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Extended Warranty / Acura Care

20K views 32 replies 9 participants last post by  mrgold35 
#1 ·
Is it worth it? I was quoted $2100 for 8 years, 100K miles. They claim it will be much more expensive if you get it later, which seems dubious. Seems stupid to finance a warranty you guaranteed aren't going to use for 4 years.

Does it cover everything, e.g. all the motorized accessories? They said yes, but most one's I've seen for other cars exclude that sort of stuff.
 
#2 ·
It's not really 100K miles of coverage..it just picks up after the factory warranty expires. The powertrain is already covered for 70K miles I think.

IF I was thinking of a warranty, I would drive the vehicle a few years and see how things went. You may not even want to keep it that long...if it's trouble free, I would have trouble springing for 30K miles of coverage. YMMV.
 
#5 ·
To your point the factory warranty is 4 yrs and 50k, so the extended warranty would double that portion of it to 8 and 100k.

Powertrain is already covered for 6 yrs and 70k, so for that portion the extended warranty is only an extra 2 yrs and 30k miles.

So while from an overall electronics perspective you double your coverage, for the powertrain you only get an extra 2 yrs and 30k miles. If you plan on driving it longer then 8 yrs and/or 100k miles there's a strong chance you'll run into powertrain (transmission, torque converter) issues after this extended warranty expires. Where I'd imagine most other items would be likely to have already failed by that point if they were going to.
 
#8 ·
How are you coming to that conclusion? I'm sure that most people easily pass 100k without power train troubles.
Consumer Reports, JD Power, Edmunds forums, and many other places. The consensus is that if your torque converter or transmission is going to fail, it's very likely to happen beginning after 70k miles (after your factory powertrain warranty expires). Many of the owners who've had a failure had it happen right after their powertrain warranty expires, but not everyone obviously.

Usually as your engine and transmission get more miles on them problems become more likely, not less likely. Just about any vehicle regardless of manufacturer once you get over 100k miles that's when the risk for transmission and powertrain issues skyrockets just do to the wear and tear on your vehicle over that time. Where electronic systems if they are going to fail or are defective tend to do so fairly early on.
 
#10 ·
Consumer Reports, JD Power, Edmunds forums, and many other places. The consensus is that if your torque converter or transmission is going to fail, it's very likely to happen beginning after 70k miles (after your factory powertrain warranty expires). Many of the owners who've had a failure had it happen right after their powertrain warranty expires, but not everyone obviously.

Usually as your engine and transmission get more miles on them problems become more likely, not less likely. Just about any vehicle regardless of manufacturer once you get over 100k miles that's when the risk for transmission and powertrain issues skyrockets just do to the wear and tear on your vehicle over that time. Where electronic systems if they are going to fail or are defective tend to do so fairly early on.
Where does Consumer Reports, JD Power, or Edmunds say that most customers experience transmission problems??? I'm betting they do not actually say that. You're confusing a few reports on the internet for the "normal experience".

The overwhelming majority of people do not have problems. That is all I'm saying.
 
#3 ·
You can get a refund if you want, but you won't get a refund for any finance charges you paid on it.

Indeed, it's only 4 additional years and only 1 on the powertrain, which likely won't have problems or they wouldn't warranty it for 7 years anyway.

They also had a 10 year / 120K mile (i.e. 6 more years and 70K more miles.) for like $400 more.
 
#4 ·
the factory 7 year / 100,000 complete warranty (other than expendable parts) can only be bought at time of purchase. It is slightly different than the aftermarket type policy. Many dealers will tell you they are adding the extended factory Acura Care warranty but it will be some other company. Look carefully at the paperwork to be sure it says ACURA CARE on it. The car must have less than 50,000 last time I looked. Cost me $1850 on one MDX and $1900 on the other. It is a gamble because probably won't get that back out of it but I am retiring and getting too old to crawl around under cars. I just don't want to be in to a situation where a $4500 module fails at 51,000 miles and it comes out of my pocket. Too many features on cars these days.

