PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

stevebfl · #12 02-21-2004, 04:23 PM

When asked the same question by my dad recently, I talked him out of it.

Let me tell you how I see it and you can use that info as you wish.
Do you know how paramutual betting works? Everyone bets on a horse say. The money that is bet is given to the winners minus a regulated profit and the governments share. If there were no profit taken or taxes the only losses would be strickly to chance.

An extended warrantee is much the same. They sell them for more than they pay out for them plus profit. They wouldn't be around long in any other case.

So like paramutual betting after the profit is removed your winning or losing is up to chance, only with cars there is more to it. For my dad he has me, even though I would prefer not to work on his Chrysler. My dad is also the gentlest of automotive owners. So his risk is two fold serverely reduced. If he plays the game he is likely to lose. He has the money to risk it and even though my dad doesn't like risk I convinced him to play the game with the odds stacked so to speak.

Now in your case, I don't know how you treat cars; whether you are hard on them or not. The real risk (in my eyes) is your locality ad the complexity of your car. Service in your area has to be some of the most expensive known to mankind. The complexity and the warrantee probably leave you only at dealers, in an area where you are as likely to get a new controller as a readaptation. (no sense taking chances, just put in a new $2000 computer and then adapt couldn't hurt ya know).

So the answer comes in assessing your risk from both a personal standpoint and your trust in your service provider. You can't fix many things in PBC for $3000.

Actually, as I really think about it $3k is dirt cheap for a starmark on that car. It should be still in its new car warrantee. If that starmark will extend it two years or more it's probably a good risk just due to the car and the area.