You should never buy an extended warranty. They have huge margins for those that sell them, and there is a reason for that. I bought a Jeep back in 94 with a bumper to bumper warranty. The steering wheel hub fell off (before airbags) but since it fell off and didn't break - not covered. The steering damper failed at 13K miles - not covered because it is considered a normal wear and tear item. The final straw was a problem with the power windows. The wiring failed - again not covered. They covered the switch and the motor, not the wiring. I was able to cancel and get some of my money back.

You should never buy an extended warranty. They have huge margins for those that sell them, and there is a reason for that. I bought a Jeep back in 94 with a bumper to bumper warranty. The steering wheel hub fell off (before airbags) but since it fell off and didn't break - not covered. The steering damper failed at 13K miles - not covered because it is considered a normal wear and tear item. The final straw was a problem with the power windows. The wiring failed - again not covered. They covered the switch and the motor, not the wiring. I was able to cancel and get some of my money back.

Chryslers haven't been made for quite a while now. Our beloved Corporation passed away long time ago.Raped and pillaged too many times.

Here is some input from an ex dealership employee. Parts for me. The factory extended warranty is the way to go, but shop around or just deal direct with the factory as the dealer can sometimes pad the price for additional profit. Some do, some don't. For sure you need to be informed of what is and what is not covered. Getting the repairs done at the selling dealer sometimes gives you leverage on issues needing to be dealt with. Some dealers just plain blow on customer service so be prepared to search one out who will help. When you but that extended service warranty contract, make sure it is the FACTORY ONE, NOT AN AFTERMARKET CONTRACT. Some F&I departments get sneaky and will sell you an aftermarket contract because they make more profit on it. Stay away from those like the plague. All you will get out of them is the happy finger. When you run into difficulties getting something taken care of, make sure the contract shows that the item is covered. If it is and you are getting nowhere with the dealer, look on the back of your owners manual or in the owners portfolio packet. There is a number to call the mothership to complain about what's going on. Sometimes the coverage problem is just the dealer but there are times when the issue is the district service manager trying to make his/her monthly numbers look good to the higher ups. When I was working parts, you knew there was an issue with something by the frequency of repairs or replacement of a given item. Like the 604/518/618 trannies, 4.0 liter Jeep exhaust manifolds etc. The district service managers would put dealers on restriction because the repaired/replaced too many of something. I worked at a dealer in the mid 90's where the other two dealers in the immediate area were put on restriction because of the frequency of repair/replace 604 trannies and they referred customers to ours and then we got put on restriction. How about confessing that there is an issue with the item Mopar? Anyhow, call that number, have all your info ready and don't let up. One time I "slipped up" and gave a customer the district managers number to them since they were getting nowhere at the dealer due to the district manager. That made it so he couldn't just hide. He didn't like that phone call but took care of it. When he had to deal directly with the customer as opposed to letting someone else deal with it he sang a different tune. Be prepared to get mean.

As I remember, service contract work pays the least, regular warranty is a step up with customer pay being the highest. The techs would really complain when the repair was a service contract as the labor rates were less, the labor times were cut from even regular warranty. If you had a creative writer or service manager, they could get some of the labor time back so the tech and department got hosed less. Its like being stuck between squabbling children that don't want to play together. You may have to get testy with the mothership on the contract as its theirs and they need to stand behind it and you are not going to be the referee between the mothership and the dealer. You are the customer that bought it, they sold it to you and they need to stand behind it otherwise its media and possible legal time.

this post reminded me of a story. I deliver commercial parts for Advance. Recently one customer had a nice (relatively speaking) '18 Chevy Silverado. Ball joints SHOT at 30 some thousand miles. Local dealer says 'normal wear" and won't warranty them. I know it's 3 yrs old but the truck looked basically new. No wonder folks buy "foreign" cars nowadays.

It's threads like this that make me want to stick with my old cars. I've looked for years at newer vehicles and have just never pulled the trigger. I've also heard stories like the above for years and they make me question if I want a newer vehicle. I've really been looking at newer Rams, F150's and 3-6 year old Chevy's (the newer body style is butt ugly).

Just made a 400 mile trip today to the Indy swap in my 98 Chevy 1500. Clicked over 198,000 on the trip. Other than normal wear items, I've never replaced anything on the truck in the 5 years I've owned it. Paid $1600 for it and have put over 32k miles on it.

FYI- I'm a car who*e, I own Mopars, Fords, Mercurys and Chevy's. My newest car is 23 years old and they all serve me great and are all relatively easy to work on. None have had any major issues either.

Seems the gold standard across many brands is for the dealer to say "Its normal thus its NOT covered." For example- its normal for a low mileage still under warranty engine to consume 1 quart of oil per 1000 miles. And if a malfunction happens to the majority of the same model- the dealership has made this a legal definition of normal simply because if they all display this same malfunction- its normal.

What you guys need to understand is that it's not the dealer that decides what is covered and what is not, it's the manufacturer. They have become hyper involved in warranty repairs. These days you have to send photos, make a phone call or request authorization to make numerous repairs to a vehicle. It has gotten pretty crazy and time consuming. It was just one of the reasons I decided to retire early, the amount of documentation we had to do was making it harder and harder to make a living. At the end they were starting to send inspectors out at random. So you tear a car down, then wait days for an authorization or an inspector. In many cases the vehicle can't be moved after that so it sits there tying up a stall that I couldn't use to make money. Frustrating to say the least.

Ok. Last time I worked at a dealer was 04. Looks like they changed then. I just remember the complaining while I worked the tech's counter.

That's good info.

What I was pointing out is that the major allure of a new vehicle to me is piece of mind and not having to worry about issues for a while because well, it's a new car. What I found is, there are many I've known with new vehicles that have more issues than what I do with 23+ year old vehicles. To pay high 20's to high 40's for a new or newer vehicle and have more issues than a 23 year old $1600 beater is just unacceptable. Regardless of who's behind the warranty issues is irrelevant to me. Having to deal with faulty ball joints, etc. after 30k miles and after the money was spent is not something I would be unhappy with. Having to deal with hassles and arguing with people over warranty work after the breaks is just ridiculous. Don't know if the potential drama is worth it. That's all I was saying.