# Is Car Repair Insurance Worth It ??



## JJ/Uber/Miami (Jun 24, 2015)

Hey Everybody....just want to pick your brains for some advice.

I have a 2014 Toyota Corolla, still under factory warranty of course. The other day I got a random phone call from someone trying to sell car repair insurance to me. At first I didn't know what they meant and told them I already have car insurance. They corrected me and went on to explain that this particular insurance pays for any major repairs the car might need in case of engine failure/breakdown. They said I could even choose my own repair shop and would be out of pocket for nothing.

I seriously don't think I need this kind of insurance on a Toyota, but one never knows. After my factory warranty is no longer valid, should I just purchase an extended warranty or go for this repair insurance thing?? I know transmissions, radiators, shocks, struts, brakes can cost a fortune.

Please advise. Thank you all !!!!


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## oobaah (Oct 6, 2015)

DONT


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## Altima ATL (Jul 13, 2015)

These calls are a scam.

When you have cause to claim, they will not pay due to...... (put your own answer in here).

Is about as reliable as the Uber guarantees.

Just don't waste your money - the dealer warranties are better - if you need maybe look to extending the one you already have.


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## 14gIV (Dec 12, 2015)

lol


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## Another Uber Driver (May 27, 2015)

I always have wondered about those things.

One thing about which you might want to be sure is if there is any coverage extended to vehicles used to haul passengers for compensation. Many of these types of policies contain exclusions for "commercial use", which is usually defined as anything that involves an exchange of funds.


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## JJ/Uber/Miami (Jun 24, 2015)

14gIV said:


> lol


You poor thing. You got 1 star?? I'm sure you deserved it.....LOL


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## 5 Star Guy (Nov 7, 2015)

You will be screwed if you fall for it. They pay the shop, you can't get your car until someone pays for it. You hope to get reimbursed and good luck with that. It does sound good, some have a discount like Costco on parts and some repair shops. I did get a factory extended warranty, I'm not sure if I broke even but its a good feeling to know you have it, when you plan on running the car into the ground.


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## JJ/Uber/Miami (Jun 24, 2015)

5 Star Guy said:


> You will be screwed if you fall for it. They pay the shop, you can't get your car until someone pays for it. You hope to get reimbursed and good luck with that. It does sound good, some have a discount like Costco on parts and some repair shops. I did get a factory extended warranty, I'm not sure if I broke even but its a good feeling to know you have it, when you plan on running the car into the ground.


I also told the rep that i could just buy an extended warranty, but he said that does not cover the cost of engine repairs. It's more like a bumper to bumper warranty on stuff like headlights, tires, broken mirrors, windshield wipers and other cosmetic things.

I am not going to buy this insurance, but these people have given me something to think about. I need to take a look at my warranty to see what's what, because when I purchased the car I wasn't worried about the engine. After all, it's a Toyota. I'm also going to inquire of my present insurer, State Farm, to see what they say about it in my policy.


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## CityGirl (Nov 29, 2014)

If you want an extended warranty, buy it from a reputable source, i.e. the manufacturer. You are limited as to when you can get them, mine had to be within 36,000 miles. Mine has paid for itself, and with heavy Uber miles, I'm glad I have it. But with a Toyota, you are less likely to need it than I am with a Jeep.


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## EcoboostMKS (Nov 6, 2015)

Forget the fact that this is probably just some scam. Why would you even consider this if your car is still under warranty? You don't have to pay for anything already.


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## JJ/Uber/Miami (Jun 24, 2015)

EcoboostMKS said:


> Forget the fact that this is probably just some scam. Why would you even consider this if your car is still under warranty? You don't have to pay for anything already.


If you reread my original post, I said I would consider this only AFTER my warranty expires.


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## EcoboostMKS (Nov 6, 2015)

JJ/Uber/Miami said:


> If you reread my original post, I said I would consider this only AFTER my warranty expires.


Don't do it. Find a good mechanic and repair the car when necessary. Toyotas are cheap and easy to fix anyways.