It is transferable last time I checked so it does add some value to the car when you sell it. My 2014 had it, and Acura refunded the pro-rated portion when it was totaled by a red light runner.
 
#7 ·
I have 3 Acura with combined mileage of just under 400,000 miles between them. Every issue I've had was either covered by the 4/50 basic, 6/70 powertrain, extra Acura extended warranties (100K extended warranty for A/C clutch for 08 RDX) OR I was over the 100,000-120,000 mile limits and the Acura Care would not have covered it. Very few things do go wrong between 70K to 100K or even 50K to 120K for Acura Care warranties would cover.
 
#9 ·
There are lots of threads with the identical question so you might want to search for them.

The short answer - 'no' - extended warranties aren't worth it. They're simply insurance policies that are heavily skewed in favor of the insurance company. They're pushed by dealers because it's a big profit area for them.

As others pointed out - their terminology of '100k miles/8 years' (or similar) is a misnomer and purposely misleads the consumer since the factory warranty you already get with the vehicle covers the majority of that period.

On top of that you don't even know if you'll still have the vehicle 4 years or 7 years from now. It could be stolen, totaled, you might decide to get rid of it for another vehicle, etc. - money down the drain.

I heard that only 12% of the cost of an extended warranty goes to actually cover repairs (on the average vehicle of the type) - the rest is for overhead and profit - mostly profit.

The consensus is that if your torque converter or transmission is going to fail, it's very likely to happen beginning after 70k miles (after your factory powertrain warranty expires).
It'll likely be either fairly right away (if there was a manufacturing defect or installation problem) or 'much' after the 70K (or whatever) factory warranty period is over but that 'much after' can end up to be hundreds of thousands of miles later - likely much closer to 200-300K miles than 70K miles. Chances are slim that there'll be an actual engine, transmission, transfer case,differential issue within any extended warranty period.

Even the transmission and engine in my Dodge Durango wer still working fine when I donated it at 230K miles - and that's a 'Dodge' as opposed to a 'Honda' fwiw.


Regardless, if you want one anyway, you'd be better off staying away from any third party companies since they're notorious for magically going out of business just before the end period of the warranties, and you need to read and understand the fine print in the contract - yourself. You need to understand what's included and what isn't included. Don't trust anything a salesperson states about the warranty - read it yourself. They have a strong profit incentive to do whatever they can to get you to buy it - now.
The paradigm for that contract is pretty much that anything with much of a chance of failing will be excluded and everything included has little chance of failing within the period.
 
#11 ·
According to Consumer Reports as of now, transmission is "better" (their highest of 5 ratings) for all years except 2016, which is one lower. The worst categories according to them are suspension and in-car electronics. Even for the 2017 they are all better, though. It's not old enough to know.

Obviously these numbers can and will change as the car ages, since our last vehicle was rated tops for reliabilities and is now rated the second lowest.
 
#14 ·
It is usually in the limitations with 3rd party warranties where they get you like:
- can only redeem at certain shops or dealerships
- only good in this certain state(s)
- need approval before proceeding with repairs
- fine print includes items like alternator or starter as a consumable
- any and all maintenance must always be done at one of their approved shops or a warranty claim can be denied
- no prorating or transferable

Acura Care can be purchased on-line or local from any Acura Dealership that sells it. Any Acura (or Honda dealership if Acura isn't available or too far away) will take Acura Care. Only restriction I know of is Florida folks must purchase Acura Care in state.
 
#15 ·
Thanks for the info mrgold35. The comprehensive plan seems to be that according to the brochure. But I spent the last 30 minutes reading about it and came to the same conclusion. While they say they cover everything, they always seem to find a way to get out of claims. I'm definitely not getting a Zurich plan based on what I read. Someone else posted this in another thread:

https://usinsuranceagents.com/reviews/zurich-north-america/

They quoted $2210 for 8/100K with Acura Care. I can get it cheaper at Curry online by about $200 (or the 120K version for $70 more than their quote.)

