Saturday, June 04, 2011

Extended warranty for Nissans

Although Consumer Reports says that extended warranties are typically not useful, I was intrigued by Nissan’s extended warranty (called Security+Plus) as it’s a Nissan administered plan. And at the right price it would definitely make sense.

Instead of buying it from the Nissan dealer where I bought my Nissan Rogue, I opted to purchase it later. And it turned out to be a good thing: The dealer where I bought the Rogue, quoted me $2100 for the extended warranty (84 months, 70k miles). I ended up buying it at Larry Miller Nissan for much less, $600 less.

So here is what I suggest:

  • Make sure the length of the warranty makes sense for you. In my case, we typically drive our car about 10k miles a year. So the warranty should last for 4 extra years beyond the original Nissan warranty. At the reduced price that I paid at Larry Miller Nissan, I should end up recouping the cost if I have just one medium severity problem.
  • Don’t buy the extended warranty at the time you are buying your car, unless you are getting a good deal (basically you are paying a small mark-up above the invoice price for the warranty). Instead go home and call all the dealers. One of them is bound to give you a good price. (Think of it just like how you would buy your car).

Larry Miller Nissan: http://www.larrymillernissan.com/index.htm (Ask for Joe Lee)

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