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## JJ/Uber/Miami (Jun 24, 2015)

EcoboostMKS said:


> Don't do it. Find a good mechanic and repair the car when necessary. Toyotas are cheap and easy to fix anyways.


Thank you. I'm not going to do it. After a little more research, I found out that for Toyotas, Hondas and Chevy this insurance is a waste of money. However, it is recommended for high end brands like Mercedes, BMW, and Jaguar due to high levels of engine failure after 100,000 miles.

If I were an owner of those brands, I would be highly upset. Why pay all that money for less reliability?? I'm not so jealous now


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## dirtylee (Sep 2, 2015)

Worthless imho. Since you drive a toyota, pay close attention to oil consumption between oil changes. Once you get past 1qt per 1k miles, sell it fast.


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## Seastriper (Jul 1, 2015)

I bought mine for the first time through the dealer. It saved me a "shit load" of money... Expensive but was worth it in my case. It is a total CRAP SHOOT! If your doing rideshare ---> I would ---> just never mention it! IMO


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## JJ/Uber/Miami (Jun 24, 2015)

dirtylee said:


> Worthless imho. Since you drive a toyota, pay close attention to oil consumption between oil changes. Once you get past 1qt per 1k miles, sell it fast.


I'm sorry, I have no idea how to gauge oil consumption. I just have it changed when the dashboard indicator tells me it's time.

I had a 1994 Corolla and I took terrible care of that car. No regular maintenance, oil changes or anything. I think I had the oil changed once in six years, then got into a front end accident and punctured the radiator. I didnt have the money to repair it, but that car still kept running like a champ for three more years. That's why I bought the same brand. Hopefully it is as strong as its predecessor.


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## EcoboostMKS (Nov 6, 2015)

JJ/Uber/Miami said:


> I'm sorry, I have no idea how to gauge oil consumption. I just have it changed when the dashboard indicator tells me it's time.
> 
> I had a 1994 Corolla and I took terrible care of that car. No regular maintenance, oil changes or anything. I think I had the oil changed once in six years, then got into a front end accident and punctured the radiator. I didnt have the money to repair it, but that car still kept running like a champ for three more years. That's why I bought the same brand. Hopefully it is as strong as its predecessor.


One of the worst things, if not the worst thing you can do is neglect your oil. Sludge will build up over time and destroy your engine. Get your oil changed in accordance to your owner's manual. Properly maintain a car and it should treat you well.


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## 14gIV (Dec 12, 2015)

JJ/Uber/Miami said:


> You poor thing. You got 1 star?? I'm sure you deserved it.....LOL


I don't care what my rating is. I've been picked up everyone I asked for a ride


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## maui (Dec 22, 2015)

Look for EXTENDED WARRANTY from your Dealer. I had this on my old Infiniti, it did pay for itself, but most of these 3rd party plans are a scam or don't cover you for what you think. Also know what is covered and what is wear and tear.


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## 5 Star Guy (Nov 7, 2015)

Even with the manufacturer extended warranty there is an option to choose for the length of coverage, something like three, five or seven years. Never buy a car unless you are going to keep it over four years. If you do keep it for over four years, how many additional years do you plan to keep it for? With the recession people were keeping their car for ten to eleven years, which was a record. When the economy improved people realized new cars were safer and had better gas mileage. I don't know the new average, however its always been rare to have a car ten years. I got the seven year extended warranty and kept my SUV for almost eleven years until I spent too much to keep it and realized how bad the MPG was. I got my extended online from a dealer out of state I had not done business with. It was legit, I don't know if they are still doing that.


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## maui (Dec 22, 2015)

5 Star Guy said:


> Even with the manufacturer extended warranty there is an option to choose for the length of coverage, something like three, five or seven years. Never buy a car unless you are going to keep it over four years. If you do keep it for over four years, how many additional years do you plan to keep it for? With the recession people were keeping their car for ten to eleven years, which was a record. When the economy improved people realized new cars were safer and had better gas mileage. I don't know the new average, however its always been rare to have a car ten years. I got the seven year extended warranty and kept my SUV for almost eleven years until I spent too much to keep it and realized how bad the MPG was. I got my extended online from a dealer out of state I had not done business with. It was legit, I don't know if they are still doing that.


