I'm going to buy a used '03 C230 kompressor from some in-laws. It's got ~40K miles on it (still under factory warranty for a little while). My big dilema now is whether to get an extended warranty on it.

I started out looking into an extended warranty under the premise it would be exactly like the original (i.e. I don't pay a dime, even for an oil change). Everywhere I check they are ~$3K, and would extend the warranty thru 2010/up to 100K miles. BUT, they are not the same factory warranty like the in-laws have (they don't pay a dime, even for an oil change) - I'll be paying (or doing it myself) for the oil changes, brakes, rotors, etc. And, there's a $100 deductible associated with the warranty.

Is there any reason I should get this? I'm leaning towards not getting it, as these cars are supposed to be very reliable, correct?

These new car are all driven by computers, they are as reliable as any cars you would buy. No one can tell you should or should not get extended warrenty. If I can tell the future, I would buy a lottery ticket today.

If you are going to purchase warrenty. The only suggestion is be sure the warrenty is a reliable company/dealer. You don't want to find out they are out of bussiness when you need them.

Jack

I would not buy a Mercedes without an extended warranty, if I ever buy one again.

I have read on this forum warranties paying upwards of $20,000 on the S-Class for repairs!!

Oil change is going to be the least of your concerns If you go to the dealership for every repair, just the MAS will cost you somehere around $600. And it will fail

I have spent about $10,000 in repairs, including wear items on my 94 E320 which was a 1 owner vehicle with low miles when I bought it. I take care of my cars more than the average consumer, so the expense would have been less, if I had neglected some items, and avoided the dealership a little bit more.

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Zafar
94 E320 58000 Miles

insert `extended warranty` in the search engine on this site and carefully read posts.

also do a google search on extended warranty.

may also want to go to www.ftc.gov

and before you buy - if you decide to buy - an extended warranty get and read all the documentation particularly about exclusions.

you can/may negotiate price on an extended warranty.

I personally would never buy an extended warranty, I would set aside money for eventual repairs. If the in-laws are to be trusted you have a pretty good idea on the track record of this individual vehicle.

MB sells one I decided to get one on my 01 E $2700. In the six months out of regular warranty I have gone thru a dimming mirror and a window regulator i I am down to $2100 with over three years to go. MB the only way to go, no negotiation, they dont cover the radio but they do cover the remotes!

Keep in mind that any extended waranty company is in business for one reason, to make money on the warranty they sell. So they are betting that you won't use it all or that what goes wrong won't be covered. In the long run, they will always win. No extended waranties for me, but I can see where it can be tempting.

Len

I wouldn't buy any warranty other than factory warranties. When I bought my C-Class new back in the fall of 1997, the extended warranty to cover bumper-bumper (but NOT maintenace, none had that, never did in Canada) to seven years and 160K-kms was only $1200. Knowing that the 722.6 was only in it's second year (did I have ESP, or WHAT!?), I popped the $1200. I am fairly risk averse and figured that the $1200 was inexpensive compared to the possible future pay-outs.

Well, I might have only broken even, but because of an MB Canada policy, I made out like a bandit. My trans required a minor repair, but MB Canada instructed the dealer to replace the whole shooting match under my extended warranty. $8000 worth of transmission, converter and associated black-boxes and labour.

Traditionally, extended warranties from MB Canada have been cheap. The cost-of-warranty service for MB models was low thanks to excellent build quality and long life of components. Electronics have changed ALL that. Today, the extended warranty pricing on 06 models is dramatically higher than when I bought my car.

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John Shellenberg
1998 C230 "Black Betty" 240K

http://img31.exs.cx/img31/4050/tophat6.gif

I would say don't buy the extended warranty or the car. If you even have to ponder the question you don't really want to own the car.

Thanks for the opinions, guys. Like I said, I initially was looking into an extended warranty if I could extend the 'total care' warranty all ready on it (and not pay a dime for even regular maintenance). The plan's I'm being offered are through the MB dealers, but I'm gathering they are separate companies. They all have deductibles. deanyel is correct in the sense that the reason we're looking at this car is becasue it's supposed to be a very reliable car. I'm reasonably good at working on cars and maintain everything myself (once they're out of factory warranty, of course), so even if I had to replace the supercharger/transmission/etc I'm fairly confident I could handle it. I'm still leaning towards not getting it, but am still interested in opnions. Thanks again, everyone. This decision aside, I can hardly wait to pick up the new beauty .....

two web sites you should browse concerning the C-class

www.mbklasse.com

www.mbworld.org


also go to the dealer or www.mbusa.com and study the extended warranties Mercedes sells - as someone mentioned in a previous post.
These warranties presently may have to be purchased when the car is purchase. At other times I think you had one year from date of purchase to buy the Mercedes extended warranty.

Extended warranties are like any other insurance. Do you have full insurance coverage on your car or only 3rd party liability?
If you car gets totaled, do you have a $20K reserve to replace it , or not.

With the extended warranty you pay a certain sum of money up front, which buys you some piece of mind. Sure the warranty company has to make money, but all they need to charge you to do that is the average repair cost for that particular car over the period of the contract plus a profit percentage. Some cars will actually cost a lot less than that average to repair and some will cost a lot more.
The question is whether you want to take a chance on your car being in the first or the second category,or, are you willing to pay the warranty company their profit margin and in return be guarantueed that you will be paying what is average in repair bills for that type of car.

With that said, make sure not to buy a contract unless you have read and understood all the terms. This sounds obvious but the insurers spend a lot of effort writing exclusions in the contracts that reduce their exposure. Some of them require some pondering before their implications are clear.
Here is an example I have come across:

"this insurance does not cover a gradual reduction in performance as a result of wear and tear"
This sentence can be interpreted in more than one way and you can be certain that the warranty company wil interpret "gradual reduction in performance " differently than you do.