Third Party Extended Warranty
 

Like some of you here, I ocassionally browse Jalonopik and I came across an interesting article on third party warranties.
My Air Suspension Failed (Again): Another CarMax Warranty Update
TLDR: Basically, Carmax offers a comprehensive 6 year extended warranty even for older performance/luxury cars. The author has a 2006 Land Rover and has had over $6K in warranty repairs covered so far.

There's also a list of unreliable (but fun) cars that can be purchased off the carmax lot that gets released every few months:
The Craziest Unreliable Cars You Can Get With a CarMax Warranty


When I was car shopping in December, my budget was $30K-$40K, and I realized I could afford a used M3 or S4. However, these would definitely be out of warranty and I didn't want to take the risk of high warranty repairs. I ended up buying something German (GTI), but it was brand new so that it would be under warranty.

Is there anything like a Carmax warranty in Canada?

Anybody care to share their experiences about their experience with third party warranties for an older vehicle?

I have had very bad luck with 3rd party warranty companies. Lubrico, SafeDrive, Coast to Coast, Global, etc have all given me grief over the years. I was a dealer for most of them but they seemed to give clients grief during the repair process. It seemed like they were just looking for a loophole to not pay. Due to all the complaints I received from clients I just stopped offering it altogether.

CoverageOne is a 3rd party warranty company that manufacturer dealers offer which mimics the factory warranty and is seamless but you have to buy from a dealer and buy the warranty at the point of sale.

Not sure if there is something as awesome as CarMax here. My friends in the US rave about it.

I think that's my biggest concern with these warranties - you buy it, and they end up being useless. I think it's very subjective at times which part is "maintenance/wear and tear" and which part is a warranty item.

used to work at a local dealer mostly selling used German and British cars. They offered "EasyCare" on pretty much all European cars with reasonable prices. PM me if you want more info, I'll pass you to the right person.

The Terms & Conditions of these warranties are pretty explicit about what is covered - I think the key takeaway is that these are not "bumper-to-bumper" warranties. If you are buying a car and they present one as an option, grab a highlighter and visit the section of the Terms & Conditions that speaks to those components included and excluded within the warranty. It's wise to have a thorough understanding of what is covered and what isn't. It would only take a couple of minutes but at least then you would have all the understanding necessary to make a decision that is best for yourself.

Bump!

I'm pretty much in the same situation as OP and looking to purchase [third-party] warranty for an '11 BMW E92 M3.

Does anyone have anymore suggestions or experiences with any?

For BMW go to the shop you would like to get it serviced.. eg Nixon etc and ask which extended warranty they accept and prefer.

Create a spreadsheet, go through the fine print of the warranty and list out the pros and cons.. some need up front etc.

US and Canadian warranty are different.. we just have less people and cars .. the actuary calculations are vastly different.

Like what everyone has said. Read and understand the fine print.

I recently purchased a e92 m3 and I bought third party warranty through the dealer (Brian Jessel preowned) the warranty they sold me was SAL and I've already had to use them once without any issues. I had a leak in the DCT and they covered it and all I had to pay was a deductible.

I work at a dealer and we sell SAL warranty, been having good success doing claim with them. I think we did a full engine replacement a few months back costing 20k.

I had extended warranty for my R8 from Audi via Audi Care which is run by LGM. Had one warranty claim filed through them a few months ago for a oil leak, they fixed the leak but didn't cover filters. It cost me around $150 including the $100 deductible, the total cost for the repair was $3,500 so the warranty was worth it.

However, I found out the hard way that I couldn't transfer the warranty when I traded in my car a couple weeks ago. You can only transfer the warranty if you sell it to a private buyer. Sucks because I had to eat the cost of the remaining warranty.

Like mentioned above read the fine print, read it over a few times if you have to because 3rd party warranties have a lot of exclusions and tons of ways to deny claims. Also never make claims within the first 60 days, a lot of 3rd party warranties will deny and even cancel your warranty.

guy from work had 3rd party on his 2011 STI, ended up blowing the engine (rings and seals) and lost majority of compression after using a 3rd party tuner with downloaded map settings

reset everything and took the car in to try and make a claim on the insurance, Wolf subaru in langley spent a bunch of time/money just investigating for the 3rd party warantee provider and deemed it non-warantable since it was blown with non-stock map settings lol..

i have had luck with LGM, First Canadian, SAL, no issues with those. its those smaller shit 3rd party ones that i have had issues with.

I've heard bad stories with First Canadian but I think I was just lucky?

Bought my 2009 Forester XT Limited from Richmond Subaru. 2 months later my turbo blew on a trip to Kelowna. Kelowna Subaru replaced my turbo but the turbo was defective and 10 mins after driving my new turbo and motor went. Richmond Subaru towed my car to their dealership and replaced the turbo and motor.

They did a total $13k of repair work, glad I had the coverage. I only paid a $250 deductible!

I wonder why I got so lucky and had a pretty great experience, besides the downtime.

I sell and bought a SAL warranty for my 06 E60 M5. The best decision ever....
The service advisor in Langley BMW did all the claim work, no issue at all.

^ how much roughly are the insurance coverage? Is there certain fine print like must only be how many years old? Under certain mileage? Bought from dealer? Or will they pretty much insure anything?

The ext warranty cost me almost $4k, but consider it's on a $120k M5 not everyday corolla. It seems reasonable priced.

The one I bought from dealer was 5 years or 100k km starting the date I purchased the ext warranty.

They will insure most of items that's not wear/tear and maintenance such as clutch.