Extended Warranties

[lswope]

I have a 2010 Tiffin Phaeton and the manufacturers one year warranty is about to expire. I'm trying to decide if I should purchase an extended warranty (insurance) or not; and, if so, which companies should I be looking at.

Any thoughts?

[off2glamis]

We bought a extended warranty from Phoenix American, we have saved $12,000 or more over the cost of the warranty, we have never had a problem getting anything covered and we have never had a major problem such as trany or engine go out on our pusher, which would also be covered by Phoenix American.

We had a slide motor go out just last week and had it replaced and it did not cost us a dime. I saw the bill and it was $1,676 total, parts and labor.

Unless you are a gambler, not getting an extended warranty could be a $30,000 or more gamble, you have a house on wheels and things are going to go wrong. It is not a matter of if something is going to brake it is when it is going to brake.

[tbutler]

There have been several discussions on this topic in the past. Here are a few: Warranty and Service Center, Extended Warranty Coverage, Everything but Chassis, Extended Warranty, Extended Service Plan.

It is a popular topic and you'll pick up quite a few opinions from these discussions. There are more but I tried to stick with those that had the largest number of replies.

[rrlowther]

We just purchased a 2000 Safari Zanzibar 40' diesel pusher about two months ago. It's been in the shop ever since. Issues with the slide, rear a/c, and so on.

There are several warranty companies. We have Star Interstate 3 years 36K miles. Although we are having a little difficulty getting the company to these issues covered, we're told it will be covered.

Total cost of repairs $7,800.00 our deductible is $200.00. So it's definitely worth it!

[garykd]

Hi lswope,

I had a service contract (service contract is legally what you are purchasing). It came out about even for me (premium vs claims). You've had your coach for almost a year. You know your coach and what kind of RVing you'll do in the next couple of years. Follow your gut feel.

[petermartinu270]

These are not insurance products. This is a contract between two consenting and willing participants. That means you had better read and be very familiar with every single clause of that contract lest you feel cheated later on when requesting reimbursement...notice I said nothing about a claim as in a regulated insurance company. Make sure the clause about mediation or other form of complaint remediation is to your liking.

[Cookie]

We recently traded in our 1986 Honey for a 1999 Bounder with 30000 miles. The dealer wanted to sell us a service contract through a certain company, The price was $3800 for three years with a $200 deductible. I checked them out on the web at several sites, and they had nothing but a bad reputation. I didn't call the dealer back to take their offer, but they called me back and said they could lower the price to $3200. I said "no thank you". In the mean time I had done further research and found U.S. Warranty company and called and talked with them. They had NO bad comments on the web, and many good ones. I read the "fine print" and felt that it was a good deal. What I got from them was 4 years for $2800 with a $50 deductible. The payment was one-third down, and the rest in 12 equal monthly payments with no interest.

About three months after buying our coach, we had the failure of the right front leveling jack. We had it repaired at our local RV shop and they handled everything. U.S. covered everything the should have and in a very timely fashion. (they don't pay the sales tax incurred). The bill came to about $893. But the real shocker was that the deductible, instead of being $50, was $37.50. Yes, that is right, they lowered deductible. We were VERY happy campers.

Give them a look. No, I do not work for them .

[chucknewman]

A couple of points. Peter's comments above about these contracts not being insurance policies are right on. The second point is it is well known in the business world an "extended warranty" of any kind is nothing more than an added revenue source; whether for the manufacturer or the dealer. And just like vehicle financing, dealers get monetary incentives from the warranty company to sell their product.

I don't care how many post about how much they saved on a repair. In the real world, they are a drop in the numbers bucket. Do you really think these companies stay in business by paying out large claims on the majority of their clients?