Having a warranty for your car can mean the difference between a slight inconvenience and a month-ruining four-figure repair bill. My disposition to constantly buy cheap, high-mileage hoopties from Facebook Marketplace usually puts me in the latter when my cars break, which happens often enough that I constantly think about giving it all up and leasing something new.
The beauty of a warranty is the freedom it gives you to drive your car without that nagging feeling in the back of your mind that it might suddenly, randomly, empty your bank account without warning. Even the most reliable cars sometimes break, and if there’s no warranty there to back you up, there’s only one person to cover the bill: You.
If you do have a warranty, it’s a different story. Sure, if your car leaves you stranded, that still sucks. But with a good warranty, you’re never hit with the second gutpunch of paying a tow truck to lug your car to the nearest shop, that third gutpunch of paying for a loaner car while yours is in said shop, or that fourth gutpunch of paying said shop for their parts and labor. Everything’s just… taken care of.
I’ve never personally gotten a warranty to pay for anything major, simply because I’ve only ever owned one new car—my Ford Fiesta ST—and it was perfectly reliable the entire time I owned it. But funnily enough, I was the cause of some necessary repair work on my mom’s old BMW 328d.
The story goes like this: About a decade ago, I had borrowed my mom’s turbodiesel-powered BMW 3-Series, which she was leasing new, to go for a day-long back road drive with a friend in his Porsche 944. While we weren’t doing anything crazy, I was certainly pushing the car pretty hard, with constant trips to its 5,500-rpm redline. At the end of the day, the car threw a check-engine light while we were cruising back home on the highway.
The car didn’t feel like it was broken or running poorly, so I just let my mom know the light came on and went about my day. She took it in for repair work a week later and told me it needed all of its injectors replaced—which happened fully under warranty, of course. Had it been out of warranty, it probably would’ve cost over $1,000, including parts. I definitely didn’t have that kind of money to cover that at the time, so I’m thankful the warranty was there to have my back.
Your turn:
What’s The Most Expensive Repair You’ve Gotten A Warranty To Pay For?
Top graphic images: DepositPhotos.com
I had the AC evaporator coil on my 2022 BMW X5 replaced under warranty twice. That is about a $6k job at the dealer so I’m glad BMW stands behind their warranty. But I feel like I’m driving a ticking time bomb now and I need to offload this car before something else expensive breaks while not under warranty.
I got the rear hatch of my Fiesta ST painted twice because the trim would rub, and after the 2nd time they installed clear bra for protection, they also replaced the door pillar vinyl which wrinkled, and installed a new headunit because android auto would not connect, I think the total for everything was around $1500. We got a “refurbished” engine installed in my wife’s sonata under warranty, no idea the total savings but I would assume over $5k.
My 2005 R53 Mini Cooper S was shifting VERY hard from 1-2, so I did a bit of research to find a warranty with the shortest window before you could make the first claim. Found one for $3000 that would allow me to make a claim after 30 days. Showed up at the Mini dealership on day 31. They had the car for two months; $11k later, I had my new transmission.
Most recently, I took my 2020 F150 in that I bought used under Fords Gold Certified program. I took it in for an oil change and the dealership said the ‘front engine cover’ was leaking oil. On the 2.7 motor the entire front engine cover is 1 piece. It was 16hrs of labor plus parts. It would have been $3,600 out of warranty.
Continental TSIO 550 for a low hour Cirrus- $170k with labour –
Had our 2020 Audi A6 AllRoad in for a number of simultaneous claims. Over $8K in parts alone. Replaced alternator, leather dash pad, lock mechanisms, rear hatch motor. Don’t remember labor
I used to work with a guy who bought a 1968 Olds Cutlass new. After driving it a couple years, he took it to Sears and had new shocks and brakes put on it. He got the ones with the lifetime warranty.
LIFETIME.
Every couple years, he’d go back to Sears and make them put new ones on. He kept the paperwork, so they had to honor it.
Last time I saw him was in the early 90’s, still driving that brown ’68 Curlass. Sears HATED that guy. He had to have gotten at LEAST a couple grand out of them in warranty work.
He was a weird dude. Got splashed on his arm and… crotch area with liquid nitrogen. He didn’t want to go to the hospital because the splash was pretty small. Higher ups made him go.
When he saw the doctor, doc asked where he got splashed. He showed him his arm, and doc whipped out a scalpel and just dug it out. He didn’t really feel anything because the flesh was dead, but when doc asked him if he got hit anywhere else, he just said “Nope.”
