I've gotten a lot of valuable info here and wanted to share some in return. I went back and forth with getting an extended 3rd party warranty. I found ASC Warranty for $1995 with a $0 deductible that is a "factory type" warranty covering everything except the radio/nav. In my case, my car has over 85k miles so the front suspension is also not covered, nor are normal wear items like brakes and such (obvious).

I took my car to the dealer a couple days ago because of a noise I had coming from my vents. The noise is intermittent and goes away if I hit the OFF button on my speed control, then returns some time later (I have a video if anybody is experiencing something similar). While in the shop they were also concerned about an oil leak that I knew was there but wasn't yet prepared to do anything about because I didn't want to sink too far with the cost. I just got a call from the dealer... the blower motor needs replaced ($812.65) and the vacuum pump is what is causing my oil leak ($686.64). They called my warranty company and it is all covered, minus some shop fees and taxes. My out of pocket total is $323.

So in my case I spent $1995 on a warranty where, within the first month, I have recovered over $1200 of my warranty money. I wouldn't have fixed the oil leak at all if not for the warranty as it was losing less money in oil (I hadn't yet had to buy oil for it) than the repairs cost.

Anyway, I'm stoked that the noise from my vents is gone and that the warranty company did so well given that it is all of 2-3 weeks old!! They paid the dealer with a credit card so that the dealer didn't have to horse around with getting payment through the mail. I figured I'd share my experience in case someone is looking for a warranty. The price here is pretty good and so far the coverage is pretty great. The dealer even commented that he was surprised that it covered as much as it does and that they normally don't accept payment from 3rd parties like this. In this case ASC paid with a credit card over the phone so they had no reason not to work with them.

 

I always hear of 3rd party warranty companies screwing people over, glad to hear one finally came through.

 

cheers mate