Extended Warranty for Boxster

[mankey]

The manufacturer's warranty is about to expire on my 2yr old Boxster and I'm wrestling with taking the risk or paying the £895 for peace of mind.
The car has been completely reliable so far but if anyone has any views or experiences I'd appreciate hearing them. My inclination is not to renew - if it were a car that cost 2 or 3 times the price things might be different.

[axels]

I've just renewed my extended warranty for peace of mind on a late 2002 Boxster - had the RMS fixed voluntarily by the OPC (their suggestion) since it started sweating some oil which also allowed me to get a new clutch plate and only paying for the plate and not the effort. Would that have cost me more than what I paid for the warranty? I can't tell...


On another note though - at least in Germany Porsche recently increased the price of the extended warranty from ~1000 € to 1150 €.

[Wetwipe]

the cars are very reliable and in one sense your argument is correct

however, the RMS regularly weep and the cost of replacing that out of warranty will set you back 800 quid so.....

having said that, i didnt have a warranty on my C2 and when the rms wept the opc replaced it with a 75% goodwill contribution from Porsche as it had a full OPC service history. not bad bearing in mind the car was over 5 years old at the time

so i took a risk and got away with it. but if the engine had gone pop then i would have been ed!

[mankey]

I appreciate your comments guys. It literally IS an insurance policy isn't it? The stories of with the RMS suggest it's more of a problem than I imagined so perhaps I need to think again. I'm not planning to sell within the next year so I wouldn't see it as a resale benefit but it does occur to me that it includes the Porsche Assistance service. I'm now trying to talk myself in to it. Thanks for coming back to me.

Cheers

[GreigM]

Wetwipe said:

the cars are very reliable and in one sense your argument is correct

however, the RMS regularly weep and the cost of replacing that out of warranty will set you back 800 quid so.....

having said that, i didnt have a warranty on my C2 and when the rms wept the opc replaced it with a 75% goodwill contribution from Porsche as it had a full OPC service history. not bad bearing in mind the car was over 5 years old at the time

so i took a risk and got away with it. but if the engine had gone pop then i would have been ed!

I got a 100% goodwill payment on RMS out of warranty - seems commonplace and they have a sliding scale based on age/mileage as to how much goodwill you receive. This obviously offsets some of the risk of RMS for younger cars, so your warranty almost boils down to engine/gearbox insurance.

The decision to take the warranty or not is an individual one based on risk aversion and financial position, but just be aware that the extended warranty does not offer the same cover as the original factory warranty.

[rich-uk]

My warranty recenty ran out and I didn't renew it. (The work that was done at OPC's was far below the standard of indy's anyway)

Got RAC breakdown cover and hope the engine or gearbox don't explode, not much else is covered anyway.

Fingers crossed

[mankey]

I've thought all along that the age of the car HAS to count against something serious going wrong and on balance suggests the extended warranty is likely to be wasted money.

I'm not one of those people that cover every appliance in the home and cannot see how this is too different in terms of balancing the risk. Essentially I'm trying to get an idea of the kind of things that can go wrong with a 2yr old Boxster over the next year of its life.

[sja]

I have just had RMS replaced by OPC as part of goodwill all charges met by them inc loan car. Warranty expired few months ago.

[mankey]

There's a recurring theme here of OPCs offering goodwill gestures to repair the RMS. I hadn't realised until now that it was such an accepted problem but they're obviously embarrassed about it.

I'm inclined not to extend the warranty, especially since the car is only 2 years old and will be happy to take the minimal risk on the basis of all the RMS goodwill stories I've heard.

[Mogulboy]

An RMS job costs less than a years extended warranty in any case!

[Vesuvius 996]

Buy the warranty.

See my profile.


It's just NOT worth the risk. RMS sweats are a non issue - you can leave them until the clutch needs a change. What should concern you is shaft failures and (very rare) catastrophic engine failures, which can occur on this engine.

A new engine is £12k. Can you afford one? Why risk it for £15 a week? And it's simply NOT true to say that "nothing much else is covered."

I've had new DME, Coil Packs, Plug tube seals, Wishbones, RMS, belt tensioners and on and on. Many thousands worth of work.

I think anyone who runs a car like a Porsche without a decent warranty is either (a) brave, (b) miguided or (c) too rich to be bothered.

Edited by Vesuvius 996 on Friday 11th May 09:32

[sja]

UPDATE. Had the RMS replaced last week as advised, BUT today car in for wheel vibration at an Independant and he has just said (not connected with steering vibration) there is a problem with the flywheel, its whining / clunking when feathering the throttle at speed.

Sorry for my ignorance but will they have had to remove flywheel when dong the seal? Wiating for OPC to call me back but I suspect they will want me to pay for this.. Also is flywheel covered by warranty?

Knew things were going to well!

[thegoose]

sja said:

is flywheel covered by warranty?

It should be, but I've no experience of Porsche's response to this. Girlfriend's BMW had this replaced as a warranty item and they included the complete clutch in the job as it's recommended to do it all at once (she would have paid the parts cost of the clutch if they'd asked). Gearbox was replaced too.

[mankey]

Vesuvius 996. Take your point about the worth of the warranty but you do seem to have had a serious run of bad luck with your 996. My Boxster would likely have slightly lower bills for the same work but I can't imagine many people suffering such extensive failure for a 2yrd old car such as mine.

sja. Sounds as though your car's going to cost you something - what is it?

[Don]

Bought my car new. Under warranty I had several lambda sensors and finally a new exhaust. I also had the power amplifier for the stereo and the headunit replaced. I also used Porsche Assistance to get me home five times as each time the lambda sensor burnt out they suggested I have the car recovered to the OPC.

Nowt terribly serious but all the same...since the two year warranty ran out I have maintained it. Sure and enough I haven't used it. But could I afford to replace and engine/gearbox etc? Well...yes of course...but it would be a bill that really hurt.

So I insure against it. Nature of insurance - if you take it out you won't need it. I hope.

[sja]

Mankey - No idea, waiting for OPC to get back to me. Not sure where I stand.

1. Car ok at service, bar slight weep on seal
2. Seal done
3. Noise etc from gearbox.

Surely they should strip it down FOC. But if they then say "flywheel is on its way out, you need to pay" What do I do?
How does a flywheel break?

Not help me when I dont know what a flywheel does! A mechanical ignorant!

[mankey]

Don. I agree that usually if you buy insurance like this you won't need it, but you're insuring against the big bills aren't you? Nobody wants to waste money needlessly which is why I have difficulty deciding whether it's worth spending £900 to insure against what appears to be a minimal risk.

[mankey]

sja said:

Mankey - No idea, waiting for OPC to get back to me. Not sure where I stand.

No, I meant what car do you have?

[sja]

Sorry, my ranting / worry affecting brain.
Its a 53 plate 2.7

[erics]

i had the roof lining going off on my boxster 550 spyder and had the car for 24 hours, OPC warranty (car over 2 years) did not cover. £422.
Idiots.