I never buy extended warranties on anything,2700 bucks is a lot of $$$ for 2 years of coverage..By following this concept i've saved thousands of $$$ over the years..If i have to pay for a costly repair out-of-pocket, i'm likley still significantly ahead....

Unlike qdwag, we do buy extended warranties on certain things.

Cars are one of them. We have an extended warranty on our Hyundai Santa Fe and I only wish they'd had a maintenance contract, we'd have bought that as well. The 60K service on the Santa Fe cost $1400 at the dealer. To put this in perspective, we purchased a service contract on our new Ford Fusion gas V6 for $1500 that covers all standard maintenance up to and including the 75K mark.

The SFe has been an excellent purchase, but there were several minor issues that arose which were easily covered by the extended warranty. Ours covers, literally, everything - from seatbelts to wheel bearings to every computer component. All three of these issues happened well after the standard warranty had expired.

I think the warranty you buy is going to depend on what's covered and what's not. Jags are fun cars, but I don't believe they make it into the top tier for reliability. They're expensive to work on and parts are never cheap for a Jag.

If it were me, I'd buy future protection as far forward as possible, as like you, we keep our cars until well over 100K before replacement. As has been documented, maintenance and repairs are 70% of the cost of owning a car; gas expense is only 30% as a lifetime cost.

qdwag -- I know it's possible we'd never have a big problem that was covered by the waranty. It's 'insurance' only against a major failure.

jkom -- Oh, if these covered maintenance I wouldn't be asking the question! LOL Both are the same 'limited' coverage that's been on the car since the 4-year manufacturer's waranty expired.

The Jaguar we kept for 10 years prior to this one WAS a true Jaguar, an XJR, built prior to Ford owning the brand. Lots of things could go wrong on that one, although not much did, come to think of it. (Unlike the three before it.)

Ford brought out the X-Type as a 'entry' to the Jaguar line. I think it was a great product -- they may have dropped it was because it was indeed a 'bargain'. (I think retail was only $36K new.) When we bought it in '06 I couldn't find a car with the same features AND a beautifully finished interior -- no 'plastic'.

Perhaps we'll never have a big problem with this car, given its record so far and the few miles we drive. It just seems to me if there's one computer failure, we'll be out a thousand or more -- or we then dump it and have to go out and find a replacement Whatsis -- like WHAT? An Audi, BMW, or whatever else is all-wheel drive w/decent interior. Then we're paying a lot more than the waranties.

Thank you both for helping me try to sort this out.

You can check out the reliability ratings for your Jaguar at this website. It points out what problems are most common, for specific model years. HTH!

Here is a link that might be useful: Jag reliability article

Never buy warranties or extra insurance if you can afford to pay for anything you would claim against the insurance.

eg. Just about everyone should have health insurance because you could easily run up a million+ medical bill if you got a serious illness.

On the flip side, almost nobody should buy extended warranties on electronics because the biggest claim would be for the value of the product - maybe a thousand bucks.

The people offering to sell warranties and insurance aren't doing it because they are wonderful people. They do it because, on average, they make money and the purchaser loses money. That is the reality.

jkom -- That link is *exactly* what I was looking for! Thank you!

bill -- Thanks for putting some perspective on my too conservative wish to 'be protected' -- protected from WHAT? LOL We can afford to pay the repairs. If they seem unreasonable at some point, we'll sell and buy something else.

This is yet another time I've been able to find Great Minds with information I need on the GW forums. Thanks, too, to john_g on the "Cars" forum.

Unless I can find a waranty that covers a whole lot more, and pays on things we are likely to require, we won't be buying one now.

you really need to shop around. I can not imagine $2600 for 2 years though. Maybe because its a used car? If you add the $2600 to what you will spend, could you not get an even NEWER car with LESS milage? I bought my Camry in 2002, new. The dealer wanted $1300 for a 7/75 bumper to bumper warranty. I found the SAME toyota bumber to bumper warranty from a dealership down south for about $570. This was reasonable for me. The dealer where I bought the car immediately matched the price. In 2006 we bought another Toyota. Same dealer. Same inflated warranty price. This time I just bought the contract from the same southern dealer...a 7/100K bumper to bumper Toyata bran warranty for $690.

I got my $$$$ out of the Camry warranty. Remember though, you usually get 3 year or 5 year bumper to bumper anyway so realize a 7/75 or 7/100 is really an additional 2 - 4 years.

I am suprised Hyundai sells a warranty when the vehicle comes 5 year bumper to bumper. What do they go for?

>>I am suprised Hyundai sells a warranty when the vehicle comes 5 year bumper to bumper.>>

At the time we bought our Hyundai the bumper to bumper warranty was only 2 or 3 yrs. We prefer Hondas/Acuras but the price on the Hyundai was too good to pass up. Knowing they are not as reliable as H/A, we chose to purchase the extended warranty. It was $1K for 10 yrs or 100K miles, is refundable over its pro-rated lifetime (e.g., full refund the first year, 90% the second, etc. etc.), and is transferable to a new owner if the car is sold before expiration.

As it turns out the model year we purchased is hands-down the most reliable year for ALL Santa Fes - but that is something that no one knows until time has passed.

My opinion is to purchase extended warranries only for stuff that you can't cover yourself without shedding more than a couple of drops of blood included in the sweat.

As the other poster suggested - insure against catastrophe, not stuff that you can cover yourself, if need be.

Insurance companies are profit-making institutions ... and, as many who make medical claims can attest, they are quite tight-fisted.

Would rather argue than open their wallet (when it comes to passing out money to someone else).

ole joyful