Extended Warranty? Thoughts?

Is the extended waranty a good idea? I had a 6 year extension on my ST13 and only used it once in 4 years. What do you guys think? I've come accross a good deal on an RWB 07 with less than 400 miles, but not sure if I should do the extension.

Thanks

 

In general I would say no it is not worth it. However, if you think you will sell the bike after a couple of years it will increase resale value and ease of selling. I don't think you will get back what you paid for the extended warranty but you will get back some of it.

As a general rule if you took the extended warranty on everything you buy you will pay a lot more than just paying for whatever repairs are required. It is kind of like insurance, which in my view is only to cover the really big things that will cause serious financial problems if it goes wrong. For example the house burning down or wrecking the car.

Why do you think companies push these extra warranties so hard? In my view it is because they make a LOT of money off them which of course comes out of the purchasers pocket. For the VFR I think you are better off to simply maintain the bike well and it will cost you less in the long run.

 

IMHO do it. You can do it any time in the first year of ownership, and it really helps the resale value, as long as you have the 500 clams to spare...

Year one: needed new clutch due to freak self-destruction, warranty saved me 500 bones right there. If that, or anything else, ever happens again, the warranty has already paid for itself...

I am fighting with this too right now though, since I need to buy it or not by Feb. 11th!!!

 

The dealer makes a TON of money on these extended warrantys. I just put the cost of the extended warranty in a money market account, let it draw a little intrest. Then, if the bike breaks, pull a few clams out of that account. The warranty company has determined the likelihood of your bike breaking, and how much an average repair costs them, plus their profit. I wouldn't buy it. Not to say they never pay off, but I'd take the chance myself.

 

Extended warrenty or not. I guess it really depends on just how much wear and tear to expect. If you see yourself as the week-end rider and very rarely go on long trips, than maybe the extended warrenty may not pay itself off.

I purchased my and within two years, I had to warrenty my front fender from cracking, my speedometer for being defective, and retecfier for going bad. Besides those issuses, my viffer has been pretty much very reliable.

One thing to note is, you can always purchase your extended warrenty before your original warrenty runs out.

I believe the biggest benefit of having an extended warrenty is covering high labor costs. If you are mechanically inclined, you probally better off not purchasing it.

 

Sounds like most here would pass on the EW. I'll check with some of my HSTA buddies too. Doesn't sound like any serious problems with the V4 anyway. Maybe I'll just ride it and decide after a few months. Gotta heal first.:crutch:

Thanks

 

My philosophy is that if something is going to break, in most cases, it does it early on - well within the factory warranty. You many also want to take a closer look at exactly what is and what is not covered. In most cases, an extended warranty will not pay for itself.

 

I never buy the extended warranty on anything, I agree with Stewart on if something is going to break it's early on, 90% of the time the cost of the extended warranty is more than the cost of the repairs that would be covered during the duration of the warranty.

 

I was the finance manger at a Honda store, and I sold the Honda warranty every day. I do not know what it costs now but the 4 year extension used to be $690.00. This only cost the the dealer $345.00, I would guess that the price is still double the cost. The Honda warranty is great because it is fully transferable, however I have never purchased an extension on any of my bikes. If you decide you want the warranty, try making a deal with the finance manager, they want to sell this bad, because it is a good portion of his or her pay

 

It's kind of like insurance, great if you need it but if you don't absolutely no return on your money. Myself, I don't purchase extended warranties for anything. I figure with all the money I have saved from not purchasing extended warranties on all of the vehicles, electronics, etc. I have purchased over the years I saved far and above what any catastrophic repair could cost. And could it happen? How often would it occur? Not worth it in my opinion.

 

Put me in the no camp as well.
Let's say I had a catastrophic failure on the VFR tomorrow of some part that would have been covered, but instead will cost me $1,200. Obviously, ouch! And to look at it quick you would say, well damn you would have been better off spending $650 (or however much it costs) to get the extended warranty. And you would obviously be right in this one instance. But if you added up what I would have spent over the years for an extended warranty on all the new or close to new vehicles I have bought, and never would have used, those would add up to way more than $1,200. Heck, just on motorcycles alone that would be a couple grand in the last 15 years or so.
I buy reliable vehicles, mostly Honda & Toyota, so I have never needed an extended warranty.

 

Buy the warrenty, everyone I've had was transferable & if the guy didn't want to pay the extra bones to get it with the bike, I turned it back in & they pro-rated it & got some $$$ back.

All my warrenties have paid for themselves from work being down.
I don't have bad luck, I'm just hard on vehicles & they break.

 

As a former Honda sales manager I would say forget the extended warranty and instead invest the money in a Handy motorcycle lift.

http://www.webbikeworld.com/motorcycle-table-lift/

You will wonder how you ever survived without one. My wife gave me one for my birthday years ago.

It was the best present ever!

 

This is the first new Honda bike I've bought, and based on the recent luck I've had with brand new Honda/Acura cars, the extended factory warranty seemed worth the cost. I know these bikes are reliable, but I fear that I could have the one where the engine or transmission fails within the first year, or something screwy like that.

