I just ordered my first Defender -- Defender SE 110 with the Straight 6. It is scheduled for delivery on December 15th. So I'm still making some final decisions about details, and one question is "should I get the extended warranty?" I own a Range Rover, so I know how expensive repairs can be. I typically do not buy warranties, but I plan to keep this vehicle long term - maybe 10 years, that's how long I've had my Audi S5 I'm trading out of. So I'd really appreciate any thoughts from the group.

 

I have Geico insurance and always take advantage of their new car extended warranty benefit called Mechanical Breakdown Insurance. It's an additional $18 every 6 months on my current policy and I think that fluctuates depending on the car and time owned. My car that has it now is 4 years old but it's only $18/every 6 months. I personally hate getting anything "extra" from the dealer because I feel like I'm getting ripped off everytime. The Geico MBI covers everything not wear and tear for a $250 deductible.

 

Thanks! I never heard of that. I'll check it out.

 

No, I have yet to see an extended warranty that didn't either go out of business before it was claim time or actually consistently paid claims. I would say... just pay for the repairs yourself.

 

I also have Geico and always get the warranty (they actually add automatically with any new or used car under a year old/15k miles). It’s good for 7 years, 100k miles and has the $250 deductible as was said earlier. Far cheaper then through LR and I can say, Geico is fantastic eith any repairs etc.

 

I always decline extended warranties from third parties, if its the OEM then I would strongly consider. if you want an extended warranty make sure you know who its with, I would not trust what the dealer offers.

 

If you can afford surprises i.e. you have to pay 3,000 for repairs this month and that is not a big deal for your bank balance then no need. Me personally, I don't like those kinds of surprises when my payment is already north of 1k per month. So yea for me I wouldn't consider trying to own one of these things past the three year mark without the extended warranty. I paid $3300 for mine and rolled it into the loan, so I'm probably paying $45 extra per month in my payments for it. If you don't have air suspension it's a few hundred less. My dealership recommended the Continental extended warranty which is only offered through dealerships. I was told they have had good long term experience working with that warranty company. I have never had to file a claim so I can't say first hand yes or no about them. With this higher level plan it's $0 deductible fwiw. As it turns out I'm trading in my Defender soon so I'll be looking to get a prorated refund for the $3300.

 

First off, what your local Dealer is selling you is not an "extended warranty". Land Rover will not honor it. It's an aftermarket service contract. My dad always told me: you never know what kind of insurance you have until you need it. While reading all the fine print will help, I've learned that he was generally right. What you are likely to find is that while it will probably work well with the local dealer, it's likely not to be widely honored or turn into the value you think it is. I used to work for a national car dealership and our MOST profitable item was selling "extended warranties". If the probability of failure was higher, they wouldn't make so much money. So, individually - I've never found them worth the cost.

 

Clearly it makes money for them otherwise they wouldn't be in business. I can't argue with that. With that being said when your house burns down you're really glad you had fire insurance. If it never does then you wasted money. In the end overall it's a money maker for the warranty company and the dealership however for every third customer maybe it quite literally saved their bacon, for the other third it was probably almost a wash and maybe that first third never used it at all, hence it's a money maker.

I do think the whole question of whether to buy one or not is best answered by the person who is doing the buying, Like I said if a few grand for repairs is trivial then there's no point in buying something like this 7 year 100k from a third party warranty company. Land Rover doesn't offer one so it's either third party or none. Something tells me deep down in my gut that if you can get through 7 years owning one of these things and spend less than 3300 on repairs you're much luckier than I'll ever live to be.

 

is it 3300 for 7 years or to extend past the 4 years included at time of purchase? Because if it’s 3300 for 3 years, question becomes what is the likelihood of $1100 in repairs/year