RV Extended Warranties - Self insure or buy one?

[Travelknowing]

We are on the fence about buying an extended warranty and evaluating 5 year warranties from RV Elite Plus ($4,300) and XtraRide ($4,595).... or not buying a warranty at all!

I'd love to hear your experience with one of these warranties - would you buy it again? Was it worth it? --- or without a warranty and how that worked out for you.

Thanks!
Rebecca

[mumkin]

I never buy extended warranties for anything. I consider them a waste of money... mainly enriching the dealer and the insurance company... and all too often they wiggle out of paying the claims.

Put that amount of money in the bank and add to it annually... withdrawing to pay for any needed repairs.

I've owned 3 RVs and if I added all the repairs together, I wouldn't have spent half that amount of money in 14 years... including normal service.

[Ron J. Moore]

When I went to buy my first TT back in the day, an "honest" old salesman said to never take those warranties; his suggestion was to put the money in the bank, if you need repairs, pay for them. I have done that, and over the years, I have had a nice little savings account attributed to "extended warranties." In the years following this suggestion, I said I once meant an "honorable salesman." Even today, with the normal warranty, I read people not being able to get the service, having to wait until hell freezes over, seems the normal warranty is but a piece of worthless paper....easier to find a place to do the repair if we can't, and eat the bill, for expediency. That's my BS, and I'm stickin 2 it!!!! Ron

[avanti]

Look at it this way:
If the extended warranty people paid out more than they took in, how long would they stay in business? It is a zero-sum game. Yes, you might get "lucky". You might get lucky at a roulette wheel, too--your odds are probably better there.

Total waste of money.

[Bud]

There are two primary reasons to buy insurance:

1) You can't afford the loss.

2) It is a good deal because the odds are in your favor, a rare event.

Bud

[Doneworking]

NO!! You will be ahead following the advice above about banking the "warranty" premium.

[InterBlog]

Anyone who considers a warranty should make sure they get acceptable details in writing. Most Class Bs have the same makes and models of interior fittings and warranty horror stories abound, whether the warranty is on the initial purchase or after the fact.

So, for instance, if your Dometic fridge goes out, you should have something in writing saying that your warranty will be honored in a specific reasonable time frame, such as ten days. Not ten WEEKS like I was quoted for a fridge that was still covered by a new-purchase warranty.

Repair shops tend to do paying work first, warranty work second. If an owner has to wait ten weeks for a mission-critical part, there goes the entire summer. What are long delays worth to you in the grand scheme of things? To me, it says that paying for that warranty was worse than useless. There is no upside - the owner loses their initial financial outlay for the warranty's cost, they lose the warranty'd part, and as a result of (1) and (2), they also (3) lose their travel time and opportunity.

[booster]

There is another, kind of obscure, reason to not get an extended warranty, especially a long one,on the RV parts of the van. If you are locked into a 5 or 6 year warranty on all the stuff in the van, you are really locked into those parts. If the frig dies and you think it might be a good time to uprgrade to a compressor frig, you pay for it and lose any future coverage, even though you have already paid for coverage. Same would apply to the charging systems, electronics, etc. Of course, the warranty folks are also always looking for ways to deny claims, so even changes that shouldn't void a warranty can turn into a battle.

[gerrym51]

I agree with no warranty on the rv maker part.

However an 'original' extended on the van part might be a plus. However you need to make sure it's an extension of the van makers original 36 month warranty.

Those can be purchased from the original manufacturer-gm-chrysler/fiat-ford-however i found out that if you research this-you will find some dealers of each brand can sell you the same warranty at a cheaper price.

I would not buy a 3rd party warranty

[Mfturner]

My wife suggested one more consideration:

If this is to be your daily driver AND you have no other alternatives to get to a daily job, AND your finances couldn't survive a rare, unlikely, expensive repair on the chassis, then you might look into extending the warranty on the chassis.

I know that there are people further towards the Feeler vs Thinker spectrum, who would be emotionally destroyed if they are the recipient of a six sigma rare $20k total repair bill even if they could afford it. But extended warranty products are terrible deals financially. A friend back in the nineties helped with a federal audit of a warranty company and back then, if you payed $1000, half went to the guy across the table, and on average 20% of what was left was the expected payout. Yes, on average, only $100 for every $1000 was the expected date of return. Of course there were unlucky folks that got $20k payouts, and if enough of those coincided then the warranty company needed the float to cover, which is actually why they must overcharge that much.

But you pay a lot if you cannot self insure

[avanti]

Anyone who thinks that they can afford to buy a new B-van but not to self-insure for repairs needs to talk to their life-coach.

[SteveJ]

Originally Posted by Mfturner

My wife suggested one more consideration:

If this is to be your daily driver AND you have no other alternatives to get to a daily job, AND your finances couldn't survive a rare, unlikely, expensive repair on the chassis, then you might look into extending the warranty on the chassis.

I know that there are people further towards the Feeler vs Thinker spectrum, who would be emotionally destroyed if they are the recipient of a six sigma rare $20k total repair bill even if they could afford it. But extended warranty products are terrible deals financially. A friend back in the nineties helped with a federal audit of a warranty company and back then, if you payed $1000, half went to the guy across the table, and on average 20% of what was left was the expected payout. Yes, on average, only $100 for every $1000 was the expected date of return. Of course there were unlucky folks that got $20k payouts, and if enough of those coincided then the warranty company needed the float to cover, which is actually why they must overcharge that much.

But you pay a lot of you cannot self insure

I'm thinkin' if this is a daily driver that would be even more reason to not get a 3rd party warranty after hearing about delays and such.

Just take that money and put it into a maintenance account. Depending on circumstances and if preventative maintenance is self performed or hired out, additional contributions of 5-10 cents/mile may be prudent.

[JohnnyFry]

I would never consider buying an extended warranty. They are huge moneymakers for the selling dealership, so huge, in fact, that some places give the salesman up 50% commission!
Take the money, put it in the bank and draw on it if you need service.

IMHO,
John