Tips for buying a new or used car extended warranty.

All you need to know about new car extended warranties, and used car warranties and scams to avoid
How to prevent being denied a claim for a repair with your extended warranty, common myths
Comparisons of wear and tear warranties vs. mechanical breakdown warranties
How to compare car warranty companies, find out if a company is good or risky
How to bypass dealers, buy direct and save. Online extended car warranty tips
Extra auto warranty coverage you'll need for luxury cars with DVD, Navigation, etc.
Car dealer auto warranty scams. WARNING: A car dealer's auto warranty brochure is not a contract!
About high mileage used car warranties and wrap warranties with long power train warranties

Don't buy extended auto warranties by price alone, avoid cheapie auto warranties!

Fully insured products cost more than unrated risk retention groups, that's a fact of life. The Walmartization of America has dangerously jaded you if you shop for auto extended warranties by price alone, when you should be looking at coverage, track record, and ability to pay claims. Cheap pricing is fine for Walmart, but BAD for auto warranties. You get what you pay for. With high profile auto warranty failures in years past, hopefully you learned the lowest warranty price quote has the highest risk of a warranty company failing and leaving you with worthless paper. If they undersell the competition too much, something must give, and companies with lowball quotes MUST reject your claims to overcome the lower sales price. They usually under fund the warranty claims reserve accounts to pay for your car warranty claims. Don't buy the cheapest extended warranties, because they won't be around to cover your auto warranty claims, you have been warned. I'd rather see you buy no car warranty at all, than a cheap warranty almost guaranteed to go belly up. They use tomorrow's sales proceeds to pay for today's claims until they crash and burn. Many no-name car warranty sites mail you 3 x 5 card junk mail advertising low bogus teaser rates, with no contract to view first to compare. There's hundreds of fly by night companies, don't email me for my opinion I don't follow them, only companies we review here. If you can't get information on a warranty company via Web Assured or Better Business Bureau, then don't buy from them. Cheapie warranties exclude lots of coverage, they make up stupid reasons to reject your warranty claims, leaving you with few covered repairs, many don't answer their phones, or require you to pay shops first then beg for reimbursement from the warranty company. We only recommend auto warranties who pay repair shops directly.

Some cars you just can't get an extended warranty company to cover
People ask me why the warranty companies refuse to offer them a warranty on their high performance car. You won't find any warranty company foolish enough to offer coverage on vehicles like Land Rover (poor quality, frequent and expensive repairs), Mercedes AMG ($20,000 engine), and some turbo engines like Porsche, etc. If a warranty company turns you down, don't ask me why, I don't know. You should ask THEM why. If you do find a warranty company stupid enough to cover these cars, you can bet they won't cover wear and tear failures, and they'll try to get out paying repairs. My best advice for you if you have a high end car which no warranty company will touch, then create your own claims reserve account, putting $5,000 into a money market account or long term CD, and send me $100 for giving you that tip! Then you can be your own extended warranty. Don't ask me where to by a Land Rover Warranty, I don't know of any.

Extended warranty

An auto extended warranty is a vehicle service contract between the car warranty company and you. When you buy your Ford warranty for example, they pay for repairs to your Ford covered by the contract. Extended auto warranties are NOT insurance policies. Your service contract money is deposited in a "claims reserve account", insured in case the administrator goes belly up. An auto extended warranty is the most confusing, profitable product car dealers sell. The language is tricky, and if you don't understand contracts you're in trouble. Many people erroneously think they will get double warranty coverage by waiting until the manufacturer warranty expires to buy their extended warranty. This is wrong, Auto extended warranties simply extend the original manufacturer's car warranty beyond the standard warranty period, they do not give you double coverage. The sooner you buy, the cheaper it is. Should you buy a warranty for your new Nissan or BMW, or that new Dodge or Chrysler? Those Nissan Xterra SUVs can be costly to repair. Look how fast repair shop labor hour rates are rising, and today's vehicles have more expensive gadgets like DVD, power roofs, navigation and Bluetooth. When those fail you'll pay thousands whether it's on a Toyota or Honda or Ford. It's given, these items will fail and you will spend money. I prefer to spend it on my warranty now at the lowest price, than to spend thousands later on a BMW repair. What if you drive Hyundai or Kia? Come on, a Hyundai warranty is in your future. Sure their quality has improved but still...

Warranty Administrator
This is the company responsible for paying your auto warranty claims. Be careful, it is often not the company you buy coverage from. We recommend dealing directly with the administrator, or a company like WarrantyDirect.com Nation Warranty Corporation where their program is reinsured and administered by their "A" rated insurer, so you can research their claims handling history before purchasing a warranty. With you also deal directly with the administrator.

"Mechanical Breakdown" warranties vs. "Wear & Tear" auto warranties
Classic wear and tear failures include: the gradual reduction in operating performance, burned/worn valves/guides, valve grinding, worn rings, burned pistons, any covered part that has not failed this includes seepage of seals and gaskets, fasteners and retainers (nuts, bolts, screws, clamps, brackets), damage caused by overheating.

