The zero-deductible plan for $3500 is a pretty good price. I think the maxicare plan I was offered for $3k had a $100 deductible.

I know what you mean about the peace-of-mind aspect though.

 

If you ever plan on making a single modification to your vehicle, don't buy Dodge's extended warranty. I got screwed bigtime by Daimler-Chrysler with my previous 2001 Dakota R/T. I bought it new, and right around 25k miles I decided to install a few Mopar parts - ended up putting in the Mopar headers, and Mopar intake manifold. The Club Cab Dakota has known issues with driveshaft vibrations at upper highway speeds, there's a TSB and other info available on the procedure for 98-99 trucks, but the problem still applies for 00-02. For 2003 models, Dodge finally built a new driveshaft.

Anyways... The truck had ~35k miles at this point, was still under factory warranty plus I had paid ~$1200 for a Chrysler 7/70 warranty. I was driving down the highway, felt a weird vibration, and saw smoke pouring out from under the truck. The driveshaft vibration had walked the tailshaft seal out of the transmission, and luckily the fluid splashed on my exhaust, so when I saw the smoke I was able to get to the side of the road before even a quart of fliuid had spilled out. The truck was taken to the dealership - this dealership had worked on my truck for other warranty issues before, they knew 100% what parts I had installed in the truck, and had never given me any crap about them whatsoever. The truck was repaired under warranty, and I was sent on my merry way.

A few weeks later I was driving on another highway, went to pass a car, felt the slightest vibration, then *BLAM* - HUGE cloud of smoke, grinding noises, etc. - luckily I didn't lose control, got pulled over to the side of the road safely. I look under the truck, and see a river of transmission fluid. The overdrive unit of the transmission was completely ripped in half! What sucks is that I was ~90 minutes out of town, had to wait forever for a tow truck, and had to pay a healthy amount out of pocket as well, because Dodge's warranty only covers a certain amount of the tow. The truck is taken back to the same dealership, and I get the whole "we're so sorry, we'll get you fixed right away!" treatment. It turns out that the dealership techs didn't do anything to repair the driveshaft vibration, they simply replaced the tailshaft seal - when they put the driveshaft back together, they didn't put the u-joint back together properly, that's what failed at highway speeds, the resulting imbalance from those parts is what tore apart the transmission.

Two days later I get a phone call - "uh, you need to come get your truck". Since the truck needed a complete transmission/driveshaft replacement, they had to call in a Daimler-Chrysler warranty specialist for approval - the guy took one look at the Mopar parts under the hood, and even though they had absolutely nothing to do with the driveline failure, both of my warranties were completely voided on the spot - I didn't even get a dime back for the voiding of the extended warranty. I made all sorts of calls - contacted the service mgr & general mgr of the dealership, contacted regional daimler-chrysler reps, contacted the daimler-chrysler warranty office in Michigan, etc. The story was all the same - whatever the warranty specialist had done, nobody could or was willing to undo. Mentioning the Magnusson-Moss act did no good, they basically dared me to go grab a lawyer and take them on.

I couldn't afford to hire a lawyer and have the truck sit unused while we dragged it out in the courts - the truck was my daily driver and I have kids. As it was I had to take out a loan to get everything replaced.

This situation is the main reason why I haven't done anything mechanically to my Charger except for a CAI - I'm not going to give those bastards another chance to say "nice mods" when you show up at the dealership for service, but when they screw something up that is going to cost them money they'll suddenly play the "oh you've got mods" b.s. routine to get out of paying the bill.

 

I also hate the fact that the lifetime warranty doesn't apply to SRT or diesel vehicles - are they trying to say that thevehiclesthey charge the most for are going to be the ones most prone to mechanical failure due to factory parts, so they don't want to cover them?

 

I assumed the primary reason for exluding SRT vehicles is because those vehicles stand a good chance to be driven significantly harder thereby making them a higher risk of mechanical failure.

As for your bad experience with the warranty... that's the kind of thing that prevents me from getting the warm fuzzies. They (from Chrysler right on down to the local service department) will use any "out" they can when things start looking expensive for them. And as you mentioned, who has the time or money to actually go through with hiring an attorney?

Everyone has different experiences with warranties. Some good, some bad. My brother had a Charger in the 80s and it had a blown head gasket while under the warranty period. He ended up with an $1800 repair bill, with the explanation that the warranty fine printat that time indicated that itonly covered LUBRICATED mechanical components.

I've bought extended warranties on most of my vehicles in the past, and I can't recall ever having had to use one - primarily because most things don't start breaking until after the warranty expires. That's the premise behind a warranty; it's the fundamental business case from the manufacturer's perspective - they predict no major problems will happen with the vehicle until the warranty has expired. That mindset is what makes me leary of this new "lifetime" warranty. It just doesn't make sense from a business perspective,since it has "no" expiration date. It makes me suspicious that at some point, the vehicle owner is going to expect coverage and will be denied, for any reason they can come up with.

I keep using my '97 Dakota as an example. I would've loved to have kept that thing forever, it was a fantastic vehicle. Almost everything was bone stock at 170k miles - clutch, O2 sensors, fuel injectors, alternator, fuel pump, etc. So I knew at some point things would start breaking. Well, something broke alright... cylinder #3 lost compression. Now if I had a lifetime maxicare warranty, I'd be covered, right? How about when the brake lines rust through. Or the suspension bushings or motormounts crack and disintegrate. Or the wiring gets old andbrittle and gremlins show up throughout the entire electrical system. The gauges stop working. Need a new fuel pump. Rear axle finally lets go. Leaf springs sagging and need to be replaced.......... all of the things that can and will eventually wear out. Am I to believe that Chrysler is really going to pick up the tab for all of those mileage and age related repairs? I just don't believe it. A line would have to be drawn somewhere, or else (in theory) it would be possible for someone to drive a car for a million miles and still be under warranty.

