Extended warranties

[Drdgsanta]

I have a 2011 Winnebago Tour and the extended warranty is up. Is it worth the investment to seek another extended warranty.  If so, who offers the best?

[rayin]

Only you can say if an Extended Service Contract is worth the money for your circumstances. We bought an ESC when we bought our 2000 MH because it had been parked in a barn for 8 years prior to our purchase. IMO  that first contract was well worth the expense, it more than paid for itself + deductibles, fuel for delivery trips, etc. The next 3 yr contract was a straight loss, no covered claims were made.

This is like buying health insurance, it is not an investment, but rather, buying financial protection.

IMO the best independent broker is wholesalewarranties.com   Some companies sell directly to the public, but I can't remember names.

[manholt]

Dr, who was the current provider?  Did it pay for it's self?  If your happy with your current one and your wanting to extend for peace of mind, stay with them!  IMHO, if it didn't break since you got the coach, I would self insure!

[hermanmullins]

Are there ESC that will cover a 10 year old or older unit? I was under the impression that 10 years was the max. for coverage.

Herman

[wildebill308]

I am with Herman. I think you would be better off self insuring. Put the money in a account or earmark what they would have charged you.

Bill

[fagnaml]

Drdgsanta --

My view of an extended service contract (ESC) is it is "insurance" for the really big, unplanned repair.   Like you when I purchased a 2007 Damon Astoria 3774 five years ago it had sat unused for most of its first eight years of life.  I was glad I had the ESC from Xtra Ride as repair costs exceeded the cost of the ESC.  On that coach I had to replace the turbocharger, replaced sway and track bars, replaced dash A/C compressor, replaced slide out controllers and one slide out motor, replaced refrigerator, replaced one roof A/C to name the big dollar items even though those items passed the pre-purchase inspection (except the track/sway bars were not inspected).  When the original ESC expired I purchased a new, much lower cost three year ESC from Wholesale Warranties when the Damon was eleven years old.   When I purchased my current coach a year ago, the ESC from Wholesale Warranties had two years remaining so I rolled the ESC over to my Ventana LE.  Since purchasing the ESC from Wholesale Warranties I had to replace the entry steps slide-out motor on both the Damon and the Ventana LE.   Wholesale Warranties provided superb customer service for the entry steps repairs.

But as Bill and Herman have said, you may want to self-insure if you have the cash to create a personal "ESC" account.   I'm a bit conservative with finances so I don't like big unplanned expenditures thus why I like the comfort of ESC "insurance" to cover most of the cost of an surprise repair.

[rayin]

11 hours ago, hermanmullins said:

Are there ESC that will cover a 10 year old or older unit? I was under the impression that 10 years was the max. for coverage.

Herman

18 years is the maximum when i was buying an ESC through Good Sam/Camping World. I read somewhere it has been shortened to 15 by some companies.The first 3 yr contract repaired everything that failed/broke, subsequent contract  had only 2 claims filed. MH was 18 then so no more ESC allowed.

An easy way to find out for sure is phone wholesalewarranties.com and ask, I think they have a 15 yrs limit too.

[manholt]

The OP's Coach is a 2011, that's 9 years and maybe less, depending on when he bought it.  Like Puff's 2019 Entegra, the warranty started the day he bought it in 2020!  ESC goes by purchase date, not build date.  Out of all of them I like Wholesale the best, never had them on any coach, but did have them on my race boats...also had Progressive, between the too they saved me a lot of $$$, but they where expensive to begin with.  Between the 2, you could buy  several Cadillac's a year!

In 53 years, all my class A coaches has been self insured.  I'm way ahead.    

[txtiger]

If you have a Class A Diesel like a Winnebago Tour then you have the risk of a very expensive motor or transmission repair. The small stuff you can self insure but motors and transmissions can be expensive repairs and most people can't afford to self insure that amount. If I were you I would call Wholesale Warranties and ask them if they have policy for just the moor and tranny. You may be able to get such a policy for a lot less than you think.

[huffypuff]

My experience with extended warranty is this.  In 2012 I purchase a 2006 HR Ambassador and got a extended warranty that cost 5k through extra ride with $200 deductible. .  Two times I used it was was worth it was when the front jack blew and needed to be replaced.  That cost 2K and my cost was $200 plus taxes and shop supplied.  The next time was the 8000 K generator repair.  To remove from the coach and replace inverted and wiring harness and maintenance I told them to do since it was out and covers were off came to $4.5k.  I paid less than $1k to cover the extra work.  

The one time it wasn't worth it was when the alternator went out.  Freightliner wrote a book on diagnosis that ran the price way up and the extra ride knew better and refused to pay the extra work.  I don't blame them for refusing to pay half of the $800 bill.  When I took it to them I tole them to just replace the alternator so it tee me off as well.  Their excuse is we have to prove it's bad to the warranty company.  The alternator cost $125 and took maybe 2 hours to replace.  

So there are pros and cons to extended warranty but this time I came out ahead.   When that warranty they didn't ask me to renew.  I'm not going to mention how much the extended warranty cost on the new coach but I know there are lots of expensive things that can break on it.  As for small repairs, do them yourself like when I did the exhaust manifold gasket on the old coach.