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?
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Dad bought a used Challenger with a 30-day warranty and got the rear end replaced because it made funny noises when turning at low speed. Apparently, they were on national backorder so must be a common problem.
Back in the late 90s I bought a used 1995 FD RX7 with about 45k miles on it from a Ford dealer and bought a 2 year warranty. About a year and a half later I brought it to a Mazda deal with a coolant overheat light. The suggested fix was to replace the engine. The Mada service guy went to war with the Ford warranty people and somehow got them to approve it. It was a $10k plus repair and I only paid $17k for the car.
Sadly I sold the car around 2005 for $8k. I regret that almost daily
$8k… running? I’d be regretting that too
yeah running and completely stock… I needed a four door ebcause adulting and it was probably due for a new engine again
I keep looking for it or another one but decent ones are running in the $50k now
It would have to be the battery replacement on my Model S which would have been around $15k to to have done at a shop. The actual failure was a wiring issue inside the pack that is repairable but they just replace the whole shebang when it’s under warranty.
Still a distant 2nd to Mr Tracy
I am personally familiar with a service contract company covering an $85K claim on a Porsche 911.
The dealer should’ve just had it totaled at that point…
Depends ymm
Are you related to Doug DeMuro?
It was sure nice of them to replace that light bulb for free.
I met a woman at a Raleigh, NC cars and coffee who had her 991 911 GT3 engine replaced via recall – I don’t know what the final amount was on the work order, but it had to be over 50-60K
What’s a warranty?
I haven’t see one of those in about a decade….
2007 Cadillac SRX V6 had a timing chain replacement recall, does that count? At dealer rates I gotta think that was $5k or more
The lovely Jatco CVT on my 2008 Altima. Failed at 60,000 miles. Repair cost would have been over $6000.
I’m surprised they didn’t just give you a new Altima probably don’t have $6,000 in a new one
Ford 1.5L Ecoboost. First the short block under a TSB for a blown head gasket, then a couple months later it grenaded and it got a long block.
A year later when the warranty is gone the turbo lets go and I find out “long block” didn’t include the turbo. They just slapped it and the metal shavings in it on the new engine.
Piece. Of. Junk.
Why would a long block include a turbo? Wouldn’t they say it was long block and turbo?
In retrospect it makes enough sense. I’ve always considered “short block” to be “block and rotating assembly” and “long block” to be “the whole engine”. It’s not an old Civic with the turbo a foot away from the engine in plumbing spaghetti, it’s packaged tightly to the back side of the engine with an application specific turbine housing that mates directly to the integral manifold.
Officially, long blocks don’t even include the tins. No valve cover, timing cover, oil pan, no manifolds, etc.
But I totally appreciate the frustration of thinking a bunch of work was done and finding out it something totally actually occurred.
I should add that when that smoking hulk was dragged back to the dealer, there was no discussion about short/long block. It was “It lost oil pressure. Don’t worry, you’re getting a whole new engine this time”.
Doug DeMuro has entered the chat!
Proportionally, Volvo once paid $2800 to repair a car I’d paid $45 for.
My first car! Two back to back repairs: Cam, lifters, and all the fun parts with it, then a new motor!
1996 S-10 Blazer with a 4.3 Vortec. My grandfather got it for me used in mid 2003 from the dealership he bought a few cars at. Some how, it had a 6 month, 6000mi warranty on it. In month 2, I noticed it had a weird tap coming from the top end. The dealer diagnosed it as a failing lifter, but it would need a new cam shaft, cam shaft bearings, lifters, I think a head needed to be redone too, and a plethora of other parts. The used car warranty kicked in and covered it. After it was in the shop for 1.5 months while they repaired it.
We got it back and my dad drove it home and something was wrong. Very wrong. After all that work and all those new parts……
The mechanic didn’t put oil in it. I’ll never forget my dad pulling the dipstick out and it was dry. Back to the dealership, where the service manager claimed that “with that many new parts oil is pretty much clear.” I guess he didn’t mention it was invisible too.
One junkyard long block later, I had my car back after not having it for 2-3 months. I remember the same service manager saying “we’ve put more into this car than you paid for it” when we picked it up. All for a $100 deductible (they waived the first one since they mucked it up).
At this point the warranty was about to expire, but my mom argued with them enough, she got another 6 month warranty. lol
TLDR; First car had a valve train tick, dealership put a bunch of new parts on it, forgot to fill it up with oil, so I got a newish motor all for $100 because warranty.
What is War-an-tee?
I think the closest I’ve had to that was damage protection on my phone when I broke the screen. All my cars have been out of warranty save maybe the FR-S, but I’ve since driven that past mileage and age.
New 2.0 redesigned ’21 ecoboost long block for my 17 Escape…coolant intrusion defect @ 55k miles. Then when reassembling, they didnt seat one of the axles right or some other, so I heard a weird noise the next day and returned back to dealer. New axle, front rotors/pads. Week later, the plastic underbody panels on both sides came loose on interstate caused a roaring sound..thought trans had done out. They had forgotten a few fasteners. They ordered new panels. I declined for them to install them. Did it myself. Didn’t want them to touch my car again.
