Warranty ending soon... What would you do...?

[TheRaven]

I am not sure where you came up with the saying..”a Warranty is only as good as the servicing Dealer”?? A warranty is a contract.. similar to your Homeowners insurance. If it says it’s covered,, its covered.. it its not on there then its Not. Yes, sometimes there is a very little bit of grey (as to what caused the problem).. but mostly its b&w.

LOL clearly you haven't been paying attention.

The warranty IS only as good as your dealer...because the dealer is the interface through which you access your warranty. For the good automakers, and I use that term VERY relatively, you hand them your vehicle, describe the problem, and then they see if they can replicate the problem and determine what's wrong. They may during that process find that you did something to your vehicle that caused the problem, and if so, they'll discuss this finding with you. For most Stellantis dealers, you hand them your vehicle, describe the problem, and then they immediately search for a way to blame it on you. With this approach to service, a warranty is useless, no matter what the print says.

Now don't get me wrong, there ARE good dealers. It's just that with Stellantis, good dealers are the exception instead of the norm. When you live in an area like I do, and have five dealers within 45 minutes, this fact is an inconvenience. A large chunk of the population of this off-road-vehicle-owning community live in locations where the only dealer is 30-45 mins away. They have no other options, so if that dealer is worthless, then it's either go it alone or just avoid the brand altogether.

You should have enough cash-cushion in your savings to be able to cover any unanticipated (and unlikely) catastrophic repair bills that come up. And if you don't, then either buying a new car or spending what little money you have handy on a service insurance policy isn't the most prudent course of action.

This is a terribly obsolete piece of advice.

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[Old Dogger]

Being retired, and not making $250K, or more like most of you, the extended warranty is just piece of mind for us. With all of this electronic crap, and the potential failures of same, I wouldn’t be without it.

 

[Kahunadave]

LOL clearly you haven't been paying attention.

For most Stellantis dealers, you hand them your vehicle, describe the problem, and then they immediately search for a way to blame it on you. With this approach to service, a warranty is useless, no matter what the print says.

Now don't get me wrong, there ARE good dealers. It's just that with Stellantis, good dealers are the exception instead of the norm.

So according to you all the Dealers around you are in collusion not wanting to honor the warranty when you bring your vehicle in?
Anything is possible but that is pretty unlikely. There seems to be a common denominator here.. and its not the Stellantis Dealerships.

Service Writers can be somewhat dumb…but Service Managers and the Techs have enough experience to recognize what is a Warranty-able item. Some may be better than others at pushing the envelope to get a Claim paid but that hardly means one dealer is Good and others are Bad. I also have 4-5 CDJR Dealers in my area and haven’t had any issue with them when something should be covered on my Gr Cherokee.

 

[TheRaven]

So according to you all the Dealers around you are in collusion not wanting to honor the warranty when you bring your vehicle in?

No. No collusion. Just an absolutely terrible automaker that is hated by its dealers.

There seems to be a common denominator here.. and its not the Stellantis Dealerships.

Correct - it is Stellantis itself.

Service Writers can be somewhat dumb…but Service Managers and the Techs have enough experience to recognize what is a Warranty-able item. Some may be better than others at pushing the envelope to get a Claim paid but that hardly means one dealer is Good and others are Bad. I also have 4-5 CDJR Dealers in my area and haven’t had any issue with them when something should be covered on my Gr Cherokee.

Yet the fact remains that there are far more "bad" dealers than "good" dealers. Sorry but the reality is that Stellantis has trained its dealers to be very "anti-customer" when it comes to service. It's a poor way of doing business but when you have a brand like Jeep that is basically a money-printer there's no motivation to do better.

 

[WorkingMan]

Jeep Wranglers are very popular where I live and I don't hear anyone regretting their decision to own one. I got mine after watching a coworker drive the wheels off his 2016. I have 45k - zero regrets. Sure something could happen, something can always happen. That's why you keep some cash stashed in the bank.

 

[rcc1123]

My Jeep will be three years old in November, which means my warranty ends in one month.

My 2018 JL has only 14,000 miles and it’s been mostly trouble-free. But I haven’t owned a vehicle without warranty since I was in college.

I don’t do hard-core off-roading anymore; these days it’s mostly easy-to-moderate trails and lots of winter driving. My Sahara with Selec-Trac works perfectly doing both.

I priced a 2023 Sahara similar to what I currently have: $59,610!

Mopar keeps sending me solicitations to buy an extended warranty. But I don’t really trust FCA —or Mopar— to honor its promises, nor my dealer for that matter.

It’s hard to put into words how BAD my Jeep dealer is. As I always say, “an extended warranty is only as good as your servicing dealer.” The next closest dealer is 30 miles down the freeway.

I’ve owned Jeeps for 25+ years and love Wranglers. But between my terrible dealer, Jeep’s price gouging and their ongoing indifference towards consistent quality and customer service, I am having a hard time justifying buying another one.

So, I have to decide if:

1. I want to keep the Jeep without a warranty, keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best
2. Trade it in for something else with 4WD —I just ain’t paying $60,000 for another Jeep
3. Buy the darn extended warranty and hope FCA and the dealer honor all their commitments when the time comes to pay up

What would YOU do in my position...?

I bought the Mopar extended warranty on my 2019 Sahara mainly because I only have 9500 miles on it. It cost me $1850.00 for 6 years coverage with a $120.00 deductible. I don't have a feel for this being a good or bad deal but with the 2.0L with BSG I figured if my battery pack goes south it will cost way more than that to replace..

 

[AcesandEights]

Being retired, and not making $250K, or more like most of you, the extended warranty is just piece of mind for us. With all of this electronic crap, and the potential failures of same, I wouldn’t be without it.

Just saying, they sell extended warranties because they make money on them; meaning, you pay more than they do if you buy an extended warranty.

They're making more than $250k a year because people pay them for repairs they won't have to make.

 

[Upnarms]

Save the cash you would've spent and use it as an emergency fund. The warranty companies bet on it not costing them 3 or 4k to fix your ride, so should you. Besides, if you don't use the dealer to repair it, you'll pay half as much anyway.

The exception is you have a 4xe, id get it or dump the vehicle when the warranty is up. I don't trust all the electronics and the 3 motors to be without issues only the dealer will touch.

Ive had too many bad experiences with dealers when under warranty to trust them with the extended claims. Too many "unable to replicate issue"

If it buys you peace of mind, get it, otherwise the emergency fund idea

 

[Schiprob000]

My Jeep will be three years old in November, which means my warranty ends in one month.

My 2018 JL has only 14,000 miles and it’s been mostly trouble-free. But I haven’t owned a vehicle without warranty since I was in college.

I don’t do hard-core off-roading anymore; these days it’s mostly easy-to-moderate trails and lots of winter driving. My Sahara with Selec-Trac works perfectly doing both.

I priced a 2023 Sahara similar to what I currently have: $59,610!

Mopar keeps sending me solicitations to buy an extended warranty. But I don’t really trust FCA —or Mopar— to honor its promises, nor my dealer for that matter.

It’s hard to put into words how BAD my Jeep dealer is. As I always say, “an extended warranty is only as good as your servicing dealer.” The next closest dealer is 30 miles down the freeway.

I’ve owned Jeeps for 25+ years and love Wranglers. But between my terrible dealer, Jeep’s price gouging and their ongoing indifference towards consistent quality and customer service, I am having a hard time justifying buying another one.

So, I have to decide if:

1. I want to keep the Jeep without a warranty, keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best
2. Trade it in for something else with 4WD —I just ain’t paying $60,000 for another Jeep
3. Buy the darn extended warranty and hope FCA and the dealer honor all their commitments when the time comes to pay up

What would YOU do in my position...?

Find an extended warranty provider that you trust and that uses waveform data in everyday diagnostic practice.

 

[TheRaven]

Just saying, they sell extended warranties because they make money on them; meaning, you pay more than they do if you buy an extended warranty.

This is, at best, a very misleading statement. It's also very obsolete thinking.

 

[kah.mun.rah]

My vote is to buy a 3rd party warranty. Cheaper price, more flexibility with the mods, and you don't have to use Mopar shops for the repairs.

 

[OhioJeeper]

We bought them on 3/7 jeeps, the ones likely to get the higher mileages.
The 8/85 $200 plan through Ziegler was $1040 if under 1 yr, $1105 for the two bought after 12K miles.
Bought through Zeigler.

 

[AcesandEights]

This is, at best, a very misleading statement. It's also very obsolete thinking.

Why would you think it is misleading or obsolete thinking? Do you think the warranty company pays out more than they take in?

 

[TheRaven]

Why would you think it is misleading or obsolete thinking? Do you think the warranty company pays out more than they take in?

No. That's why I said it's misleading. The warranty company absolutely makes money, obviously. But to claim that that fact means that any given individual is guaranteed to LOSE money on a warranty is misleading. it doesn't work that way. On modern tech-laden automobiles you are virtually guaranteed to WIN with a warranty, even while the warranty company rakes in the big bucks.

 

[AcesandEights]

No. That's why I said it's misleading. The warranty company absolutely makes money, obviously. But to claim that that fact means that any given individual is guaranteed to LOSE money on a warranty is misleading. it doesn't work that way. On modern tech-laden automobiles you are virtually guaranteed to WIN with a warranty, even while the warranty company rakes in the big bucks.

You, specifically, misread my comment where I referenced you, generally. You, generally, pay more than you, generally, receive in claim value. You, specifically, may be the exception. Although you, specifically, may come out ahead, you, generally, have to pay more than the value of the coverage in order for the warranty company to "rake in the big bucks". The warranty company can't pay more in claims than they take in, not while still raking in the big bucks.

BTW, I worked for one of the largest dealer networks in the country (USA) handling extended warranty claims (I did not handle 3/36 warranty claims). There are folks doing the math to determine whether a modern tech-laden vehicle will cost more in warranty claims than the premium. To say you are virtually guaranteed to WIN with a warranty is at least misleading, and at most just outright untrue. I, specifically, as someone who worked in the industry, would never buy an extended warranty. It's much better, generally, to put the premium amount into a savings account or mutual fund account with a modest return.

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