My 03 Max had just under 38k when I picked it up 2 weeks ago. This is my first used car that I have ever bought and I am skeptical about walking into someone's problem. Anyway, the dealer offered me a 4yr/60km add-on warranty that essentially covers me to 100k. The factory warranty has expired but they offered to me what they say they offer only to new cars (wasnt falling for that line). I ended up paying about 1400 for it although I have 90 days to back out of it and I am thinking about doing so. The warranty covers over 15k parts and has a $100 deductible. I already have new tires/rims and will be upgrading the springs to start and proably struts after that so much of the suspension wouldnt be covered after these mods.

I know its basically an insurance policy against something going wrong. I also expect that if I keep it I will have no problems and that if I get rid of it something big will go. Leave it to Murphy!

Are there some 'typical' parts that fail in the 75-100k window? Thanks.

 

I bought my car with 45k miles. I'm at 89k approx. now. When I got my car I also got the extended warranty. It has pretty much paid for itself. Here is what I've had replaced/fixed:

(1) Immobilizer unit
(1) MAF sensor
(1) Ignition coil
(1) Tranny bearing kit
(2) Front sway bar end links
(1) Fried headlamp harness
(2) Axle seals

That's little over 40k miles in two years and three months. The only things I've paid for were the headlamp harness (they were closed on Sat.) and a labor charge for the rust on the sway bar.

When I picked up the car I sort of had remorse over spending the extra money on the warranty. But to know you can take it to the dealer without any (or at least much) money out of your pocket is peace of mind.

EDIT: I just noticed your has a deductible. Mine has no deductible and is bumper to bumper coverage.

 

I have not purchased one but have heard horror stories about them, especially if the insurance company goes under. I guess my question is "Who is the policy thru?"

I do have one on our 2k (a part of the settlement in our attempt to get the car fixed several years ago) and they covered the MAF replacement last week 100%. I am happy with that!

 

I bought my 00 two years ago with the 5year/100K extended warrenty, through Nissan directly. My coils were bad and my crankshaft pulley went...at the same time! The extended saved me over $1000 in part and labor from the steaerlship. IMO...saved my A$$!!!

Edit: Mine is "Security+Plus", It includes roadside assistance and ZERO deductible.

 

It's definitely a nice security blanket, only you can decide if it's worth the money or not? Did you buy the car through a Nissan dealership, and is there one with zero deductable? Quite often extended warranties are negotiable as the finance person who offers it receives a commission.

 

One word of caution... I have the "Certified Pre-Owned" extended warranty on mine. While it covers almost everything, almost everything doesn't mean everything. An example is the evap valve in the gas tank... Almost $400 for that and labor, even with me getting a price lower than Dave B could get it to me for after shipping and only an hour of labor (ok, it only took 20 minutes but they still charged an hour since they had to also "diagnose" the problem). And yes, I checked the warranty books they go by and its only covered with their super premium warranty. Sorry I can't remember the name of that particular warranty but I know its not the gold with $0 deductible like I have.

While I was looking in their warranty manuals, I found that a lot of parts that you'd think would be covered under extended warranty aren't. That being said, a lot of parts are covered.

Were I you, I'd buy ONLY a Nissan warranty. Just make sure you ask if you can have a gander at their warranty manuals before you decide to get a cheaper warranty. If you look at some of the problems some have listed, a couple of minor problems could make it worth your while; not to mention a major problem like the tranny going or something like that.

 

When I bought my car the dealer had all the books from the different plans and you could review whats covered and whats not. Look them over closely and decide.

 

Make sure and read the fine print or the back of the contract regarding the
contact period. I bought a Fidelity warranty for my 2K when I got it in Oct '02. The front of the contract (and the way it was explained and sold) says it's a 72 month or 100,000 mile contract. So one would think it would be good for 72 months form the date I purchased it or until I hit 100K miles right? Nope fine print says unless the car had less than 6,000 miles on it when purchased (mine had 32K) the contract expires on Jan 1st 72 months from the vehicle's model year. So in reality, this 6 year warranty was almost 3 years old when I bought the car!

Needless to say, I was quite pissed to find this out when I took the car in for a noise in the front end and was told I had a blown strut and possibly need the sway bar links replaced.

 

Interestingly, the finance person showed me both the Nissan warranty and the one I went with. The guy recommend the third party one (had to be money it in for the dealer) as it provided new car coverage whereas the nissan one that was available to me only covered about 5000 parts vs. roughly 15k. I cant remember the name but I have the paperwork at home. Comparing the two, which were similarly priced, this one covered many more parts and did specifically called out the parts that were not covered.

What I did like about the Nissan warranty was the flexibility in location as there is a dealership 10 mins from me whereas I bought from a dealer 25 mins away and with the current warranty I need to take it to them. Decisions, decisions...

 

The reason I would recommend only a Nissan warranty is that I have had experience with non-manufacturer warranty work. Typically, you pay for the warranty then hope they don't go under, they pay for what they said they would, or the dealership doesn't do more work than has been authorized or misdiagnose the problem and force you to come back for the "same problem" and thus cause the insurance company to auto-reject the claim, or anything else doesn't happen to the company or with the policy that causes you to wish you'd just gone ahead and paid the extra couple of hundred bucks on the manufacturer's warranty.

With a manufacturer's warranty, you typically don't have the same problems; and like you said, its accepted flexibly at dealerships. I'll agree, the price / part ratio is almost always better with third party warranties but the reason is typically, the claims are either rejected or people are reluctant to use them... among other reasons.

Personally, I've never had much luck with an extended warranty from anyone but I've had better luck with the manufacturer's warranty. If cars were like they were 25 years ago, you could fix them in your garage and not have to worry too much about having to purchase a warranty beyond the one offered because you could diagnose, treat, and cure your car yourself. With today's cars, you have to hook it up to a computer just to diagnose the problem...

 

If your going to go with a extended warranty, go with Nissan Security Plus. My extended warranty company (1Source Auto) just went belly up. The WHOLE company is being liquidated. I purchased my policy in July of 2005. It was suppose to be warrantied up to 60 months \ 100,000 miles. But since the company went bankrupted, my policy cancelled, so i'm sh*t outta luck. Lessoned learned, never buy an aftermarket extended warranty. ALways go with factory.

 

Never used my extended warranty ever....

 

Mine was a loser for me also as far as "getting my money back" out of it. I paid $1000 bucks and used it twice. First time was a rear O2 sensor but then I did get Nissan to replace the coils after *****ing about it several times - which included printing out threads from the org, showing them the online petition and TSB.

Personally, I don't think I would buy another warranty.