Why NOT to Buy that Extended Warranty?

I had my dealer match the $1,304 price from Hyannis Honda for the D80. Definitely not worth the $2,600 originally quoted only after I declined the third party ones (evidently they make more money on those than the genuine Honda Care).
Honda Care is honored at any Honda dealer and you are already in the system so there is no paperwork to keep up with (I would never consider a third party one due to this and whether or not they will be around in 8 years). It is transferable and prorated if you cancel or sell the car. It also added roadside assistance to family members driving Hondas or Acura’s. That offset a portion of the price.
I have never believed in extended warranties, especially for a reputable brand like Honda, until now. My friend who works in the Parts Dept looked electrical parts for the Clarity as a lark and in 10 min totaled up over $47,000 and that wasn’t even all of them! Plus it seems the parts for our Claritys are much more expensive than gasmobiles and there are many more electrical/computer parts potentially to go bad or give trouble.
If just one part goes belly up after 3 years that’s not covered by the emissions warranty, then it’s probably paid for itself and the peace of mind is priceless. Like any insurance you’re betting something will happen and Honda Care is betting it won’t. Insurance is just you paying to spread your individual risk around in order to reduce your liability and costs if something does happen. It just depends on how risk adverse you are. Since I keep my cars a long time, it made sense to me with the high cost of parts and this being such a new model with lots of electronics.
 
KentuckyKen said:
My friend who works in the Parts Dept looked electrical parts for the Clarity as a lark and in 10 min totaled up over $47,000 and that wasn’t even all of them! Plus it seems the parts for our Claritys are much more expensive than gasmobiles and there are many more electrical/computer parts potentially to go bad or give trouble.
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And thats why these overinflated prices are so terrible... How can a partial list of the parts be twice as much as the car cost itself not including all the R&D and labor... They turn $100 items into $3000 ones because you have no other option and now that $2000 warranty looks like a good deal.
 
KentuckyKen said:
I had my dealer match the $1,304 price from Hyannis Honda for the D80. Definitely not worth the $2,600 originally quoted only after I declined the third party ones (evidently they make more money on those than the genuine Honda Care).
Honda Care is honored at any Honda dealer and you are already in the system so there is no paperwork to keep up with (I would never consider a third party one due to this and whether or not they will be around in 8 years). It is transferable and prorated if you cancel or sell the car. It also added roadside assistance to family members driving Hondas or Acura’s. That offset a portion of the price.
I have never believed in extended warranties, especially for a reputable brand like Honda, until now. My friend who works in the Parts Dept looked electrical parts for the Clarity as a lark and in 10 min totaled up over $47,000 and that wasn’t even all of them! Plus it seems the parts for our Claritys are much more expensive than gasmobiles and there are many more electrical/computer parts potentially to go bad or give trouble.
If just one part goes belly up after 3 years that’s not covered by the emissions warranty, then it’s probably paid for itself and the peace of mind is priceless. Like any insurance you’re betting something will happen and Honda Care is betting it won’t. Insurance is just you paying to spread your individual risk around in order to reduce your liability and costs if something does happen. It just depends on how risk adverse you are. Since I keep my cars a long time, it made sense to me with the high cost of parts and this being such a new model with lots of electronics.
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$47,000...
I'd buy a new car instead of thinking about ship of Theseus
 
So it all comes down to if you consider a warranty like one does insurance or not.

My take is the warranty is a form of insurance. In fact, I sincerely hope to never use it, and glad pay for it. I happened to do the 5 year financing and minimally I would of bought 5 years. My thought is it would totally suck if bad luck struck and I had to pay for a big repair while still making payments.

I also realize the provider will never sell extended warranty out beyond the time when things naturally start to fail. So for example, the longest warranty with Honda is 8 years. Makes sense. Anyway, I paid the $1500 for the 8 yr, 120,000 mile version because if something does go wrong it's more likely in the latter part.

And again, say I go 8 or more years with zero problems. Good for me.

-Dan
 
It's simply gambling. Extended warranties are EXCELLENT deals if your car turns out to have expensive problems. And they are a total waste of money if your car doesn't have any expensive problems.

Do you feel lucky? Do ya? Roll the dice. That's all it is...a roll of the dice. Do you choose red or black on a roulette wheel? Some will win, some will lose, and NOBODY can predict which side they will be on.

Me? I chose NOT to buy an extended warranty. I hope I hit on RED.
 
dnb said:
And thats why these overinflated prices are so terrible... How can a partial list of the parts be twice as much as the car cost itself not including all the R&D and labor... They turn $100 items into $3000 ones because you have no other option and now that $2000 warranty looks like a good deal.
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Parts that are produced and sold in lower volumes on cars that have lower production numbers are more expensive. That’s just the way it is.

And I would argue that many of these items that you think should only be $100 are probably much more expensive due to the R&D involved. Honda gets charged more by the company making the part and passes it along to the end user.

