Hi All,

I am in need of some advice. For a new 2011 Hyundai Sonata, is a service contract worth buying for $1,645.00 for 10-yrs / 100K-miles with a $100 deductible per visit? This is in addition to Hyundai's standard warranty that comes with the car. The service contract is the platinum one in the link (http://www.officialhyundaiwarranty.c...PPbrochure.pdf).

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thank you!

 

I was about to talk my dealer down from $3600 to ~$1200 to extend the bumper to bumper coverage to 100k. In my opinion it is worth it at that price. I found with my last car that every time something broke out of warranty it was a minimum $400-$500 dollar expense with it often times being $1000. I keep cars for a long time so it made sense for me.

 

i also bought the warranty--if anything happens to the turbocharger, that will definitely be expensive, as well as anything computer related.

 

That depends. Most extended warranties are not worth it, unless you buy a make/model that has a pattern of failures. I did not see that with the Hyundai brand, so I bought one. The turbocharger falls under powertrain coverage, so it's covered for 100k, if you bought new. A popular dealer scam with the finance departments involves: "in order to get that apr, or approved for that term finance, the bank wants you to get extended warranty". The dealer I bought from tried that one on me, until I said "let me hear that from them myself", and that led to: "bring my car back, I'm going to buy somewhere else". I bought the car, with the rate/term I was given, without the expensive, worthless "extended warranty" they tried to pawn on me for $1200. I wish I could just bypass the whole dealer experiance, and complete the whole transaction online directly from the manufacture, but new car buying isn't that simple.

 

As a former service manager (not Hyundai), I will tell you exactly if you should or should not purchase a service contract. If you are purchasing a high maintaince vehicle, then by all means get the contract. If your vehicle is not high maintaince, then definately do NOT purchase that contract. If you have the extra funds to purchase the contract, I suggest placing that money into a savings account and having a dollar for a rainry day.