Doing stuff like that really lowers my impression of that dealer, IMHO. They didn't even state it was third party until I asked, so if I do get something, it will be online.
 
#16 ·
Yeah that is fishy. While many dealers have a relationship with a particular 3rd party extended warranty company like Zurich for used vehicles, I would expect that an Acura dealer will sell you an Acura extended warranty on a brand new vehicle. At the very least they should advertise it's through a 3rd party and not with Acura itself.

Have you asked them specifically about buying an Acura Care plan? Assuming this is at an Acura dealership and is for a brand new vehicle (not used)?

Not sure if they can sell Acura Care for both new and used vehicles or only brand new
 
#24 ·
If you have to get the warranty, make sure it’s a FACTORY extended warranty....I know, just saying what others said, but it’s worth repeating...
 
#25 ·
Doing stuff like that really lowers my impression of that dealer, IMHO. They didn't even state it was third party until I asked, so if I do get something, it will be online.
They're salespeople trying to 'sell' you something. They don't have your best interest at heart - they have their own sales profit in mind and this is 100% commission to them with no cost but their time in trying to get you to buy it. Given that, and the basic fact that they're salespeople, you shouldn't expect much more out of them. Some salespeople will be up front and knowledgeable about the products they're peddling but many are not.

Caveat emptor.
 
#26 ·
Dude! Bobby you're spinning yourself out of control in a vortex of analysis paralysis with all your spread sheets and reliability ratings. The 2016 issues were dealer visits to address the behavior of the then new 9 speed, few if any where stranded on the side of the road.

Haha, all I can picture is your team in your 'situation room' with a filled with monitors and white boards tracking every problem MDX post between the two forums. I've had a dozen Honda products since the '90's including (3) MDX's and they have always been well above average.
 
#28 ·
Installment payments sounds like the way to go! You can purchase Acura Care just under the 4/50K basic warranty expiring. You still get the full warranty protection in all 50 states. You can just make monthly payments and cancel if you feel it is not needed (or if you sell the Acura early). I didn't know that was an option for my 11 MDX when I purchased back in 2014.
 
#29 ·
As previously posted, I bought an AcuraCare warranty for my 05 MDX that I had bought used, right before the original warranty expired. Never used it and got a $250 refund when I traded for my 11 Advance.

I bought an AcuraCare 8 yr/120k warranty for the 11 Advance at purchase (rolled cost into cheap 60 month financing or I would have waited). Had an AC issue right after purchase that was under original warranty; but during extended warranty period I had 1) both side mirror actuators replaced, 2) power steering pump replaced, and 3) two shocks replaced. All of this and the main reason I bought the warranty was for electronics! When I sold my 11 Advance this past June, I received a refund of $500+.

I have leased my 17 Advance so no AcuraCare warranty.

So the warranty on my 05 was a waste, but the one on my 11 more than paid for itself, plus I received the refund.
 
#31 ·
It was worth it to me to buy the Acura Care warranty whether I ever use it or not. I like to travel around the USA in summer and it is really nice to know that most any non-maintenance repair will be covered if I am in some other state than home. The price of the warranty is negotiable.

From Acura Care FAQ re UPGRADED Factory CPO warranty that I am referring to -
You can only purchase an Acura certified upgrade plan from the Acura dealer that certified the vehicle and only at the time of delivery.
 
#33 ·
The price increase might depend on the dealership because Acura Care still won't pay until the 4/50k, 6/70K, CPO warranties, or any 100K extended warranties expired first. The dealership might be charging more because of the less time they have to make interest off your money compared to purchasing Acura Care at time of the car purchase. I imagine there are +200 Acura dealership in the USA and many are willing meet or beat any price for Acura Care online (may not have to pay sales tax if you purchase on-line out of state saving you $150-$250 compared to local purchase).

My Acura Car limit was for a total of 9 years or 120,000 miles for $2350 for my 11 MDX Advance+Ent at time of purchase back in Dec/14 (original for a extra 5yr/70,000 mile Acura Care Plan from Acura of Peoria).
 
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