06 (right before they suspended service to CA) for $3.5k. $0 deductible. 5yrs/60k miles and I had 16k miles on the car (MY'03). Good luck, - Ahsai

Not to hijack the thread, but my dealer is giving me one of these warranties at his cost. $1500 for one year, $1900 for two, covering most of the expensive stuff. I originally planned on doing the 1-year, as a just in case. But since you can't sign up again to extend, maybe a 2 year is safer? This is with a $200 deductible. GE 3 Star Plus .. Thoughts?

Your car has a 8 year/80k miles manufacturer warranty on the cats.

Dude!! My warranty was for all the major stuff, electronics, RMS etc... My cost was UNDER $1700. 4 year or 60k miles with warrantydirect.com. So $1500 for 1 year, i dont get it.

Warrantydirect won't insure a 7 year old car. AAA wants close to 3k for a 3 year waranty. I am normally not one to pay for an extended warranty, thinking I'll hold the money, and if something breaks, I'll fix it. My taking a one-year warranty is to insure nothing blows up a few months after I buy the car. It has 17k on it, so it's been sitting, and who knows if that means something will go after I start using the car. After that, I have to pay for what breaks. Unless there is a better idea?

Makes sense.

I did the GE one and when my engine went, my claim was deinied and my mechanic had to jump through hoops just to get them to replace it and I had to come up with my own core charge when they didnt accept my old engine.

Why did your engine go? Why didn't GE want to cover you--engines and all components are supposed to be covered. Which policy did you have?

Something seized in it. Their reasons where that my tires appeared to have wear on them that indicates my driving style. I bought a 3 year engine and drivetrain one for about $3500 on a 1999c2 with 75k miles, but still almost a year later havent recieved my information on it asking for it twice.

I can't recommend strongly enough that if you are considering ANY aftermarket warranty for your Porsche, check the company out at www.bbb.org In addition, DO NOT even consider Warrantech or ANY of it's subsiduaries, or further, anyone associated with these criminals. Check this out.... http://www.fortworth.bbb.org/commonr...ompid=86060022 One of our local San Diego 996 customers has an aftermarket warranty through a Warrantech subsiduary "Vehicle Protection Plus, LLC". To say they are criminals is putting it mildly. Their entire system is designed to impede both owner and repair facility from filing a claim, authorize repairs, speak to a live associate and or deal with anyone in a professional and courteous manner. They argue over every single item (and have zero knowlege of Porsche motors) not to mention denying more than 50% of a potentially catastrophic problem with our customer's 996 motor. We had to educate them on the fact that once the cam covers came off as part of a gasket repair we'd have to change the oil (which they at first denied), until they realized the motor is actually flat. In the end, they would only approve Mobil 1 oil at below our own wholesale cost. Utlimately our customer was forced to pay the $1700 bill and we refunded $1,200 of which they coughed up after 200 phone calls and many hours of diversions and roadblocks (for which we were not paid and respectfully wouldn't expect our customer to pay either). We will most certainly not be dealing with this company again. Sorry for the rant....be sure to investigate whether the company you are selecting is ideal for a Porsche owner and moreover, operates legitimately. Stop by and see us sometime, we'd welcome the opportunity to work on your car. - Jordan

Great suggestions! The exclusions warranty is being sold by Pioneer (Porsche dealership), and so far I have found no 'gotcha!' clauses. The warranty is from Universal Underwriters Group, which I found on BBB: http://www.kansascity.bbb.org/common...l?bid=49030006 Basically, there have been issues reported, and all have been addressed by the company, and BBB gives them a 'Satisfactory' rating. I'll stop by your shop some day, even if just to gawk at whatever you're working on. =)

The exclusions you have listed are pretty normal on these type of policies. They are basically "wear items". I have dealt with many of these companies and it is not cut and dry who is better than another. I have gotten claims paid and denied for identical repairs from the same company, same coverage. As a repair faciltiy, these telephone adjusters do make you jump through hoops to justify the repairs. The verbage you use is very important to the outcome. Thee companies aklways want us to tell the customer, this policy is to help you, not cover everything on the car. If you can get a policy for your car for a reasonable price, buy it. In my experience, it really can help with some major failures. A note, please. I cannot speak for dealerships, they have their own policies, but for independents like us these policues can be difficult to deal with. I think they are great for my customers who have to use them, but... *They rarely pay for diagnosis time, they expect the customer to pay for this. If you don't authorize tear down, a shop is on the hook for this part of the bill if they refuse the claim and you chosse not to have the repair done. You must authorize the diagnosis time. Most of the time it is recouped in the repair, but not always. *They do not pay for any admiinistrative time, for a large repair it is not unusual to have 3 - 4 hours of communication back and forth trying to get your claim throught their channels. Who foots that part of the bill? *The warranty companies do not use Porsche labor times for repairs, they use a generic rate comes from Mitchell or Alldata systems. Many times the amount of labor does not cover the repair of the job. Who foots that part of the bill? *If they decline your claim, the repair shop can't change their minds, believe me, they have already tried. Repair shops will work with you, but don't kill the messenger for your repairs.

=) Great info, and my indy mechanic said many of the same things. I totally get all of that.

My biggest complaint is that you can't do anything to the car that's not OEM. No chips, no suspension, no exhaust, etc, unless it's Porsche. Other than that, I've been please with my after market warranty. -td

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Hi Irksome, So which EW company did you end up going with? I had spoken with Pioneer a number of times. To me, they are terrible at customer service. Anyways, the finance manager had told me that they were in the process of interviewing a few potential 3rd party warranty companies, bec. the one they've been using had decided to withdraw. I believe it's Zurich. That was about 2 months ago. Now my factory warranty is ending soon. I'm looking.... John