-Skip


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
SkipperT said:
And I would argue that many of these items that you think should only be $100 are probably much more expensive due to the R&D involved.
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I bought a dell 8" windows 8 tablet for under $100 like 6-7 years ago. There is no way that the infotanment unit costs much to manufacturer at all. Its an android tablet with a low end cpu/gpu hence the lag.

My point is all of the replacement parts are way overpriced, before factoring in labor. I mean the list above was over $45k without including everything, that is twice the price of the car not including labor. Clearly the parts are priced higher than they should be, let alone anywhere near "cost".
 
Green thumb said:
Does anyone know what the warranty costs are after the 3 year mark? If it is much more than $1300 it would help in decision making.
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Does anyone know more about this? I go back and fort between buying the warranty before the 6 month mark or close to the 3 year warranty expiration.
 
Alex0913 said:
Does anyone know more about this? I go back and fort between buying the warranty before the 6 month mark or close to the 3 year warranty expiration.
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I have not found any reliable (read: not from a dealer finance officer) information directly from either Honda Finance or Toyota Finance that indicates their extended warranties automatically go up in price at certain points in ownership. There are the usual annual (or whenever they feel like it) price increases, but no indication that any increase is automatic at specific mile/months. The finance officers will tell you anything to get a sale, so don't trust dealer-level info on this one. Perhaps someone has info from a web site or an email/mail directly from Honda Finance on this, but I've not found it anywhere.
 
Sandroad said:
I have not found any reliable (read: not from a dealer finance officer) information directly from either Honda Finance or Toyota Finance that indicates their extended warranties automatically go up in price at certain points in ownership. There are the usual annual (or whenever they feel like it) price increases, but no indication that any increase is automatic at specific mile/months. The finance officers will tell you anything to get a sale, so don't trust dealer-level info on this one. Perhaps someone has info from a web site or an email/mail directly from Honda Finance on this, but I've not found it anywhere.
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Thank you for you reply and for you reminder about not taking advice from dealer/ finance offices! I too have done some research on that but nothing so far.
 
I don’t think that there is any formula that we can use on a new technology to say if it makes sense to buy the warranty or not. We bought a crv at the same tine we got the clarity. We didn’t get the warranty for the crv but did for the Clarity. Crv technology has been around for a long time. We have owned a lot of Honda’s over the years and they just work. The Clarity is a different story and we got the extended warranty for $1300. This is all brand new technology and the risk of something going wrong is higher. I’m not worried about the stereo going dead. It’s the same unit I had in my 2016 Accord. I am worried about problems with some complex (and new) technology sitting under the hood of my car. I plan to drive this car into the ground and $13.50 per month is a very small price to pay to not have to think about what might go wrong over the next 8 years.
 
Alex0913 said:
Does anyone know more about this? I go back and fort between buying the warranty before the 6 month mark or close to the 3 year warranty expiration.
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If you are outside the initial 6 months, 6K miles, the warranty will be higher priced. But it's hard to say how much higher they'll be because there's nothing to compare. For an accord or civic, you could try to get a quote for a 2 yr old with 30K and see what you get compared to a new vehicle warranty. But for the Clarity, we won't know.

I'm getting 8yrs 100K as I expect to continue to drive the car for about 12K a year.
 
Its also worth noting that waiting does not extend the warranty for a longer period. I believe all Honda Cares are from time of purchase. So you’re not gaining anything by waiting (other than timevalue of money).
 
su_A_ve said:
If you are outside the initial 6 months, 6K miles, the warranty will be higher priced. But it's hard to say how much higher they'll be because there's nothing to compare. For an accord or civic, you could try to get a quote for a 2 yr old with 30K and see what you get compared to a new vehicle warranty. But for the Clarity, we won't know.

I'm getting 8yrs 100K as I expect to continue to drive the car for about 12K a year.
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Where did you find the information about the miles/time price increase?
 
LAF said:
remember, you have to have $1300 in repairs during the warranty just to break even. I have never had that much on any honda or toyota over a 10 year period I owned them.
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But NO Honda has ever been this chock full of new tech, with a limited production and no other parts source - a repair is likely to be a very expensive proposition.
 
I hear a lot of people worried about the cost to replace radios, etc. Go to eBay and get it from a salvage if you need it, it really doesn’t cost nearly as much. I always source salvage parts when needed. No warranty for me, I trust this car.
 
Was quoted $1800 for additional 2 years of extended warranty... not worth it and the warranty does not cover battery at all. Nothing is going to break if you are gentle on the pedal.
 
Linkmodo said:
Was quoted $1800 for additional 2 years of extended warranty... not worth it and the warranty does not cover battery at all. Nothing is going to break if you are gentle on the pedal.
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8yr, 100,000m genuine Honda Care is $1,304 from Hyannis Honda on line. Made my dealer match it from their original $2,600 quote.
 
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