VonoreTn Report post Posted September 4, 2009 Kirby, What you are saying is that you are being your own insurance company, by tracking all the times you didn't buy the warranty, and putting the money in a virtual fund. That plan definitely has common sense merit, I do that with TV's and appliances, everything but laptop computers for my daughter when she was in college, because we came out way ahead with the extended plans on those. However, I have a friend who had a 04 Toyota 4 runner SUV, where he didn't get the warranty. He takes good care of his vehicles, always maintained and in a garage. At 76,000 miles his navigation system got finicky, unreliable, and he was unable to control his radio and climate control with it. The Toyota dealer where he bought it wanted $6000 for a new one. He complained that he had only paid $2000 extra for the feature initially, and told them to take it out and give him a conventional climate control and radio. They said that would cost even more, because they would have to take the entire main electrical harness out of the car. He was very upset about the situation, and over a period of maybe 6 months, and working with a different more sympathetic dealer, he got a special one time deal from Toyota to replace it for $1800, which he gladly took them up on. His next vehicle was a Ford product, which he is very happy with, but he did get the extended warranty. I guess my point is that these electrical devices have no easy fix when they go, and they are expensive. Now I have a question for all: How good are these non-dealer warranties? Does your vehicle still get fixed at the dealer? Does anyone have experience with an actual claim? I didn't get one yet, but our FFH is less than a month old so I might yet get one, and these lower priced ones sound like a good deal.....but I wonder how they are implemented. I just bought a brand new computer for $450. Parts are even cheaper. I have saved well over $7000 on my last 5 vehicles by not buying an extended warranty. I'm more than happy to pay $3000 for a repair - I'm still $4000 ahead. Speak for yourself. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites