Hey Guys, I am not sure if this is ok, but I want to give a shout out to the finance guy at Durango, CO KIA. Below is what I posted on Reddit (My account is Datadisney27 and I have photos of my "Ghost" Niro EV and a very close call with a truck video also) I see some post about warranties and I wanted to share my experience. Good morning everyone, After a lot of review, phone calls, comparisons and working with u/jcfgh1234 I went ahead and purchased an Extended Warranty from the Durango KIA Motor Company in Durango CO (I live in TX but that was not a problem) I worked with Matthew Rhinehart who was amazing and friendly and upfront. (Also very supportive of First Responders). He will get you the Platinum KIA Extended warranty with 0 Deductible for an amazing price. This is the warranty from KIA (Fidelity) not a third party like Carchex etc. I know that u/jcfh1234 did a 100,000 mile/10 Year for $1300, I paid slightly more for 120,000/72 Months since I will hit the mileage first. I purchased it because I wanted to have the long coverage for the A/V equipment as that is only 36,000/36 months and the vehicle will be outside in the TX heat during the day when I work etc. But also, for EV/Hybrid vehicles it covers the following (Even the charge cable the EV comes with) "Motor/generator belt tensioner; drive motor dampener; voltage inverter reservoir; three phase high voltage cables; hydraulic or electric regenerative braking system; hybrid/ EV/ hydrogen battery (nickel-metal hydrate or lithium-ion drive propulsion battery) including the case and mounting hardware, junction block, main battery cable, and frame wire; onboard battery charging system including charge controller, plug in outlets, plug in cable, and trickle charger cable; electric AC compressor and motor; electric steering rack, gear, and motor; electro/hydraulic power steering pump and reservoir; hydrogen fuel cell stack; battery cooling pump; seals and gaskets. Electric motor/generator(s) all internal components; inverter/converter/transformer units including all internal components and all internal components; power split device and all internal components; reduction/reducer box and all internal components; seals and gaskets. While I understand a good portion of that is under the 10/100 Powertrain, not all of it is. So if your on the fence and want a great plan, shoot him an email. That price was a good price for me. Matthew Rhinehart Business Manager Durango Motor Company [email protected] 970-385-4822 Ext 206 1200 Carbon Junction Durango, CO 81301
This reminds me of my Prius purchase back in 2005, where my dealer wanted to sell me a "$2,995 extended warranty for only $1,995 because they have a special going on right now" and I declined -- there was a reference on the Prius forum I visited about a dealer in Kansas that was selling the exact same warranty for $780 and you just had to contact him, and I think dozens did (me included) through that forum posting. So many people just go with the finance guy's offer as long as they can roll in the purchase to the payments, but there sure is a lot of markup in there. So I say thanks to the OP for the reference for anyone wanting to purchase the extended warranty, it pays to shop around...
@jeff_h Exactly. I did something similar with our Toyota Camry years ago (Like 2012?) and the dealer wanted so much more. Even me mentioning going elsewhere the price magically fell by a thousand dollars. I was searching around, found a place that had a great warranty and I went through them. I don't get any kick back etc, I don't plan or want it. I just want to help others who may be looking! I have never been to Colorado in my adult life, never seen this guy. Just found him through Reddit and he ended up being great.
Just for full disclosure, actually this IS a third party warranty, and not a factory backed warranty. Fidelity is the warrantor, not Kia, although it's marketed under Kia's name. So if you have a claim dispute you are going to be dealing with Fidelity, not Kia. Just be aware.
I am so relieved this would cover my hydrogen fuel cell stack, because apparently Kia forgot to install mine. How nice of OP to list such detailed contact information for their sales agent. Sorry, Datarock. This feels very spammy.
@David T in Silicon Valley No sir. I made contact with someone on Reddit, me and him called multiple dealerships, I personally received a quote from a few online places (Carchex, Excellerate? Xcellerate? Something like that. I had the person I referenced above and another dealership going back and fourth on a price as they both offered the Kia/Fidelity one. Went from $1,595 down to 1400 to 1300. (I actually did a 7 Year/125K as I will hit milage first) so my plan is different and more about $1400 since you pay more for a mileage VS time. I once found an extended warranty on my Toyota on the Toyota forums a about 8 years ago or so and so I wanted to do the same. My wife is a nurse and I am in LE in Texas, no where near Colorado. I have spoken to that guy only a few times for purposes of buying the warranty. Check out my Reddit post to learn more about me. I have one similar warranty recommendation on Reddit, the rest are my car or life. I left detailed information on my contact because that is who literally gave me the best deal and the coverage was Copy/Paste from the warranty. I did that because I found that Carchex and other companies did not cover EV/Hybrid components. Hope this helps! Nice car BTW, it's the same color as mine. 2020 Niro EX EV
My bad. I only listed the other Reddit guy that helped me. Here I am. https://www.reddit.com/user/Datadisney27 Here is my car https://www.reddit.com/r/electricvehicles/comments/ms2wge/bought_my_first_ev_3_weeks_ago_love_this_car_the/ I had 2 people already try to hit me, some funny horrible idiots in cars videos on my account too.
My rule of thumb with extended warranties is that they're sold because they are profitable. And if the one selling the warranty is making a profit, then on average, the buyer is losing money.
No question you are correct. But you could say the same thing about your homeowners insurance too. IMO what it comes down to is how financially catastrophic a worst case scenario situation would be. I was trying to think of what the most expensive repair that's not covered for 100k miles on a Kona EV might be. Maybe the head unit for the audio system? I assume that would cost $1500-$2000 to replace at the most, although of course I'm just guessing. But for me an unplanned $2000 repair would not be a financial disaster. Given the warranty prices that have been discussed I would take the risk, although of course someone will point out there could be multiple expensive repairs during the extended warranty coverage. On the other hand I spent over $5000 for an extended warranty for my Porsche for 6 years beyond the 4 year factory warranty. But with the Porsche there are some potentially very expensive repairs well into 5 figures. They are rare, but not unheard of. A new engine could be $25-30k or more. I do expect to have some claims during the 6 year period, but they will likely be less than the insurance premium, so yes, I expect to "lose". But the protection against a worst case scenario is worth it in my book.
Maybe I got a little trigger happy with my spam call out. All those robo-calls about auto warranties, I suppose. Try to hit you? What? Why?
