I bought my 2012 t&C used and now has about 40k miles. It is out of warranty. Its 36k 3 year warranty.
I was wondering if it worth buying an extended warranty from chrysler?

 

Depends on how long you plan on keeping the van. Generally they are a good idea in my book. Bit of apples and oranges but I bought one on my 06 RAV4 when new. I thought it wasn't necessary with Toyota's good reputation for reliability and my previous Toyota experience. Wife insisted so buy it we did. Once again she was right. We had nearly $3000 worth of work done under that warranty. Our $900 investment paid off in spades. Never pay what they are asking. I got them down from $1300 to $900 for their high end 6 year 100K platinum warranty.

 

I just joined the forum and have been looking at purchasing an extended warranty for a new 2013 T&C. I know some people automatically love extended warranties but I have serious doubts because the language of the warranty limits coverage to only mechanical breakdowns and has huge gaps to allow Chrysler to excluded coverage. The contract excludes damages due to design defect, normal wear and tear, vandalism, acts of God and nature, flood, theft, accident or road hazards. Service contracts that exclude wear and tear will not cover repairs needed because a covered part's performance has gradually deteriorated because of normal wear and tear. The more miles on a car when a repair becomes necessary, the more likely it is that the repair will be needed because a part wore out, rather than because the part broke due to poor manufacturing. Further, the extended warranty won’t cover damage to a non-covered wearable component (like the brake rotors) even though that damage was caused by the failure of a covered component.

Imagine taking a car in for service 5 years down the line and after diagnostics you find that a warranty covered component failed and also caused damage to a non-covered wearable component. The contract language allows Chrysler to put you on the hook for the full cost of repair for both the covered and non-covered components if Chrysler determines the covered component failed due to normal wear and tear. You won’t have a fall back on auto insurance which won’t cover repairs for normal wear and tear.


To anyone buying an extended warranty - make sure you've read the fine print and negotiate the price down if you still want to buy - especially if the warranty coverage provides a large gap to allow exclusions. Lesser plans exclude coverage for normal wear and tear so why pay top dollar.

 

Unfortunately, Dfisher has a point. You've only to look at your car insurance to see exclusions for this, exclusions for that, excesses for this and excesses for that to realize you are only getting "semi" insurance cover for your money.
These warranty companies work on averages -- plus a PROFIT PROFIT PROFIT for themselves and their shareholders. I.e the average cost to keep running what is in your case a second-hand car. Surely then, the whole point of warranty (which is really a kind of insurance) is 'peace of mind', knowing you won't have a big bill of thousands of dollars/pounds unexpectedly? But how can you have peace of mind with all those exclusions etc. etc., which can mean you have to shell-out thousands of dollars/pounds anyway?

I've a better idea: find out the warranty premium for full cover of your motor, and pay that premium monthly into your own separate account for that special purpose. Chances are you won't ever need it. But if you DO -- there will be a lump of cash to offset the repair bill. The only other thing then is to follow Dfisher's advice to negotiate hard for a BIG discount for a no-warranty deal. And don't forget, you could be covered anyhow under the "Sale of goods act" or "The provision of goods and services act" in the UK at least. I believe there are similar kinds of protection in the US.

Quod erat desperandum


Leedsman.