Pros and Cons of Buying an Extended Warranty for Your New Car

Buying a car is expensive as it is, especially if you splurge for the optional extras and pricier trims that come with all of the safety features and technological advances that are supposed to prevent the worst from happening, such as a collision or breakdown. That makes shelling out even more hard-earned money for an extended warranty a tough decision, with it possibly not seeming worth the extra cost. However, we’re here to help weigh the pros and cons of buying an extended warranty for your new car.

Pros

With recent studies suggesting that reliability and durability are important factors many of us consider when buying a car and car owners are now keeping their cars for longer than ever, it seems that extended warranties might be more popular. However, they very rarely feature in a list of many car buyer’s top priorities. But what are the pros of purchasing an extended warranty?

Even though many car dealerships offer warranties as standard, there may be more to a customer’s needs than those warranties offer. Third-party extended warranties can be significantly more flexible in terms of what they offer. This means that if you want longer coverage, tailored coverage on specific things such as bumper-to-bumper, or handy extras like roadside assistance, these things can be tailored to fit specific needs. Modern vehicles are also getting more and more complex, jam-packed with the latest in technological advancements and advanced safety features. Even if the car is running fine, if one of these many computer systems fail, it can be very costly to fix them. An extended warranty can take the worry of paying to diagnose, isolate, and repair these complicated problems completely away.

Cons

So, extended warranties can be extremely useful to fit your specific needs and protect all of the expensive and complicated electronic systems in your car, as well as protecting against any unwanted breakdowns. But what are some of the reasons against opting to purchase one for your vehicle?

Like most insurances, there’s always a risk that the cost of paying for an extended warranty will never be balanced out by using it to fix something, as there’s a chance that nothing bad will ever happen and there will be no need to use it. Sometimes the only thing that will be gained is the peace of mind that if something terrible were to happen, you could save plenty of money and not be left stranded.

Most extended warranties are also expensive. For many car buyers, the luxury of opting to pay for an extended warranty will be nothing more than a pipe dream, as often the cost of purchasing a car alone takes a hefty toll on their bank balance. This is especially the case when you factor in the above point that spending all that money on an extended warranty could ultimately turn out to be nothing but a lost bet.

Extended warranties are definitely not for everyone, but they do help to give peace of mind. In many cases, it’s better to have them and not need them, instead of needing them but not have them. For more advice on extended warranties, check out this helpful guide or head to your local dealership.
Image by Martha Maria from Pixabay 

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