machina

LlBr, I get it now....just saw your avatar. So you are enlightened and at peace with your 997TT.

I read all of Thich Nhat Hanh but i didnt see any mention there of what happens when you need to have your turbos replaced (have to do both btw) to the tune of $10k +

Just kidding around but I am at peace with a warranty. I could fix anything on my old 911's and 914's. Could drop the motors in under 2 hours. But theses new cars are a whole other story.

At Law

I typically walk around with a smug smile on my face and refer to everyone else as "the salt of the earth."
Works for me.

LlBr

LOL! Funny!

RollingArt

My '06 997 goes out of warranty this month. I most likely will not be buying further warranty.

My reasons;
1) So far I've had the car for one year and it has yet to so much as hick-up.
2) It's not a BMW, Mercedes, or Volvo.
3) I hate feeding the insurance companies. I can't believe how much I pay to them already. Insurance for every damn thing.
4) I bought the CPO coverage on my Boxster S when I bought it three years ago. It's an '04 that was three years old with 52k miles. It cost like $2300.00. I never used it for anything. Not a rattle, anything. That car has been flawless. We've all heard (many times) what a nightmare the Boxsters can be.
5) I don't put a lot of miles on the 997.

The warranty coverage is a gamble. Just like at the casinos, the odds are in the ins. co. favor. That's why they are in the business. They don't exist to save the *** of the fools buying German cars. BTW, I don't like gambling at casinos either. You are probably going to come out on the bottom with either bet!

YMMV



Phil

johnny goose

porsche makes a very reliable car..every year there ranked in the top areas in reliability...unless u put serious miles on the car i wouldent bother...just make sure u take car of it...then again my bosses brother has a 996..with 125k and tracks it 10x a year...no issues...amazing....

Mike in CA

An excellent point, and the main reason I rarely purchase extended warranty coverage on anything. Insurance companies pay actuaries big money to calculate their profit point on premiums and figure who will come out ahead; me or them. I just figure I should take advantage of their expertise.

machina

If you want an idea what you are in store for off warranty, go visit the 996 forum.

Mspeedster

IMHO, the chances that you make your money back in a 3 or 4 year extended warranty are not in your favor. It provides good peace of mind. And for some, it's well worth it depending on what goes wrong.

I tend to keep my cars for a longer period of time. This is my first Porsche, so only time will tell. But in my past experiences with BMW and Mercedes, they hold up pretty well for about the first 7 years or so. After that, things start to go. My E55 AMG is almost 9 years old. It has been super reliable, but in the past year or so, just normal wear of tires, brake job, engine mounts, a/c condensor needing replacement, and other routine maintenance have accounted for well over $3K to keep the car running. But if I had bought an extended warranty for it, it would have been totally wasted. All the expenses seem to be coming now, much of it normal wear and tear that wouldn't be covered by warranty anyway.

Palmbeacher

So then the odds would be beyond astronomical that I'd make my money back and sometimes 2x-3x...on 6 BMW's, 2 Mercedes, and 3 Volvo's...and yet, that's exactly what has happened. And it was all relatively minor repairs, no blown engines or transmissions, and none of those cars had something as ominous as IMS looming over them. Maybe when the companies factor in all the warranties they sell on Hondas and Lexuses etc that need little or no repairs, they figure it's good business to take the pipe on those for the German cars, so guys like me will tell everyone to buy an extended warranty

Mike in CA

No doubt, there are horror stories where warranty coverage saved thousands in repair costs. But for each story of recovered cost, there are several instances where extended coverage never paid for itself. That's a statistical fact, and why insurance companies stay in business. The numbers say you are most likely to lose making that bet. If you're dealing with possible financial catastrophe, passing on health or liability insurance for example, the risk of not being covered is too great for most people. With extended warranties, OTOH, the certain cost of coverage (which may not be all that great anyway) versus the relatively low probability of an outrageously expensive covered repair which won't ruin me in any event, makes it a chance I'm willing to take.

Mspeedster

No that's not what I said. You omitted the part where I stated "And for some, it's well worth it depending on what goes wrong." Which happens to be you.

In my own personal case, all of my cars have held up very well. OTOH, I have friends who are very happy they bought extended warranties and have made more than their money back, like you have.

But as others have stated, these companies track the statistics very closely. It's a must for them to remain profitable. Hence, the chances are that more will fall into my category vs. your catergory.

Mspeedster

While this is a factor, prices for extended warranties are usually tailored to the make and model you own. The warranties for the cheaper more reliable makes will be cheaper as well.

Having said this, $2500-$3000 is cheap for peace of mind on a car like the 911. I wouldn't argue heavily against anyone who wants to purchase an extended warranty.

Jastx

Mine is on CPO until mid-'11. At that time, if I expect to keep it, I will buy the warranty (I think it was EasyCare) through my local dealer, Boardwalk. When I was searching for my car, I found a couple of non-CPO choices and researched these warranties. My dealer's price was below others for the same coverage. They only sold the Platinum version that covered everything. And, if I had them do the work...zero deductible. That works great for me. My car could be flawless like others' and like so far but the engine could also blow at any moment without warning. This makes that possibility a non-issue.

cbzzoom

Warranty prices are of course very specifically designed to make a profit for the underwriter.

That means on average they are by design a bad deal in terms of pure monetary EV. But there are other considerations when you take into account mental anguish and fund limitations.

Why would you want a warranty ?

1. You are a worrier and it gives you piece of mind. Or if you know that unlikely catastrophes make you very upset, maybe having the warranty is worth it just for preservation of your sanity if your engine does blow.

2. You know something that the underwriter doesn't know - eg. if you treat your car very badly (though not in a way that voids warranty), a warranty mighty be a good deal for you. (conversely if you treat your car better than average, that makes a warranty a worse deal).

3. You need to amortize risk for some reason. For example if you cannot afford an engine rebuild and absolutely must keep your Porsche running, a warranty is called for.

4. It can be a hedge against imperfect information; one case is if you bought your car used, you don't know how the previous owner treated the car or if it had any undocumented major problems during that time. CPO is nice for this reason.

jonah5

Thanks for the your thoughts, on both sides of the fence. My personal experience has been to never buy extended warranties for anything-the one lone exception was for a 2006 Honda Odyssey which I bought for my wife on her birthday (surprise present btw), and she felt more comfortable if we bought the extended warranty. So we did, and of course, the van has been more than rock-solid this whole time-no issues whatsoever and that warranty will be up in a few months; no, I'm not planning on renewing that. I also have a 1997 Audi A4 quattro, long out of warranty, with over 100,000 miles and also without any major problems other than the usual wear and tear (biggest expense were rusted exhaust downpipe and timing belt change-done at local Goodyear shop for hundreds less than at the dealer). So far so good with the Porsche and after reading your comments I'm leaning towards not buying a warranty. A friend of mine just recently gave me the name of a guy who used to work at a Porsche/Audi dealer who's done work for his Audi for a lot less too, so that's an option for me if I ever need repairs done. In the meantime I'll continue to do the routine maintenance myself as others on this forum do.
My wife just told me my warranty is not up until next month so I have a couple more weeks to think about it. Loving that car though!!!!!