Stun350

What options are available to me if my car's factory warranty is up and I'm considering buying an extended warranty? The in-service date was last week so the 4yr/100k warranty is up and I simply want to extend the coverage a couple of more years.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

If you wanted a lexus warranty then you missed your chance. It has to be purchased before the 4 yr/50k factory warranty is up.

Since it's only a week you might find someone willing to fudge dates for a little I guess... but otherwise you're looking at some 3rd party warranty, which tend to be hit or miss.

NimaM

iTrader: (1)

Recently, I was able to buy extended Lexus Platinum warranty (by Lexus through the dealer) at 58k miles, but since i was over 4 yr/50k (but still on power train warranty -- 6 yr /70k miles) they had to do a complete inspection to make sure there is nothing wrong with car. Again, I would like to be clear and repeat this was Lexus Platinum Warranty..

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

I don't know how.
"Lexus Extra Care Platinum Coverage must be purchased before the expiration of the original Lexus factory warranty (four years/50,000 miles)"


3rd page under
Eligibility.


http://www.lexusfinancial.com/consum...um_VSA-05A.pdf

350250

get it its worth it trust me my dad bought a lexus rx350 from u.s didnt got the extended warranty blow the engine his fault drove with engine check light lexus told him he needs a new engine cost him 8g's for new engine with 50k get it you have that peace in mind and anything goes wrong ur covered get it

reset2k

Ouch, that sucks. By the way, punctuation makes you look TONS smarter. Just an FYI.

ehc0791

Hi, everyone, I am a newbie to Lexus. Today I bought a 2010 CPO RX350. the dealership told me I would have to buy the extend warranty today if I wanted it, but I could cancel it in 30 days with full refund. So I paid extra $2150 for 6Y/100,000 extended warranty. Is it true that I have to buy it on the date I purchase the car ? Can I buy it later, like when the 3y CPO warranty expires ? Thanks a lot !

calvin2376

iTrader: (2)

OK first of all, you are aware that a 2010 is still under the factory warranty (which is better and more comprehensive than the CPO warranty) for another 2 years or so (depending on in-service date)? With the CPO warranty being 3 years, the premium you paid for the car being CPO was for at best another year of warranty. AND keep in mind the powertrain warranty runs 6 years, so the CPO warranty is completely redundant when it comes to the powertrain.

The dealership is correct in saying that it is Lexus' policy that you can only elect to purchase an extension of a CPO warranty at the time of purchase of a CPO car (others will likely chime in and say they their dealer did something different etc etc, but this is Lexus' stated policy). HOWEVER, you need to call and cancel it right now, and here's why.

First off, keep in mind that the extended warranty you bought will run for 6 years from the purchase date or until you hit 100k miles. This warranty runs concurrently with all other warranties. So on a 2010, you likely have at least 2 years of factory warranty remaining, which covers everything the CPO warranty does and more. So that means you're really only buying a 4 year warranty. BUT the powertrain warranty runs 6 years from in-service date, so you likely have 4 years left on that. So what the 6 year/100k mile CPO warranty is really buying you is more like 2 extra years of powertrain warranty and 4 extra years of coverage of other parts.

Second, and most importantly, Lexus offers two types of extended warranties - CPO and VSA (Vehicle Service Agreement). There are 3 types of VSA warranties: Platinum, Gold, and Powertrain. You can find more information on CPO here - http://www.lexus.com/cpo/overview/warranty.html - and more information on VSAs here - http://www.lexusfinancial.com/consum...ifitComparison.

The Platinum VSA is very close in coverage to the CPO warranty. While you can only elect to buy an extension of the CPO warranty at the time of purchase, you CAN elect to buy a VSA at any time prior to the expiration of your factory 4 year/50k mile warranty. So you could buy a 2010 and right before the factory warranty expires in 2014, you could call up a Lexus dealer and buy a Platinum VSA. VSAs are offered in all different time and mileage limits, similarly to the extended CPO warranties you were offered at the dealer.

You can buy a VSA from any Lexus dealer whatsoever - it does not need to be your local dealer or even the dealership you bought the car from. There are a few dealers in the country that specialize in selling discounted Lexus VSA warranties - Jerry Johnson and Troy Dietrich are the ones that are brought up most on CL.

You will almost certainly come out far ahead financially by canceling the extended CPO warranty purchase of $2,150 and instead buying a Platinum VSA from one of the above Lexus dealers before the end of your factory warranty. You will end up with nearly the same coverage but for a longer period of time and at a lower cost. The cost of the Platinum VSAs differs depending on model, year, mileage, and year/mileage terms selected, but most CL members I've seen have bought theirs for $1600-1900.