Is your auto warranty repair due to failure from a "mechanical breakdown" or is it "Wear & Tear"? You want warranty coverage for BOTH! Most auto warranty failures are wear and tear, so you can bet your cheapie "mechanical breakdown" warranty company will classify your warranty repair as wear and tear and reject your warranty claim right off the bat. Thank you for calling. Often the extended warranty sold by car dealers is a confusing mechanical breakdown insurance policy that can cost over $4000! This is not what you want. You want both "wear & tear" AND "mechanical breakdown" coverage in your warranty contract. Many items wear down, they don't break, so they are not covered by most mechanical breakdown warranties. People complain that car dealers lie to them and tell them "everything" is covered, giving a false sense of security. Some car dealer warranties require that you have them do all repairs. What if you can't get your car to the dealer? Before buying a vehicle service contract, carefully review what is covered and not covered to see whether wear and tear claims are excluded from coverage. If you don't get a wear and tear type of warranty, you'll get screwed I guarantee it. Warranty Direct and Nation Warranty Corporation combine wear & tear and mechanical breakdown, all in one extended warranty contract. You can have any ASE certified repair shop do the work. If you own a Nissan, BMW, Chrysler, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, etc., you don't have to take it to your Nissan, BMW, Chrysler, Honda, Toyota, or Hyundai dealer unless the repairs are still covered by the manufacturer.

Use your car rebate to pay for your auto extended warranty!
If you get a rebate on your new car, use your savings for a discount online extended auto warranty. It's like getting a free warranty. Many online car warranties are 40% cheaper than car dealers, have better wear and tear coverage and you'll still have money left over from your rebate. Tip: When you request your free auto extended warranty quotes online, be sure to enter your full email address so they can instantly email you the warranty price quote. (Example: MyEmail@aol.com). If you don't receive your quote in a few minutes, you probably did not enter your full email address properly, or used a bogus name that their quote filters rejected.

Deal with a solid extended warranty company
You want a car warranty administrator who can pay your claims. You deal with 2 companies when buying an extended warranty. One sells you the auto warranty contract, the other administers your claims. You want a well funded company that markets and administers their own auto warranty or a company like NWC that reinsures and administrates the program through their A-rated insurer. Warranty Direct, with over 26 years of proven track record, has been in business for nearly 20 years and also maintains high claim reserve accounts and reinsures policies through their A-rated insurer.

Understand auto warranty coverage before you buy
People buy auto warranties without considering what they are buying. They buy extended warranties as an afterthought at the register in Best Buy, not knowing the coverage for their TV. Americans hear "extended warranty" and think they are protected by a golden umbrella covering all that goes wrong. Likewise, auto warranty customers fail to read their contract, fail to understand coverage, fail to adhere to proper vehicle maintenance schedules, then wonder why their auto warranty claim was rejected. Some consumers buy a used car, get an extended auto warranty, thinking the warranty company will recondition the whole car for them. They wrongly file complaints against their auto warranty company when repairs are denied, simply because their own foolish definition of coverage differs from the auto warranty company's contract stuffed in a drawer somewhere. You are now smarter than that.

While you shop for that Ford warranty, or your Honda warranty or whatever car warranty you end up with, I recommend exclusionary wear and tear auto warranties over cheaper mechanical breakdown warranties. Some failures might be wear and tear, not covered by a mechanical breakdown car warranty.

New car warranties are cheaper on dependable cars. Lexus warranties, Honda warranties and Toyota warranties are cheaper than unreliable cars like Kia, Land Rover, and Chevrolet. Do you own a Kia? Then it's a given, you better get that Kia Warranty. If you own a Chevy, you better buy an extended Chevrolet warranty. Warranty industry insiders informed us Chevrolet has a high failure rate, hence a high Chevrolet warranty claims rate. So if you bought a Chevy, do yourself a favor and protect yourself. Get yourself an extended Chevrolet warranty online now with a $0 deductible it will pay for itself. BMW cars can be very costly repairs if you don't have a BMW warranty. Remember, if you decide to buy an extended warranty, do it as soon as you buy your car, price goes up as the car gets older.

Typical Exclusions In Extended Warranties
No auto extended warranty covers glass, lenses, sealed beams, light bulbs, trim, moldings, bright metal, upholstery, paint, exhaust systems, tires, air bags, batteries, brake rotors, drums, shock absorbers, throttle bodies, etc. These are standard exclusions, don't let it bother you.

Before you buy an auto warranty, ask to see a sample contract, itemizing what is covered, and what is not covered

Your auto warranty company should fax or email you a contract to read. If they refuse, DO NOT BUY FROM THEM! If a part in question is not listed or implied by the "What Is Covered" list, than it is not covered, and check the "What Is Not Covered" list, but verify it with the car warranty company. The marketing sheet dealers show you is not a contract. If a slick sheet is all they show you, don't buy. You'll be surprised what's not covered thanks to contract weasel clauses not shown on marketing slick sheets.

WARNING! Some car manufacturer auto extended warranties DO NOT pay for car rental reimbursement during the standard warranty period! My GM Protection Plan was a prime example. If you have a 3 year warranty, any car rental expense you incur for the first three years may not be covered. This means even if the engine dies, and it's their fault, and you have no car for a week, you're out of luck!