The bottom line is, I'd love to have that peace-of-mind in knowing I hold a MaxiCare warranty, so I'm covered forever... but it's a leap of faith I'm unable to convince myself to believe in.

 

Since no other manufacturer has EVER given a lifetime warranty I am confident that they will discontinue this after a year or two. I think the accountants will realize that its too much of a liability long term and also that it really hasnt increased sales much anyway so why bother! They are using statistics to take a "calculated risk",assuming most buyers wont keep it more than 7-8 years... so basically they arent offering more than a few extra years on the powertrain (which rarely fails),and if you dont have it inspected at the proper interval the will deny your claim anyway.
My experiences with extended warranties (on cars) have been positive so I still think I will go for it. I dont buy extended warranties on anything else but cars. I think they are good insurance since they are so expensive to purchase and repair!
I agree they typically run out before anything wears out. But since we dont drive too much anymore we hit the "time limit" before the mileage. With our VW I paid $1800 for the warranty they have paid out $1400 and I still have 3 more years of coverage. Ifound out quickly that the VW are not the most reliable cars soI figured a warranty was a must!

 

In my case with my '97 Dakota, the powertrain is what ultimately wore out, resulting in me getting rid of it.

I had two major powertrain issues over the 10 years I owned it - first, the infamous 3.9L timing chain slack/noise, and second, the lost compression.

There were a handful of other things that went wrong, but nothing outrageous. I had to replace the front brake calipers at about 140k miles. The infamous balljoints wore out at about 150k. Going from memory, I spent between $100-$200 on new calipers (I installed them myself). New balljoints cost a pretty $400 or so at a local tire shop. So I spent maybe $600 out-of-pocketon non-powertrain repairs. With the warranty, I would've spent (guessing here) $2500 back in '97. Add to that a$100 deductible for brake calipers, and another $100 deductible for balljoints. So now my total would've been $2700 out of pocket, compared tothe$600 that I ended up paying by notgetting the warranty.

Furthermore... under warranty, thosePOS balljoints would've been replaced with identical POS balljoints that will eventually fail again.By having it doneat athird-party shop, I got high quality greasable Moog components installed instead.

Everyone's experience varies.Hopefully my 2008 Dakotawill be as good to me as the 1997 was overall

 

Got my warranty. Also able to see it on line and downloaded it as a PDF. Then saved it as text file and hopefully it's attached. I did edit out the stuff that pretained to me and Contract #. A few odd characters do so show up in file but the key stuff is readable. One key thing you lose is:
TRIP INTERRUPTION, FIRST DAY RENTAL/CAR RENTAL
ALLOWANCE, TOWING, AND ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE
EXPIRE AT 7 YEARS OR 100,000 MILES ON THE
ODOMETER.

Anybody else see any gotcha's?

 

This jumped out at me immediately:

[blockquote]
In situations where the repairs costs exceed
the cash value of the vehicle, the remainder of the Plan
coverage will be cancelled. [/blockquote]

Does this mean that they get to cancel the warrantywhen the vehicle has 175k miles on it and is worth next-to-nothing? Again, case-in-point, my 1997 Dakota: it was worth (going from memory here) around $2500. I'm pretty confident the quote for an engine replacement would be well over $2500 - so bingo, they get to cancel the "lifetime" warranty? How convenient for them.

edit: My dealer still owes me the official documentation on the standard Lifetime Powertrain warranty... I wonder if it has similar fine print.

 

Awill99 thanks for posting this!
I noticed the same thing that Dakota2112 commented about. It’s definitely a loop hole so they can weasel out of repairs in the future. It states that they won’t pay more than NADA avg retail.
So for kicks I plugged in a 1992 Dakota and Avg retailis about $3000. If you had a major repair (over $3000) needed they would have topaythe first$3000 and you would have to pay the restAND they would cancel your warranty. So, I can’t say that I am totally surprised like others have said “if it sounds too good to be true it probably is….� I knew they had to have something in there to protect themselves!
BUT, for most people 15 years is a looong time to keep a car. And at least they will give you some coverage(up to book value). So it is still okay for lots of people!

Second concern, if you sell it, wreck it, gets stolen etc… You can get a prorated refund which is based on a 7 years or 100k miles. After 7 years or 100k miles you only get $25 back. So if you drive a lot like I used to (35k miles a year) after 3 years you have over 100K miles. If it’s stolen or wrecked or you are about to trade it in, the warranty company will only issue you a refund of $25.

I still think it’s a good deal for some but realistically it’s like a 15 year warranty (if Chrysle is still around) not “lifetime�.
After all the input from this board may just get a 7yr/50K mile warranty it’s only about $1000 compared to $3500 for the “lifetime�!

 

I saw that but it's only logical. Where the warranty really pays off is driving a lot of miles quickly. If health holds up and no big crash I'll easily do 100k miles in 4-5 years and over 200K in 10. Lots of miles depreciates it slower than lots of years. if I only planned to drive it 10K a year or less I wouldn't even fool with a warranty.