Community Forums

wahlfamily · 11-17-2008, 05:46 AM

We're about to hit 12,000 miles and we're thinking about extended warranties. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions about this product?

LaMesa RV, where we bought the Newmar, offered us a warranty from StarRV for $2599 for 5 years, 55,000 miles. We aren't too happy with some of their service, so I'm skeptical of their offer.

Thanks for the help.

wahlfamily · 11-17-2008, 05:46 AM

We're about to hit 12,000 miles and we're thinking about extended warranties. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions about this product?

LaMesa RV, where we bought the Newmar, offered us a warranty from StarRV for $2599 for 5 years, 55,000 miles. We aren't too happy with some of their service, so I'm skeptical of their offer.

Thanks for the help.

MikeandClaudia · 11-17-2008, 01:49 PM

Most people you hear that have them either have not used them or have not had good luck with them.

Be prepared for a hastle if you make a claim: Be sure to have ALL Maintenance Records; make sure that all maintenance is/has been completed on time; and make sure to read ALL of the fie print on making a claim.

At claim time they are your adversary!

becks · 11-17-2008, 02:51 PM

My vote is no. To much fine print and to many things not covered. Take a sum of money and put it in the bank and use for repairs. Just my opinion.

Craig H · 11-22-2008, 02:47 PM

Look into the Good Sam Extended Service Plan (ESP). It seemed to have the best price and the fewest exclusions. It has worked well for us so far.

LindaH · 11-22-2008, 03:00 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Craig H:
Look into the Good Sam Extended Service Plan (ESP). </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
It's actually Good Sam Continued Service Plan (CSP).

Be sure to read any extended warranty carefully, including the one from Good Sam, to see exactly what it covers...and even more importantly, what it DOESN'T cover. When we had Good Sam's CSP, we discovered that unless something big needed to be fixed/repaired...like needing a new refrigerator...most of the run-of-the-mill repairs would be less than our $500 deductible, so we dropped it.

When reading over the contract, another thing to pay close attention to is the exact steps needed to make a claim. That usually entails the service center calling the extended warranty company and getting permission to make the repair BEFORE any work is started. And, in a lot of cases, you'll have to be the supervisor to make SURE the service center does this!

IMO, you'd probably be better off putting any money you'd pay for an extended warranty in a separate bank account and use it just for service work on your RV.

GaryKD · 11-22-2008, 03:07 PM

If you have had good luck the first year, there is a good chance your good luck will continue. Just follow the recommended maintenance (the extended warranty will require you to do this anyway) and you should be fine. My vote is to put the $s in the bank and when the warranty period would have expried, you be pleased on how much you have left in the bank.

However, if the coach has been plagued with problems, then considering the extended warranty is a valid choice.

Corvette Man · 11-23-2008, 09:17 AM

Put your money in a good money market account that you would pay for all extended warranties and you will come out ahead. They make a lot of money on them. Have done this for years and come out with a lot of cash to fix anything that goes wrong including buying a new appliance if needed.

Gary RVRoamer · 11-24-2008, 05:33 AM

I'm not a fan of extended warranties in general, but have bought them for our coaches because of the risk of very high dollar problems. Ours just paid out $835 for a replacement transfer switch/power monitor and that puts us close to the break even point just two years into a 4 year policy. Some other fairly big ticket items were a blown inverter ($800 rebuild), several hundred dollars for air system leaks, and $465 to replace a bad circuit board in a Splendide washer/dryer. I was worried about expensive items such as a fridge or engine/tranny problems, but none of those have occurred (though I did have a bad starter motor replaced at $375). The coach is almost 5 years old and 47k miles.