Not sure if I am reading your post wrong, but the average age of a vehicle on the road has been increasing.

There have been a large number of new car sales, bit in 1995, average car was 8.4 years, and today it is 11.

This is from Polk.

In 2014, Average age was 11.4 years
2011 was 11.1
2008 was 10.8

it is projected that 12+ yr old vehicles will increase by 15% by 2019

Regarding warranty, the biggest factor is useage - light mileage, you want more year, heavy driving, you want more miles.

I also got my warranty out of state. Most people don't realize you can price shop this as well


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## Walkersm (Apr 15, 2014)

Some things to think about when shopping for an extended warranty:

Deductibles - YOU can negotiate the deductible on the contract and pay careful attention to the language it uses. Does it says a $100 deductible per visit or per Repair? Here's how that gets expensive. You got a steering issue, an oil leak and a check engine light so you take it into the mechanic. You are only going to have to pay $100 to get all this fixed right? Wrong. You may have to pay $300 for three distinct problems.

Items covered - Unless you know a lot about cars this is where they usually get you. They like to exclude a many items as possible from being covered. So they may say the exhaust is not covered. You think "fine, nothing ever goes wrong with the exhaust" But one component of the exhaust the catalytic converter if gone bad may total out your car as they can be upwards of $1500.00. They also like to exclude "normal wear" items and they can determine many items are "normal wear" and it''s hard for the repair facility to fight them on it.

Special Maintenance needed - Just saw a post about this with a guy that has a Volvo. Bought the warranty at the dealer but it was through a third party. In the fine print it listed he must get an "Engine Flush" every year or the warranty was voided. But of course he went to the Volvo dealer for maintenance and Volvo does not even recommend any sort of Engine flush. SO years later the engine blew. He went to file a claim and was denied based on lack of maintenance even-though he did everything Volvo stated he is to do. That is a situation that truly sucks. This is why a factory extended warranty is a bit better but then you usually always have to bring it to the cars dealers for repairs as opposed to any shop.

Negotiate the price. The markup on these contracts is redick so negotiate hard for a lower cost and lower deductible (or even none at all) or more coverage.

And the most important part make sure they do not exclude vehicle used for commercial purposes. If they are facing installing a new engine for you they will look at your mileage and say something to the effect of: In our experience cars that travel 30K miles a year are used in commercial operations. We are denying the claim based on that, take us to arbitration if you want to fight it but there we will ask for your sources of income to be presented to make sure you are not using your car for commercial purposes.


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## JJ/Uber/Miami (Jun 24, 2015)

Walkersm said:


> Some things to think about when shopping for an extended warranty:
> 
> Deductibles - YOU can negotiate the deductible on the contract and pay careful attention to the language it uses. Does it says a $100 deductible per visit or per Repair? Here's how that gets expensive. You got a steering issue, an oil leak and a check engine light so you take it into the mechanic. You are only going to have to pay $100 to get all this fixed right? Wrong. You may have to pay $300 for three distinct problems.
> 
> ...


Thank you so much for all that useful info. I got a call from Toyota today about an extended warranty. Since my car is a 2014 with just under 17,000 miles, they quoted 5yr/75,000 miles for $2400. They make it sound like such a wonderful deal, but it seems like a lot to me. I have until June 2017 on my current warranty. I'm going to crunch some numbers to see if it's worth it and shop around for an out-of-state warranty. I'll let you know what I find.


