Date:         Wed, 14 May 1997 22:25:52 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Rick Gordon <rickgo@halcyon.com>
Subject:      re: Extended Warranty on EV?

>Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 18:54:43 -0700
>From: "Matthew L. Dekker" <mdekker@eskimo.com>
>To: "'vanagon@lenti.med.umn.edu'" <vanagon@lenti>
>Subject: Extended Warranty on EV?
>Message-ID: <01BC6099.34724CA0@mdekker.ndip.eskimo.net>
>
>Hi everyone,
>
>My perpetual search for an EV has come across a low mileage, reasonably
>priced GL. While its warranty with VW doesn't expire until the Spring of
>1999, from the reports on the list it would seem like an extended warranty
>might be a good idea.
>
>Problem is the official VW extended warranty company has said "it's too far
>out of warranty" for them to offer to sell me one. I've sent them another
>fax yesterday, pointing out how the miles and delivery date mean the
>warranty is good for another two years, but haven't heard back from them
>yet.
>
>Not that the lack of availability of an extended warranty would keep me
>from buying this van, it would just mean a little less peace of mind. Has
>any one had experience with other companies offering extended warranties? I
>know mostly they're overpriced and unnecessary, but there must be some
>company out there willing to take my money on the chance this EV will not
>need major work.
>

You might try GE Capital - they're the ones that Carter VW goes through
when they try to sell the warranty. But given that it's a 1993, you must be
talking about the powertrain warranty on it. And given that it's already
4-5 years old, I'm not that surprised that they didn't want to take it.

I never bought one, although I was tempted. Mine is still under the 2 yr
warranty though - I think I still have time to change my mind.
I guess that, you're placing a bet that something will go wrong, they're
taking enough money from you to insure that if something does, they won't be
out. And there are enough exclusions on the thing, that I just wasn't sure
that it was all that great a deal.

>A tangent topic: my wife's Mazda '90 Protege had bad paint on the hood and
>roof, even though it wasn't painted in Germany. They resprayed it no charge
>and it still looks good after 4 1/2 years. Other warranty problems have
>been the hydraulic lifters at 30k miles and a radiator died at 58k miles,
>just weeks before the time limit on the extended warranty died. So, in this
>case, the extra warranty was worth it, and it also shows that even Japanese
>cars can have faults.
>

Both of those repairs seem awfully early. Mazda must be picking up bad quality
control from Ford or somthing.

-rick

Rick Gordon
Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
-------------------------------------
rickgo@halcyon.com
http://www.halcyon.com/rickgo/
KC7QEG
finger for PGP public key fingerprint
-------------------------------------