Before my extended warranty ran out on my e46 M3 ran out my SA told me to bring it in so he could go over it. He ended up getting 5k out of the warranty company on various things, the car was right at 100k miles at the time.
The only vehicle I’ve ever bought new was a 2003 Yamaha WR450F. It was the first year for electric starting, and the first moment I hit the button when I got it home, it ripped the flywheel off the crankshaft. So I took it back under warranty.
It did it again. And again. And again. Finally the three month warranty expired. The issue is, when the engine backfires, it sinks all the torque backwards into the starter motor.
The 2004 model came out with a slipper clutch on the starter drive.
I still have the bike and I still can’t use the electric start. It’s the last Yamaha I’ll ever own.
Kia paid for:
New Engine (spun rod bearings)
New transmission (service tech jacked it up pulling/putting engine)
New front bearing assemblies (service tech jacked it up pulling/putting transmission)
Thank you again to Kia for not giving me any grief over it.
I bought my second mk1 MR2 from a used car place opposite the local Toyota dealer. It came with a six month warranty. So I drove the car across the road, gave them the paperwork, and told them to check it out for anything that was covered.
The compression test wasn’t great, so I got a set of new valves, plus the labour to fit them. Maybe 50% of the cars value?
I loved that car, kept it until the replacement rear fenders I fitted rotted out again.
I loved my 87 MR2. I used to drive to Texas to buy up parts to replace the ones that rotted off. I had 3 in the drive and 4 motors in the garage at one point. The rust was awful, but running the 4AG on a set of carbs made the whole thing worth it.
An engine designer friend of mine has a 4AGE on a stand in his garage as engine porn. It’s a lovely thing.
I loved them. They responded so well to tuning once you stripped away the EFI and all the computers.
I was driving my 2001 S4 and the transmission dropped 2nd gear. I could drive in odd number gears, but evens were gone. It was still under factory warrantee so, even though I bought it used, the Audi dealer replaced the whole transmission. They also replaced the clutch at the same time at no cost. I even had a GTI loaner for the 3 weeks it was in the shop. It was one of those anniversary ones with the rabbit logo. The tech told me they had to get the trans sent from Germany. I have no idea what it cost, but I’m sure it wasn’t cheap.
Freightliner truck I drove at work- Frame rail cracked, Daimler paid 40+ hours labor plus at least a couple thousand $$$$ in parts to replace it.
Mam and dad’s ’76 (I think) Honda wagon (purchased new) got a lot of work done under warranty. The dealer had been a motorcycle dealer, then stepped in cars, so were eager for customers.My brother drove through a too-deep puddle too fast and the engine sucked water into the cylinders and managed to bend some connecting rods. The dealer rebuilt the engine under a head gasket recall/warranty from Honda. The engine was rebuilt another time under warranty as well for some other simple stupid thing we kids did. Another time the brakes were a little wonky, and the dealer rebuilt all of the brakes as well. We loved that dealer!
Single highest warranty claim was my wife’s 2016 Escape. Had to have the catalytic converter replaced under emissions warranty. $988 to Ford.
Overall was my 1998 Grand Am V6. Had that vehicle almost three years to the day (Jan 2002-Feb 2005) and it had racked up $3600 in claims over that time. Paid $1450 for it for 4 years of coverage. Thanks dad!
I was a warranty admin at a Mercedes-Benz dealer for a while, and I wanted to share two stories from “the other side” as one may put it.
First car lost power on the freeway, had to be towed in. Transmission was borked and the valve body was freaking out six ways to Sunday. We get it on the lift, and the case is shattered and its puking ATF out the top. We drop the car and as we’re watching it go down, we notice a strange hole in the PR door. A bullet hole. Somehow, this GLE took a bullet, which went through the door, through the transmission tunnel, and still had enough energy to crack the cast aluminum case by the tailhousing. This went from a possible warranty transmission failure to a comprehensive insurance claim pretty quickly.
Second one came about after the advent of the M133 motor. This 4-pot had a TON of teething issues and we warrantied basically one a month until around 2018 when they finally got good and then got replaced by the M139. Anywho, a W205 C-class rolled in on a flatbed with a locked up motor. Wouldn’t crank, nothing. Scoped it and found a blown up #3 piston. We filed a warranty case and it gets approved for (drumroll please) R&R the piston. The entire engine it trashed, the bore is scraped to bits and the piston got mashed into the combustion chamber, the valves got sent to meet their dear and fluffy lord, and whatever remained was in the oil pan.
The lesson here is that incompetence starts at the top.
Oh, and that car’s don’t like bullets.