Extended warranty question
 

Hi,

I am looking at a 1998 E320 with 39k miles. The seller (non MB dealer) wants to sell that car only with a 3 year 45k miles extended warrant. The company that offers the warranty is called Preferred Warranty. I wonder if anyone has had experience with this company and also how much does this warranty roughly cost?

Thanks,

Never heard of them. lots of places sell aftermarket waranties for cars, whther or not any of them are any good is a crap shoot.

Alon

Does he want to sell the car or not? Tell him you'll take it without the warranty. Then look for a good 3rd party warranty on your own. I sell them you can email me if interested, but if not there are plenty of choices out there.

Bruce

I sent him an e-mail asking if he would sell the car without the warranty.

He thinks he has gotten an extra clean and low mileage car so he wants more than whatever the price guides ask for an "outstanding" conditioned 1998 car with 37k miles. That is why he boundled the warranty. Right now his Buy It Now price is way high for a 1998 E320 4 Matic wagon. He wants $17900 with the warranty. I think most guides would give $14k max for the cae alone.

Email this lady (Nancy Wessell):

nancyw3@optonline.net. She's a dealer, works for herself and buys cars to order only. She is a specialist, as strange as this sounds, for E320 4matic wagons and sedans. Her fiancee (sp?) Tommy is a Benz mechanic that spent years at a dealership.

Tell her Bruce Mendel sent you, that you're a friend of mine from the Benz forums, and she will take good care of you. She can get just about anything, and has been doing this for over fifteen years. She only buys nice cars, will give you a complete and accurate description of the good and bad. Sometimes she's too blunt and scares people off, even though she knows how they'll turn out when she's finished with them.

Then if you want all the little stuff done before you take delivery, Tommy, her fiancee, can do it at reasonable prices, and she can also get keys, books, mats, whatever is missing or extra stuff you want.

Good luck. Also, no obligation of course, email her and see, can't hurt! She sells extended warranties too.

I bought my first Benz from her, a mint 420SEL, over a decade ago and we became friends and probably talk once a week. One warning, if you wind up calling her, and you probably will for a deal of this amount of money, make sure you have PLENTY of free time, she'll talk your ear off. But she's a riot, and very (brutally) honest. She's located in northwest NJ and also works out of PA.

Bruce

Thank you very much, Bruce.

Could you tell me where she is based?

I listed it at bottom of my LONG post above. :)

She lives in Northwest NJ, but she gets cars from all over.

She just got an E320 4matic wagon for a guy I know on the forums, and he's in TX! She bought the car with her own money based on a deposit from him, and sent him the car. If he likes it, he pays the balance. If not, she gets the car back and owns it and he gets his deposit back. Tough to beat that kind of service, and confidence in the quality of the cars she gets (and I am sure she'll kill me for telling you that she did that!).

Bruce

Be careful when buying an extended warranty. What you are buying is actually an insurance policy, but without any guarantee that the insurer will be there when you file a claim. I was offered one recently when buying a car that would have been more expensive, monthly, than my homeowner's insurance - for a car worth 1/20th of what the house is. But there is no regulation on these companies, and if they go out of business - take the money and run, you're without recourse.

By the way, on the warranty I mentioned above, the woman doing the paperwork at the dealer who's job it is to sell this thing, got up from her desk, started ranting about what would I do if the car broke down? Carrying on and doing the most incredible hard sell. Harder than the sales person who sold the car to me a few minutes earlier. Usually, the rule should be, if you can afford the product, you can afford the repairs.

I always advise against buying extended warranties for any product. It's a rip off. And the car dealers make out very well on them.

what bizzare advice!
 

FIRST, to the "bruce" guy...ANYBODY...especially a dealer...WHO SENDS A CAR CLEAR ACROSS THE COUNTRY ON "APPROVAL" is charging $4k above high retail for the car. do you really expect us to believe that someone just buys a car then ships it 1500 miles for the approval of a total stranger? are you insane? who would eat a $1600. shipping bill on a whim? what nut would incur the liability for damages, theft, etc.? come on, dude. no one would even think of that without having payment in full & clearing the bank!

second, regarding the warranty. even with a pre-purchase inspection by a trusted shop, it would be ludicrous to buy a used Benz without warranty protection. This Preferred outfit is a reputable one and a 3 year warranty with good coverage is easily worth over $3K. and should include a hi-tech coverage. just replacing the faulty blower motor on that car is easily worth $1500. and we all know it WILL go bad. so, why would'nt you take the protection? the ones to stay away from are the companies who offer 3 year coverage for a couple of hundred bucks. it only common sense. the more exposure, the greater the cost.

buyer, do yourself a favor. take the warranty. don't be pennywise & pound foolish. and especially don't listen to these guys who badmouth dealers just because.

most states have very strict laws regarding these service/insurance contracts. in the worst case, if the company goes out of business, you can ultimately recoup the value of the product. what you need to understand is what the benefits are. don't expect to get OEM-type coverage. look for labor rates, gasket/seal coverage and the like. sometimes there will be a per-incident dollar limit. look at the fine print. if it makes dollar sense...do it. I have sold cars with these products and have seen customers save thousands of $$ on a first repair. we won't sell any used Benz-Bimmer-Porsche without one because I don't want to hear it when something breaks...which it will no matter how clean the car is.

Thank you all for all the advices.

I bought one Friday, a 2003 E320 4Matic Wagon, without extended warranty. I inspected the wagon myself and felt pretty confident. So far the only issues are a slightly worn thermostat and a couple of mising 4Matic emblem letters from a car wash right before delivery (never use brush type of car wash). The dealer is getting me a new emblem.

Excuse me, but I know what she paid, what she charged, and I sent her the customer so she trusted him and did him a really big favor on my behalf. She felt confident enough after speaking to him, and his regular follow up, that she found exactly what he wanted and he would buy it. She also geats great rates on transport from auction to auction, so would not eat anywhere near $1600.

So unless you know the actual facts like I do, you can believe whatever you like, but that's the story.

Bruce