:confused: Hello guys, I am looking into getting and extended warranty for my 99' Caddy Catera it has only 41000 miles on it so all these warranty companies are trying to get me to sign. I kind of like continental's perspective on things but have never heard of them so wanted to gain some other owners opinions. And if no then maybe some other Extended auto warranty dealers someone may have in mind. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

I have Continental..they were really nice and all but I haven't had to file a claim yet so I have no experience.

Jeff

thanks alot for the reassurance Jeff please let me know if you ever have to file one I will definitely do the same.

You are venturing into one of the most difficult and potentially problematic arenas out there. If you are unwilling to do your reading and homework, there is a really great chance you are about to be ripped off big time. Here's some stuff for starters:

http://www.extended-warranty.info/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_warranty

http://www.consumersunion.org/finance/extend-warr-pr.htm

http://www.warrantynet.net/

http://www.edmunds.com/apps/vdpcontainers/do/vdp/articleId=47681/pageNumber=1

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/auto_warranty/

And that's just the START of what your research needs to be.

You must concern yourself both with the detailed terms of the policy AND with the quality of the company or companies backing the policy.

My quick opinion:

I have worked on this but not enough to be able to write with authority. So all I can offer is my gut feel:

You probably will be OK with a GM extended warranty, to the extent you believe GM will remain in business for the duration of the warranty.

You also might want to check out, and I MEAN check out, the extended warranty offered by the AAA. They had some problems a few years back, but they by now may have their act together.
Be sure they will be there for you if you are denied. If they are just acting as a reseller, forget 'em.

But bottom line, many extended warranties are not worth the paper on which they are printed. You are navigating a mine field when attempting to purchase one. Very, very often they are merely scams, which can and should not be taken at face value.

Good luck. You're gonna need it.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff168327.htm

http://www.scamfraudalert.com/showthread.php?p=37

Well to answer any questions? I actually got to use my warranty today. My Heater Control Valve went out and Continental Warranty is paying for the repairs and I have to pay the $50 deductible and the taxes in my state. End cost to me is $70. Not bad for a $450 job at the stealership.

Any extended warranty is a great idea. It can pay for itself in only a few repairs and we know how expensive repairs are. I worked for a GM dealership and had to use Continental on almost a daily basis. They are very good to get repairs covered. Something to remember about extended warranties. They do not pay for diagnosing or tearing down the vehicle to see what the problem is. They have to know what happened in order to cover the repair but don't pay for figuring it out. (Example: Had a transmission not pulling, they advised to tear it down to see what exactly happened. After telling them the 'exact' problem they chose to get a reman. transmission for a different source. That's all fine but the customer was stuck with the $175 tear down bill to see what happened. The total bill was almost $2,500 so about 10% of that with deductible is not bad at all. Also, remember there are different levels of covered repair (price ranges) from (1) Powertrain (Engine, Transmission, Rear-end) (2) Powertrain, Sensors, and some electrical items. & (3) that covers about everything but wear items (pads, rotors, belts, etc.) So think hard about which one to get, and make them explain in detail what is covered. But, If I planned on keeping the vehicle I would get one.

with continental I didn't have to pay for the diagnostic either... what they advised is to get thje diagnostic but you dont have to pay for that til the end anyway and at my dealership if you want to go ahead and get it fixed they put the $70 diagnostic with the cost of work.

I'm looking for an extended warranty for my '99 Fleetwood Limited. Filled out info on some website to get quotes from multiple companies. Got a call from Continental today. They quoted me $2659 for a 49 month policy. If I signed up today, they would toss in a bunch of other stuff. Turned out, I had to sign up today if I wanted the policy, not just the extra stuff. Really gave me the HARD sell. I had to let them charge my credit card $295 just to see what the policy would cover and then I had 30 days to get my money back (from links given, I see some folks have a rough time getting that $ back). I explained that I wasn't going to pay $295 today but if they give me their phone number, I'd call them back later. They said deal was only good right now. I said we were done. Sales chick seemed to agree so I hung up. They called back about 3 minutes later.

!!!! Get this, my phone rings as I'm typing this and it is them again. I guess 7 hours have passed since the first phone call. !!!!

Anyway, they called back about 3 minutes later but I ignored the phone. I am wondering what the new offer will be but after researching them on the web, I'm going to avoid them.

KC

For the spelling challenged in the group, allow me:

P O N Z I ____ S C H E M E

At least that's sure what this smells like to me.:stirpot:

Treated in this manner I would RUN, not walk, in the other direction.

You are smart and you did the wise thing.:thumbsup: