Have an Audi 2005 A4 Avant 1.8 T Quattro that I purchased new. The 4-year, 50,000-mile Audi factory warranty ends in May of this year.

I've been thinking about purchasing a 3-year, 36,000-mile extended warranty plan after the factory warranty ends.

It is expensive, costing about $2,000.

Wanted to know what you think about extended warranty plans.

Should I buy one or not?

 

Save the money. Seeing that your on the forums tells me that you will do something aftermarket to your car, and if you do any mods to your car and you paid for the warranty, it goes void.

 

not necessarily true about being on the forum and modding. im on here and dont plan to mod my a4. as long as that warranty lets you go to the dealer i would do it. from my experience it would pay for itself.

 

I've got a 4 yr extended warranty and have almost made my money back in less than a year. If you plan on keeping the car a while I think it's worth it.

Be advised they DO NOT cover wearable items and maintenance.

A lot of people here are DIY's so they don't feel like forking over that kind of money when they can do it themselves but you have to know what you are comfortable doing to your car.
(I can change my oil, coilpacks, bulbs, etc but didn't want to chance messing up my car when the timing belt job came due.)

 

What is covered with the warranty? Will it pay if your timing belt breaks and craters your motor?

 

Make sure you read the fine print!!

Some things I wished I had looked at when I bought my stupid extended warranty:

1. Does it have a deductible? This is huge b/c when a small part breaks its almost not worth taking it in for service.

2. Does it limit where you can get the work done? Can you take it to anywhere you want?

3. Is the company reputable? I seriously have trouble getting into contact with my warranty company. It reallly bothers me.

So far under my extended warranty which costs like 2400 for 5 yr/up to 100k miles Ive gotten coils, towing, and maybe one other thing. Totally not worth it for me.

 

Waste of money. If you take care of your car then things won't break. The expensive things that will wear are not things that usually get covered by an extended warranty, i.e. timing belt/water pump. You are better off taking that money you would pay towards that warranty and saving it each month in a high yield savings account.

 

I beg to differ. I take care of my car and my axle seals leaked, my motor mounts leaked, my cv boot tore, my valve cover gasket leaked among other things. All that could have not been prevented and is expensive.

$3000 already worth of work done.

 

I agree. See my post in the thread "a4 info" where I listed my service records. Most of them weren't preventable. It all depends on what you consider to be maintenance. I don't consider a head gasket at under 100k to be.

 

Thank you all for your kind responses and words of wisdom concerning whether I should purchase an extended warranty or not.

Based on the responses, it's a coin flip.

However, since I'm not a DIY, I'm leaning towards buying one. But they are expensive and....