sassysaser@yahoo.com (S. S.) wrote in message news:<559ac2fa.0405100739.4f2f622@posting.google.c om>...
> in the first several years on a Honda Civic. If you have owned the car
> for a while (not necessary 5 years), can you let me know how much the
> cost is for you? I appreciate a lot if you can distinguish between
> both the cost for the items in the exclusion list and those are not.

Ahhh... if it were that simple, then warranties wouldn't exist! Fact
of the matter is, dealers usually make a killing on extended
warranties (particularly on cars known for quality such as Honda) as
they rarely require the amount of repairs to justify the cost of the
warranty itself. Think about it - if warranties were not as
profitable (read: required work does not offset cost of warranty) then
dealers would not push them as hard as they do. You are essentially
paying for repairs whether you need them or not.

Of course, the worthiness of a warranty varies from one person to the
next. For someone who is not mechanically inclined and drives their
car like an appliance and possibly on a fixed budget, a warranty
offers the peace of mind that if something should go, they won't be
faced with a huge surprise bill. On the flipside, more than likely
they will spend more on the warranty than the actual repairs for said
period of time. But, it is up to that person to put a value on "peace
of mind".

On the other hand, if the person is a do-it-yourselfer and is somewhat
knowledgeable to foresee signs of impending doom, then - barring a
complete lemon - they would be wiser to not take the warranty. If you
have a mechanic friend and can avoid the dealer altogether (thus save
much $$), even better.

On a personal note, I foolishly took the extended warranty on my 96
Integra - which I purchased from a dealer secondhand in 1998 - and
wasted my money. I had two relatively minor repairs done over the 7
years / 100K miles and did not even come close to justifying the cost
($945 for warranty vs $600 of work). It should also be noted that one
of the repair jobs (power antenna motor - $325CND!) was only done
*because* I had the warranty; otherwise I would have simply put a
fixed mast).

I will never buy an extended warranty again.

Bottom line - the *best* thing you can do - provided you have the
discipline - is to take the money you would otherwise give the dealer
for warranty and put it in a savings account and DON'T TOUCH IT. If
something should break, you dip into it. In the end, if you didn't
need your full "warranty", you get the remaining money back, plus
whatever interest that account gets (although not much these days, but
still better than what the dealer gives you). Finally, this type of
warranty has no "exclusions". ;-)

Sorry for the long post, but that's my $0.02 on the topic......

Kevin