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## Older Chauffeur (Oct 16, 2014)

That original warranty is probably for three years or 36K miles, whichever comes first. You are halfway through on both counts. But if you are driving for Uber/Lyft you will most likely hit the mileage limit sooner. The $2400 price is way out of line. The cost to the dealer probably under $1000.00, the rest is pure profit. 
I have only bought one, which was the factory sponsored Toyota Platinum 7/75 plan for a Prius. When I sold the car it had a year and 12K miles remaining, so it was a good selling point to the private buyer. The only claim I had under it was for rear hatch struts, which through the dealer were about $225 IIRC, and it was covered with no deductible for me to pay. Was it worth it? In my case it was not, even though I paid only about $1100 at the time I bought the car. Retail then was around $2000, but that was ten years ago. Some piece of mind, of course, but I didn't buy it for my current Prius Plugin, either.
Someone made a valid point re the commercial use; read the exclusions carefully. Also be sure that there are no restrictions as to where it is purchased and where it is valid.
Another idea is to take that money and set it aside for future repairs. The warranty issuer, in this case Toyota, is betting that you won't need any covered repairs.
Years ago Consumer Reports suggested that one wait to buy an extended warranty until the factory one was about to expire. By then the car would have shown by its incidence of repair whether such a warranty was necessary.
Good luck, whatever you decide.


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## Hunt to Eat (Nov 19, 2015)

You're driving a Toyota. You don't need an extended warranty. Now, if you were driving a tater GM product I may have different advice for you.


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## 5 Star Guy (Nov 7, 2015)

Do you plan on keeping your car 8 years or getting a self driving car, all electric, or at least one with Google or Apple installed, sooner?


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## JJ/Uber/Miami (Jun 24, 2015)

5 Star Guy said:


> Do you plan on keeping your car 8 years or getting a self driving car, all electric, or at least one with Google or Apple installed, sooner?


I plan on keeping my car as long as it will run. No sense wasting $17,000.....


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## 5 Star Guy (Nov 7, 2015)

JJ/Uber/Miami said:


> I plan on keeping my car as long as it will run. No sense wasting $17,000.....


That's part of the catch, unless you paid cash for your car and didn't buy it with a trade-in, you lost on the trade in and the interest, paying extra for it. The value of it decreases substantially just on age alone and you're doing this job on top of everything else so the cost of mileage is up. The cost for the extended warranty assuming you're not paying interest on the credit card too. The incentives to buy your used car above book value is back, in that case you're closer to getting some of your money back. Take a look at some of the payments on new cars, better safety features and fuel efficiency, you might consider not keeping it that long, getting more on trade-in and starting the cycle of paying too much all over again.


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## JJ/Uber/Miami (Jun 24, 2015)

5 Star Guy said:


> That's part of the catch, unless you paid cash for your car and didn't buy it with a trade-in, you lost on the trade in and the interest, paying extra for it. The value of it decreases substantially just on age alone and you're doing this job on top of everything else so the cost of mileage is up. The cost for the extended warranty assuming you're not paying interest on the credit card too. The incentives to buy your used car above book value is back, in that case you're closer to getting some of your money back. Take a look at some of the payments on new cars, better safety features and fuel efficiency, you might consider not keeping it that long, getting more on trade-in and starting the cycle of paying too much all over again.


I'm sorry, I should have made it clearer, I stopped doing Uber in June 2015. Found out no insurance company in Florida covers rideshare, and I was not about to spend money on a commercial policy. I just drive for personal/household reasons, and was pondering the feasibility of repair insurance in my case.


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## 5 Star Guy (Nov 7, 2015)

I kept my second to last car for almost 11 years since I was deeply attached to it. If I were to buy a car again, I've been leasing them, I'd take all of these expenses you're adding to the sticker price, interest, the money you lost on your trade-in, taxes you paid upfront, extended warranty and divide that by ten years for a better ball park estimate. Since you must keep your car over four years to get any benefit over leasing, you need to find out when the bottom falls out and the car is not worth keeping, that is between 4.5 and less than 10 years. Eight years like the extended warranty you're looking at in your case, might be past that significant drop in value where the value of the car drops and the costs increase. There's a definite gray area/gamble there.


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