 

I would not buy an extended warranty on anything. I typically do my homework up-front, buy stuff with good repair history, and fix what goes bad in-house. My VFR has only needed a R/R since 1994, and that was last year; long after an extended package would have gone belly up.

....your results may differ.... This is IMHO.

 

I'll just put my two cents worth in here...
I have the extended warranty, and I have had it on every Honda bike (4) that I have ever owned. I never used it.
The last two times, I did not pay for it. Try getting the dealer to throw it in to close the deal. They will huff n' puff, but they will do it.
I also recommend buying in the fall and winter, when it's hard to make a living selling bikes.

Mac

 

but you have to realize you aren't getting it for "free." They are still looking at bringing in a minimum amount of $$ in the transaction. So whatever that warranty is costing them, you could have likely gotten that off the price, or gotten it in some add-ons. I would rather take the money off the price of the bike, than on a ext. warranty.

 

That's a very good point and have you ever thought how much those "extended warranties" get used? They make money hand over fist selling them since more often than not they don't get used. Why do you think the Auto, motorcycle and electronic industries sell them? Now stores like Best Buy sell extended warranties not related to the manufacuture because there is such good money in pushing them. Not worth it IMHO.

 

A couple of days ago I received a letter from Honda which said that the
1-year factory warranty on my '07 VFR 800A (which I purchased new, in the crate, last April) would soon expire, and would I like to purchase a Honda Protection Plan before it's too late?

The Honda Protection Plan offered an additional 12, 24, 36, or 48 months of extended coverage for my VFR. I purchased 36 months at a cost of
$645.00, which includes no deductable, nationwide coverage, transferable warranty, as well as Honda parts, etc. Here's why I chose to purchase Honda's 36 month extended warranty...

1) I once purchased a new 2001 4WD Ford Explorer, along with Ford's 100,000 mile extended warranty. Because of my job, travel habits, etc., I'll quickly rack up a lot of miles on a new vehicle. Indeed, by the summer of 2003 my Explorer had passed the 36,000 mile mark, and then, almost overnight, I began having serious problems with the truck's transmission, as well as a failed oxygen sensor. Had it not been for the Ford extended warranty (which also entitled me to free rental cars for as long as the truck was laid up in the shop) this nightmare would've been a financial disaster for me.

That miserable Explorer ended up spending much of the summer of 2003 in the shop while they repeatedly 'tried' to fix the tranny, and the cost I would've otherwise incurred in rental car fees alone would've exceeded the cost of the extended factory warranty, not to even mention the costs for labor and parts had I not had the extended warranty. Once the truck was back in my possession in early 9/03, I promptly drove it to a Toyota dealership where I traded it in on a brand new 2003 AWD 4Runner Limited. The 100,000 mile extended warranty on the Ford was transferable, so it increased its trade-in value a bit.

2) Having learned from my experiences with the Ford Explorer and the wisdom of purchasing a factory extended warranty, I ponied up another $1000.00 for Toyota's 100,000 mile Platinum extended warranty. Several of my friends and family members questioned this additional expense, since after all, unlike U.S. car manufacturers, which tend to build disposable vehicles, Toyota (and Honda) are legendary for their reliability. Yeah, right. F*ck that, I bought the Platinum extended warranty, because once bit, twice shy.

Well, sometime after my 2003 AWD 4Runner (which I still own and love) exceeded the factory warranty for non-drivetrain parts, I began having serious problems with the truck's moonroof. Basically, the gears within the moonroof jammed and destroyed themselves, which required replacement of much of the moonroof's mechanisms. Once again, a factory extended warranty saved my ass, and aside from paying for the cost and labor of these repairs (which were well over $1000.00), the Platinum warranty also entitled me to free rental vehicles. Moreover, even if the 4Runner had to go into the shop overnight or even a few days for routine service as well as other work not covered under warranty, I still got a free rental car under the terms of the Platinum plan for as long as the vehicle was shopped. You do the math.

3) Getting back to Honda motorcycles... yes, they have a track record of long-term reliability, but then there are also situations such as this recent thread here at VFRWorld.com: http://vfrworld.com/forums/mechanics-garage/21094-help-repair-collective-opinions-needed.html. Again, you do the math. Had this person purchased a Honda extended warranty, he would not now be sweating the costs of just trying to get the problem diagnosed, let alone fixing it.

On the other hand, if you decide to purchase an extended warranty for a new motorcycle, I think it's wise to avoid most any private, 2nd or 3rd party providers. If it isn't an extended warranty offered directly through Honda (in this case), buyer beware. For example, unlike Honda, BMW doesn't offer their own factory-warranted extended service plan in the U.S. Instead, the dealer can only offer you an aftermarket plan, which means that the dealer will make a lot of money selling you that plan, but if you ever have to file a claim, it's largely your responsibility to deal with the paperwork, phone calls, etc.

With a Honda Protection Plan, an authorized Honda dealer will work directly with Honda, with no middlemen.