JustinCase

Hah! One of the best things about being human is the lack of necessity to be consistent. I have been a near-violent anti-extended warranty advocate my entire life -- appliances, computers, you name it. My wife always tenses up and has to implore me not to go nuclear when buying a new car and they bring up extended warranties. My question is always, "Why are you trying to sell me a defective car? I know that extended warranty (i.e., insurance) companies always make money by betting this car will NOT fail. You, the car salesman, ARE sitting here betting that this brand-new car WILL fail, are you not! If so, why should I even buy it?" Etc., etc. She always warns the car salesman "Do NOT bring up extended warranties if you want this sale!" She's worried about my blood pressure, if not a physical altercation. (Actually, I kind of enjoy the confrontation -- strangely, it relaxes me.)

I never got an extended warranty on my 997, and I ended up having to rebuild the engine because of bore score. My wife drives a 2016 Macan we bought new. As its factory warranty was getting ready to expire, I checked the Macan forums and discovered that a LOT of people were either having transfer case issues or leaky (over-torqued) valve covers, both very expensive repairs. Further, Charles Navarro took one look at our UOA and told me that most of the Alusil in one or more cylinders has probably worn away (remember, I have some experience with bore score).

Yet my wife LOVES her Macan. Swapping it out is not an option. Against my long-standing and emphatic principles, we bought the longest term, longest mile, full-coverage extended warranty we could find for the Macan as I am anticipating near-certain expensive problems. In other words, the probability of eventually getting more than my money back is almost 100%.

Within two weeks (!) of her factory warranty expiring, her radiator thermostat failed. Based on 45 years of garage mechanics, I was expecting a $150 part and maybe an hour's labor -- even with Porsche tax, maybe $500. Well, nothing's simple anymore. They had to remove the front bumper and a bunch of other things to get to it, hours of labor, and a final bill of over $3,000, absent a warranty. For a thermostat!

Thanks to the first extended warranty I have ever purchased, our out-of-pocket cost of the deductible was close to reasonable for a thermostat change, and nearly HALF of the extended warranty total cost was recovered. Well, now, that's living right, isn't it?

My only (inexperienced) advice is to make sure any extended warranty is transferable, so if you do sell the car, its market value will be a little higher.

Balr14

I sold my 997.2 because I couldn't get an extended warranty. My next 911 will be CPO followed by an extended warranty.

sandwedge

What year was it? Mileage?

slickster85

I just bought a 997.2 and was willing a pay a premium as it still had 19 months of CPO left. Nothing wrong with a warranty!

Balr14

2009 with 56k miles. All I can figure is there is something about the car I didn't know about and nobody would tell me. Everyone was anxious to give me an extended warranty until they checked the VIN, then would just say they can't insure it. Same story from 5 companies. I was getting scared. I have some circumstantial evidence that it was modified by a racing shop, but nothing concrete or specific. Also 2 indie garages said it was faster than it should be.

sandwedge

Weird that neither of the warranty companies you inquired with would tell you what they had against your car. Age of the car? Would be easy enough to tell you. I thought Fidelity would write policies for cars up to 13 years old but I've also heard 10 years so maybe that's the number.