What does your automotive warranty require?

A lot of people complain that car dealers lie to them and tell them "everything" is covered, giving a false sense of security. Some extended automobile warranties require that you have the dealer do all repairs. What if you can't get your car to the dealer? Carefully review what is covered and not covered in your contract before you buy it to see whether wear and tear claims are excluded from coverage. If you don't get a wear and tear type of warranty, you'll get screwed I guarantee it.

What kind of repair is it?

Is your auto warranty repair due to failure from a "mechanical breakdown" or is it "Wear & Tear"? You need warranty coverage for both wear and tear as well as mechanical breakdown. Most auto warranty failures are wear and tear, so you can bet your low ball "mechanical breakdown" warranty company will say it was wear and tear and reject your warranty claim right off the bat. The warranties sold by car dealers are confusing. Most of the time the extended warranty is a mechanical breakdown insurance policy. This is not what you want. You want both "wear & tear" and "mechanical breakdown" coverage in your automobile warranty contract. Make sure your contract covers “wear and tear” as well as “mechanical breakdown”. Many items are not covered by most mechanical breakdown warranties since they don’t break, they wear out.

Types of automobile warranties

A lot of warranties are only "mechanical breakdown" warranties. They only cover what breaks, not what wears out. Any part that wears out like burned valves, leaking seals, worn piston rings, and burned pistons are not covered. It also includes fasteners and retainers. If you have a breakdown and only have a "mechanical breakdown" warranty you can bet that the automotive warranty company will say it was wear and tear.

Automobile warranty administrators

The warranty administrator is the company responsible for paying your automobile warranty claims. Often it is not the company you bought the coverage from. IF you want to deal directly with the administrator that is selling your extended automobile warranty instead of the dealer I have two recommendations. The first is WarrantyDirect.com where you deal directly with the administrator. The second is carchex.com which only works with the top administrators and will give you all the information about them before you buy.

An automobile warranty is a contract

An extended automobile warranty is a vehicle service contract between you and the car warranty company. Extended automobile warranties are NOT insurance policies. The money you pay is deposited in a "claims reserve account", insured in case the administrator goes belly up. An extended auto warranty is the most profitable product car dealers sell. Can you get double warranty coverage by waiting until the manufacturer warranty expires to buy an extended warranty? No, extended automobile warranties are simply an extension of original manufacturer's car warranty beyond the standard warranty period. You do not get double coverage. The sooner you buy, the cheaper it is. Sooner or later these items will fail and you will spend money. It’s better to buy a warranty now at the lowest price, than to spend thousands later on a repair.

Automobile warranty from the dealer

If you get an extended warranty from a dealer be careful if the warranty is from someone other than the manufacturer of your make of automobile. Dishonest dealers have been known to sell an extended warranty, and then cancel the automobile warranty and have the funds refunded back to them. Then when it comes time to pay for a repair you find that you don’t have any coverage.

Automobile warranty coverage

You want an automobile warranty that will cover the drive train. This is the engine, transmission, drive axle, timing belt. You also want it to cover major repairs like the water pump, fuel pump, air conditioner compressor, power steering pump and more. Also make sure you get a benefits package featuring 24 x 7 Emergency Roadside Assistance, car rental reimbursement and travel interruption expenses.