Extended Warranty Insurance Plan

DaveSewell

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2012
Messages
365
Location
Guelph, Ontario
While sitting with the F and I manager at our selling dealer we were presented with paper work for an extended warranty plan. The underwriter is First Canadian. 6 years of extended coverage will add an additional 3g's to the price of our 295RL. Per the specifics this plan looks like the second coming. I have to inquire yet if an annual inspection of the trailer is required. I've been in the automotive business for 35 years and pretty much tend to shy away from service contracts/ waranty extensions. How many people out there have taken the added coverage and more importantly how has the insurance company been when a claim has been made? I've experienced some pretty shoddy providers in the auto world who fight every claim with the intent to deny. I'm leaning towards taking this coverage. Thoughts??
 
Perfect timing. I bought the Premier Dealer Services pkg (in auto, you've run across them I'm sure) and have just dug hard into what's covered (today) for 5th wheel (not much, some emergency roadside, limited mechanical, slides, levelers). These things are designed for RV (motorhomes)...not TT/5th wheel, in my opinion. There's a LOT of caveats, and because it's a warranty and not "insurance" like Good Sam offers, it has even more caveats. We've owned ours for 17 months...and I'm dumping it to replace with insurance and "real" coverage of mechanical items. So...all said, read it well, understand what it doesn't cover and shop around. I wish I had. Also, look at your NEW trailer warranties...lots covered by the manufacturers for first year so this stuff is redundant in the beginning. Now, I'm searching on the forum for Good Sam (or others) Extended Service Plan Insurance and value. Good luck!
 
3 grand, you can replace a lot of stuff for that.

Those products have high spiffs to the dealer and sales man. That leaves about half for the "insurance" company. They are in business to make money, not pay claims as this isn't really insurance nor is it heavily regulated like an insurance product. Read the exclusions very carefully and yes, they will require at least 1 inspection and it will cost several hundred bucks every year. So budget for htat as well
 
Is that $3k Canadian. That would be a little steep in USD IMO. I'm not a fan of extended warranties either. But...we bought one for our 5th wheel because we didn't really know anything about RVs at the time so we bounced for one. It's more of an insurance policy than a warranty. It was much less than $3K but we have tapped it for more than we paid for it since buying the trailer. We have one on our truck also and it has really paid for itself. I can't advise you to get one that's up to you. Perhaps we've just had bad luck but when you AC goes out 2200 miles from home in the middle of a heat wave and the mobile repair guys gouges you on a new one it's nice have the coverage. Probably in most cases it would not be cost effective. Now having said that we bought a new refrigerator for the house last night and declined the offer of an extended warranty.
 
My Solitude is 4 years old and I paid about $4000.00 for a 5 year zero deductible warranty plan. I am $1,200 in the hole but am having slide issues and have a appointment next week to have the issue resolved. I will then have one more year of coverage and at that point I will be able to determine if the warranty was worth the cost. Not one repair has been denied. Trama


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
I am not a fan of extended warranties and deny them, especially for trailers and 5th wheels. Sure there are folks who have come out ahead by buying one, but they are the exception because most people don't and that is how the insurance companies make their money. T much prefer keeping the money in savings to be brought to bear when and if a repair is needed. The exception for me might be an expensive diesel pusher motor home where very expensive repairs can break the bank. If you do want to buy a policy, first read and understand all the fine print because items you may think are covered, may not be and some policies are better and more inclusive than others. Second negotiate the hell out of it, because the price initially offered is considerably inflated.
 
It’s not for me. The savings over the years would pay for 1/2 the price of a new trailer. That’s just been my experience and my opinion. Keep in mind dealers and warranty providers make good margins on extended warranties.
 
I was in the marine business for 25 years. The margin on extended warranty plans was 50%, $800 cost to dealer, $1,600 sell to customer!
 
It certainly is a quandry. I bought an extended warranty this time around. Not because I think they are the second coming and will solve all of my problems, but because there is a 50/50 chance that it will pay for itself when our Momentum hits the 5-7 year old time period. That's the point where we started pouring money into our old 5th wheel. New water heater, new furnace motor, slide ram replacement, etc. Then the refrigerator went, that would have been the money maker on the extended warranty.

So I look at the extended warranty not as an instant band-aid for immediate problems but as a long term investment in R&R of components as they age and fail.
 
While sitting with the F and I manager at our selling dealer we were presented with paper work for an extended warranty plan. The underwriter is First Canadian. 6 years of extended coverage will add an additional 3g's to the price of our 295RL. Per the specifics this plan looks like the second coming. I have to inquire yet if an annual inspection of the trailer is required. I've been in the automotive business for 35 years and pretty much tend to shy away from service contracts/ waranty extensions. How many people out there have taken the added coverage and more importantly how has the insurance company been when a claim has been made? I've experienced some pretty shoddy providers in the auto world who fight every claim with the intent to deny. I'm leaning towards taking this coverage. Thoughts??

Hi Dave,

We bought the extended warranty . . . four years ago . . . for about what you have been quoted . . . and have never used it. The logic is that the price of the warranty is about the price of one or two appliances. This is our first RV and we had no idea how well Grand Design would take care of all our problems. As we get further from the manufacturer's warranty period, there may come a time that we will try to make a claim. We tried once . . . for faded decals . . . only to learn that these are excluded from the warranty coverage. Be sure to read the fine print. I think "fight every claim with the intent to deny" is a good description of this coverage.

If we were to do this again, I would not spend this money on an extended warranty.

Rob
 
I bought the extended warranty not because I expected it to do anything in the first 5 years, but because I expect it to pay for itself in years 5-8. That's when most major components fail.
 
My wife and I purchased a 2015 385TH, bought the RV FOREVER WARRANTY from our dealer in West Palm Beach for $2732.00, so far they have replaced all 3 air conditioning units, at a cost of around a grand each time, I was skeptical in the beginning but it seems to have worked so far. Yes you must do the inspections, I use a Mobil tech, at a cost of around $180.00 per year, so far it’s worked for me.
 
When I bought the motorhome in 2015, 2007 Itasca, I got a 2 year house and chassis ESP. Coach was in great shape but no service records. I used the ESP for a couple of repairs but came no where near what the plan cost. Knowing the coach now, I didn't renew and now "self insure" the mechanical issues.
 
Deny every extend warranty on every product you are offered them on and add it up. It buys lots and lots of repairs.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 

New posts

Try RV LIFE Pro Free for 7 Days

  • New Ad-Free experience on this RV LIFE Community.
  • Plan the best RV Safe travel with RV LIFE Trip Wizard.
  • Navigate with our RV Safe GPS mobile app.
  • and much more...
Try RV LIFE Pro Today
Back
Top Bottom