end of warranty, need sugestions on xtended warranty

[rlfreese]

My waranty is almost ot and I am looking atgetting a extended warranty before it runs out so it wont cost so much to start. Any sugestions on what one to get. I am new to this and need help on the subject. thanks alot in advance.

[ColonelPanic]

You'll hear many different suggestions on this one.. The ONLY warranty I will ever recommend for your GM vehicle is the GM MajorGuard warranty, case closed. This is by far the best warranty you'll find... Chances are slim to none that you'll run across one of those "bargain" 3rd party warranties that will offer the same protection and be able to use it at every Pontiac dealer in the US, and I think slim just left town... The GMPP is very easy to live with - not that much different than your current factory warranty. Something breaks, I'll call the dealer, schedule an appointment, bring the clunker into the shop, they'll look at it, it gets fixed or the part gets ordered then it gets fixed, done. $0.00. If a rental is required, it is thrown in there somewhere for free for as long as I need it. There isn't anything special you have to do with the claims process unlike some 3rd party warranties. You just show up at any Pontiac dealer and they'll do the rest for you. Just like how things were with your factory warranty because for all intents and purposes, it is your factory warranty.This is the second car i've had the GMPP MajorGuard on, and both times it has been very much worth it! The warranty was expensive but you'll never hear me say I regret buying it. $1875 for zero deductible bumper-to-bumper coverage (sans a few obvious items) that lasts until 87,000 miles. That became pocket change when the transmission died which was $4000+ in parts alone. It was nice, I just gave them the car, they gave me one of theirs, and a week later I had a brand new transmission and not a penny out of pocket. But even before that, the Vibe's horrid reliability kept it in the shop frequently so it had plenty of new parts - it still paid for itself.If you want to consider the GMPP, perhaps try to go to where I signed up for mine online. Try plugging in your VIN and see what happens... They had an interest free financing deal for 15 months when I bought mine, maybe you could finance it out if you needed/wanted to. I didn't have the cash to buy it up front, so I opted to finance it for 15 months @ $112 a month with a down payment of 187.50.There's no doubt in my mind you'll save a (removed) load of cash by going the 3rd party route... Be careful there though. A cheap warranty may look great to your bank account initially, but it may not be such a good deal if they won't cover anything when the need presents itself. There is a lot to consider here... What will you have to go through for the claims process? Where will you be able to take the car? How much traveling will you be doing? If you're even just 75 miles from home and break down, will you be able to find a place that you can take the car? If you're limited to where you can take the car, are you planning on moving, or is there a remote possibility that you may have to move within the next few years? Servicing locations aside, what items will the warranty cover? You're at the mercy of the company as to whether you get anything fixed, if they don't feel like covering something, they won't. How about rentals/loaners? Sometimes the cheapo warranties can be too good to be true.. I've seen it happen before with my buddy's Vibe - he bought the cheapo $1000 special warranty that the dealer was pimpin' when he bought the car. What a great deal, allegedly covers almost everything my GMPP did at almost half the cost! But when it came time for him to use it, the warranty company wanted to fight everything so he had a hard time trying to get anything fixed and ultimately dumped the car because of that. They say extended warranties can be a waste of money... I'm inclined to agree, that cheap $1000 one sure was, while mine that was more expensive bought me something like $7K in new parts. I'm sure there are some good 3rd party guys out there though - just do lot of research before taking the pluge if that's the way you'd like to go.Good luck to ya! Give it some serious thought, it is a big decision. You'll never know for sure how things will turn out. My car was fine until 30K, which was making me think all of this wasn't necessary. But you may never need to use the warranty or one day it may pay off bigtime. I hope things aren't going to be like they were for me... I don't want to see anybody go through that, I guess that's why I push this warranty. It's always better to be safe than sorry, and parts for these cars are bloody expensive so if you're not safe you probably will be sorry!

[michaelgt]

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic » You just show up at any Pontiac dealer and they'll do the rest for you. Just like how things were with your factory warranty because for all intents and purposes, it is your factory warranty. To clarify, the GMPP allows any GM dealer to perform your warranty repair. With the Vibe, you may want to go to a Pontiac dealer. However, if you were traveling in a smaller town with only a Chevrolet dealer, they would be able to repair under the GMPP warranty. I take my GMC to the Chevrolet dealer, because they have a great service department.

[romerohiker]

I recently ran into the same problem (end of warranty on my '05 Vibe) and had considered the GMPP program; but, given the cost for Major Guard (approximately $2200 for 100,000 miles with zero deductible), coupled with the quality (?) of service from the local Pontiac dealer, I decided to check into the Toyota Extra Care warranty. I,ve had oil changes done by the local Toyota dealer, since the car was new, as their service department hours were more user friendly; so, at their suggestion I looked into the Toyota backed program. From what I could tell, coverages were the same and since they have access to virtually all of the parts... From my local dealer, I was quoted a price of approximately $2200 (roughly the same as GMPP Major Guard); so, was still not convinced. Doing a little more legwork in cyberspace, I came across several message boards discussing the Toyota Extra Care Platinum program and kept getting pointed to "Toyota of Greenfield" in Massachusetts. I contacted Troy Dietrich, in the Finance Department and he provided a quote of (are you sitting down?), not $2200; but, a price of $990 for the 100,000 mile Platinum with zero deductible. Your quote will likely be less, as my Vibe has high mileage (bought it in 1/05 and now have 36,000 miles on it), which, I understand moved it into a higher category in determining the cost. Troy was very professional and easy to deal with and I received the paperwork within a couple of days of providing my payment. Bottom line, if you're still looking for a warranty program, this one is hard to beat. Good luck!

[Mavrik]

go with dealership warranty from the manufacture. I can't stress that enough. Sure you could maybe get it cheaper with someone else but they cover repairs within a "reasonable" amount that they decide on. This means you often end up with aftermarket parts of even worse (And yes I HAVE seen this) used parts into your vehicle. Now I don't know about you but unless its an aftermarket performance part... I'm never going with aftermarket generic/used parts on my car ever. GM warranty replaces parts with GM parts. They also don't have a "reasonable" price on the repair to work with. GMPP for example carries on just like your 3 year 36k warranty did. Of course not covering wear or maintanence items. Still you can't go wrong with it. They don't argue with the shop about prices and what not, they just say "yes its covered" or "No its not"I've had good experiences as a service advisor with third party warranty companies. But I've had my fair share of very memerable horrible ones to.