Car currently at Ford awaiting long block and this is exactly my fear when I get it back. I already mentally prepared myself to have to take it back a time or two to get things “correct” again
After that, all was good. Put another 40k on it before trading it in. I was 2 months from being out of warranty.
No idea what it cost but the cylinder head on my parent’s Mercedes catastrophically failed and it had to be sent back to Germany to be rebuilt because post-Covid supply chain woes. Almost immediately after getting it back, the turbo exploded and sent shrapnel through the freshly rebuilt engine. The whole thing had to be rebuilt a second time.
Well to be honest an oil change on a Mercedes with a tune up costs more than a new engine in any American car
I have a 2012 Jeep Wrangler with the lifetime bumper to bumper and have had all kinds of stuff fixed and replaced. Last year was one $8k set of stuff from leaks to sensors to the rear factory limited slip diff. Just last month was the main seal O2 sensors and all 4 tire pressure sensors.
I buy new every 10+ years and I buy from brands with strong reliability. The only warranty repair I have had in nearly 40 years of driving is replacing the catalytic converter on a 2012 Mazda MX-5 right after purchasing it second (third, fourth) hand in 2019. There was about 6 months and 20k miles left on the federal emissions coverage. The CEL came on during the drive home. I guess that was about $1,500.
I’ve had lots of warranty items declined on new vehicles.
But my favourite win: Minimum 8 shift boots were replaced due to the fabric cracking. They insisted on keeping it in the shop for a full-day and gave me a loaner each time, and billed it back to GM.
That pettiness by both myself, and the dealership, was probably rather extensively invoiced back to GM.
I had a 2006 Mazdaspeed 6 that the original owner thankfully bought the full 160,000km (100,000 mile) factory extended warranty. I got the long block replaced about 5000km before the warranty was set to end due to oil consumption.
Warranty also covered a replaced turbo due to exhaust smoke and leaking PTO and rear diff seals. Warranty must have paid out $10-$15k during my ownership.
I’m not really sure what it cost GM but when the BECM went on my Volt they had to drop the whole battery to replace the module. So they were on the hook for all that labor and like 2 weeks of me driving a Malibu from Enterprise.
I had a wheel bearing replaced under warranty in my first new car, an ’02 Golf GLS TDI. Maybe the seat module that failed in my 328! was more expensive than that? My Saab 9-3 Combi got a battery under warranty (it sat for almost two years on the dealer lot before I bought it n the GM fire sale). I actually had NO warranty repairs at all in my last four new cars. Two Fiats, a VW GTI, and a BMW M235i.
@!:%^! Nothing.
I’m pretty sure the dealership billed Subaru’s warranty dep’t like $16,000 for work on to diagnose and fix my dad’s Crosstrek. They were trying to get him to pay $6,700 of it (new ECM, 4 camshaft sprockets, 4 plugs, etc), but we called their bluff and they eventually pushed through everything as a warranty claim.
Had the original Volvo warranty pay for a new electric rear axle on a ’24 XC90 T8. Axle failed around 15k miles or so in and the dealer took close to a month to replace it.
Part itself is around 7k retail, not to mention the significant labor involved.
What is this warranty you speak of?
I have a Sprinter with nearly 50k in warranty claims.
One big claim was oil pan leaking. Upper pan requires engine or trans removal. The dealer resealed it, and that did not work since the pan was cracked, so they had to do it again to replace it. That was probably 15k total since the majority of the job was labor and it had to be done twice.
The pan cracked again, so it got another pan under warranty. Retail on that is 7-8k total.
It needed an DEF tank, 3k total retail (or more) since the part is expensive and programming is expensive.
It needed half of the exhaust system replaced when a sensor got stuck and could not be unthreaded. Let’s call that 5k.
The BIG one was when the downpipe fell off the back of the turbo, which cooked the turbo, the intake manifolds (plastic flappers on them melted), the engine wiring harness, fuel rails, and a bunch of other stuff. That was 20k ish.
I know of many other sprinters without such. This one just seems to have the ole German curse of complexity.
whoa $50K?!? mine was lithium battery replacement in a chrysler in 2022. Estimated Dealer Price: $12,000 – $15,000+ (parts + labor)
It would be a hell of a lot less if it was not warranty. For starters, I would have never brought it in for a slight oil leak. The exhaust thing could have been fixed with some creative use of a torch to get the stuck sensor out. The turbo debacle could have also been fixed for less.
If it was cash work by a qualified 3rd party and not a dealer, I imagine everything NECESSARY would have been 10k tops.
Please tell me you plan on selling it when the warranty runs out
Nah, as I explained below, if it was not warranty work, most of this wouldn’t have been done, or would have been done for a heck of a lot less. Warranty work often gets inflated since neither customer or dealer is paying. Dealers are incentivized to get as many hrs as possible, manufacturers require insane repair procedures, etc.
BIG gap here between flat rate dealer tech running a job on Mercedes dollars vs. good independent tech running a job on customer dollars.