[Catfish]

My car will be here in about a week
Trying to figure out if I will purchase the Ford Extended Service Plan (ESP) and/or Ford Extended Warranty Plan this time.
I purchased both for the '13 Fusion Titanium I have which was the 1st time I did such a thing for the Service plan anyway.

The ESP is the Premium version and covers ALL maintenance for up to 100K or 7Yrs except for tires and battery (I think) and they keep the records (if there are any issues...)
I drop it off every 5K and they do everything in 1-2 hours. That ends up being 20 service visits for the term of the contract.
I was on the fence at the time since I am a do-it-myself kind of person. Not afraid or working on anything (except automatic transmissions).

The Ext Warranty is also the Premium version and covers everything.
Have not used it yet.

They were about $2,600 (~$130 per visit on average for 20 visits) and $1,900 respectively at the time in '13. It was funny at the time, the finance guy kept bring the $$'s down while I was silent. By the time it was done, I think the total came down ~$1,200 (but don't quote me on that)...
When I trade it for the new FFS, I will get a partial refund...

Just wondering what your thoughts are on either or both.
Would you do it on the FFS?

 

[a351must2]

In my experience... the last two new cars I purchased I did not get any service plan or warranty extension. I only drive about 12K miles/year due to carpooling and working from home and I split it between my Mustang and Focus.

My 2011 Mustang has required 0 warranty work since I purchased in 2010, and gets serviced once a year. I've only paid for service 2 times in 6 years of owning it, I'm not sure how Ford's service rewards work, but it seems like there was often enough of a balance to cover service.

My 2012 Focus (purchased in 2011) got its radiator replaced just outside of warranty for $1100 (wish I'd had time to just do it myself)....almost as expensive as an extended warranty would've been. I paid for service 4 of the 5 times I brought it in, but never paid more than $50 on any visit.

I did get the extended warranty for the Fusion, but plan on keeping it longer than I kept the Focus and suspect repairs will be pretty expensive with the ecoboost engine and even more electronic doodads than the Focus or Mustang had.

 

[Catfish]

I had planned on keeping my '13 Fusion longer but since circumstances have changed and there is a so called "Normal" 2-3 shift thing that bugs me, I am upgrading...

 

[Wildcat Birdie]

I didn't get it because even the extended warranty with how much I drive won't last long enough to make it worthwhile to me.

 

[jayson]

IMO extended warrantys are not worth it. You are basically pre-paying for possible future problems, which seems dumb to me. Ford would not sell you a 2,000 dollar warranty if they expected 4,000 dollars worth of repairs. Sure its nice to just be able to take your car in and fix whatever comes up, but rarely will the cost of fixing your car exceed the warranty cost, otherwise no one would make money selling warranties. Then when you factor in financing the warranty it cost even more. Basically if you have a savings account with a few grand in it that you can use as an emergency fund, stick with that. If you buy a 2,000 dollar warranty and only use 1500 dollars, well you just gave 500 bucks to Ford on a losing gamble. Thats all it really is, its a 2,000 dollar bet that you will come out ahead that only pays out if you have a really shitty and unreliable car. You also need to remember that the extended warranty doesnt start working until the factory warranty has expired, but you still are paying for it. So the factory power train warranty is 5 years 60,000 miles, if you bought a 100,000 mile extended warranty for 2,000 dollars, you basically spent 2,000 dollars for 40,000 miles of power train coverage. Because lets be honest, rarely do things other than power train cost a significant amount of money.

With that being said, I did buy the wheel protection warranty because it covers potholes and those rims are very expensive. I think i paid 400 bucks for 5 years of rim/tire coverage, just one of those rims probably cost 400 bucks new from Ford. It covers me and my driving instead of covering Ford and their craftsmanship. If you run into a curb and crush your radiator, thats not covered under warranty, but if i run into a pothole and dent my rim, pop a tire, that is covered under the extended warrant and i am much more likely to use that warranty than I would if for example i blew a head gasket.

 

[don]

With that being said, I did buy the wheel protection warranty because it covers potholes and those rims are very expensive. I think I paid 400 bucks for 5 years of rim/tire coverage, just one of those rims probably cost 400 bucks new from Ford.

My dealer sold me a $600 plan called "three for one" that covers wheels, tires, windshield chips, and paintless dent removal for five years. A factory wheel for the Sport goes for $860, and you'll probably be replacing the tire, too. It's already bought me a $270 (Tire Rack price) tire that picked up some debris in a construction zone.

 

[ike]

This go around I did end up purchasing the service plan for 5 years / 100,000 miles. I think it cost 2,400 and I financed it at 0% for 60 months. No extended warranty this time though. I'll be blowing through this car and onto the next in 4 years or less due to work I imagine. That and I've never had a car more than 4 years..

 

[drbob1]

The last two vans we've bought, we got the lifetime warranty. We put 175k miles on each of them, so it worked out to 1.7 cents a mile. They repaired various and sundry broken doors, window mechanisms, although not really any severe mechanical things I can remember. Each of the vans had serious trouble on vacation (we routinely travel 2-3k miles to visit family 3 or 4 times a year) but those were during the regular warranty... I'd probably do it again, especially if the extended warranty covers the car in Canada where the last breakdown occurred...

 

[D&D]

The one good thing about the Ford Extended Service Plan (ESP) is the Dealership has a full record of the service on your vehicle. I am in a small town and the (ESP) gets me in at the dealership twice a year so the service manager gets to know me. A little face time with him is cheap insurance. Ie. You are a person and not a number. This may also make a difference on resale. I know it is one thing i look for when I buy a used vehicle.