Furthermore, there's no reason to be buying a one- to two-year-old car CPO. That's because the CPO warranty only runs 3 years and costs $600-1000+ extra over an otherwise comparable non-CPO car. And on a two-year-old car that means you're paying that amount for at most one extra year of warranty. Now of course it depends on your car's in-service date and the mileage you're at. For example, if your 2010 RX has 50k miles, meaning it's out of factory warranty, a 3-year/100k mile CPO warranty makes more sense. But very few used cars only 1-2 years old have that high of mileage.

Dealers sell these cars CPO because they can get a premium for them primarily from customers that don't do their research ahead of time. My co-worker just bought a 2011 IS350 F-Sport with 3k miles CPO for about $600 more than an otherwise comparable non-CPO car. He had no idea until I explained it to him that all he was paying for was 50k more miles of warranty. The CPO warranty was going to run concurrently with the factory warranty for all 3 years of its term, and the only way you'd get it to pay out was if you drove more than 50k miles in 3 years, which is much more than the average driver.

GiantsFan

iTrader: (9)

my extended warranty just saved my wallet!!! .... passenger side ballast went bad!!! Now THAT would have been an expensive replacement if I didn't have warranty

ehc0791

Calvin2376:
Thank you very much for the detailed explanation regarding the Lexus warranty. I would like your professional opinions on the wheels and multi-shield protections. I was given these quotes (5-year term): $995 for wheels, $595 for multi-shield.
I had very bad experience on the performance tires for my 2006 CPO BMW550i (20K mileage on the purchase date). I owned the BMW for 4year, and I had to change tire and rim 3 times, each costed $1000 which was lucky covered by the tire warranty. Therefore for my RX350, I just want the regular 18' all-season tires. I wonder if I need the tire warranty.
New Jersey is very crowded, it is easy to get scratched in the parking logs. Does multi-shield protection make sense ?

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

You can negotiate the tire/wheel insurance down a bit.I went with the wheel/tire insurance because my buddy Koz here had two cracked wheels and tire issues on his IS350 from potholes.I'm in Jersey too and the roads aren't very good as you know.
Though,the warm weather and lack of snow has caused less potholes.
The paint and leather protection is a major ripoff.

calvin2376

iTrader: (2)

I can't give a lot of perspective on Lexus's wheel and tire warranties because I didn't even consider them at the time of purchase. My 18" ISP wheels on my IS350 are I think about $200 or so each brand new, so even if I had 4 rims crack or break and had to replace them (extremely unlikely), I'd come out to less than the $995 Lexus wants for a warranty. I had a rim crack from a pothole on my E55 and had to get it repaired, it cost about $180 and they fixed the crack as well as resurfaced all the curb rash on the edges. My personal opinion is that you'd have to have a lot go wrong with your rims to make a $1000 warranty pay out, but of course it's all dependent on your driving habits and the conditions of the roads you're driving.

Multi-shield protection I think is a rip-off. Your insurance will cover windshield replacement, so getting it covered through Lexus is redundant. Interior and leather care is something you should do yourself or have done when you get your car cleaned, but however you do it it should cost much less than $600. And the paint/ding repair is nice, but I personally am not terribly **** about dings and small scratches. I live and drive in a city, and the car's my daily driver, so dings are a fact of life. If they get bad enough or if you want to do something about it, there are far cheaper ways to get them repaired.

Furthermore, with this type of plan you're entrusting interior and exterior care of your car to a dealership. As you probably know already, and as you can tell from a quick CL search, dealers are not known to be the best handlers of cars. Knicks, dings, scratches often appear mysteriously after a trip to the dealer. And frankly the biggest driver of swirls in the paint are the cheap car wash jobs they do at the dealer before returning your car.

Lastly, a lot of these things can be obtained elsewhere. You can often get road hazard insurance when you buy your tires, through Tirerack etc, for a lot less than the above plan. And you can get your car worked on and detailed at a local shop for less money and will get better quality than you would at the dealer.

This is all just my opinion though.

Clay Easto

I bought the extended warranty through Toyota of Greenfield and I am glad I did.

This week I had the rear passenger door lock actuator replaced, and both rear calipers replaced. That work almost paid for the extended warranty.

ehc0791

Thanks again everyone, I will cancel the extended warranty for now and buy it before the 4yr/50k expiration. For the tire/rim warranty, because my tires are not low profile, maybe I don't need one. I need to do some more researches.

F4Phan

I just bought my platinum warranty from Jerry Johnson as well... Great guy with incredible pricing. If you buy an extended warranty, buy from Jerry !