Got my new Ranger a few days ago, should I keep the purchased extended warranties / maintenance?

[RedlandRanger]

To be fair, this is the first non Chevy product my family has ever seen. My mom has always bought Chevy vehicles since the mid 70s, and my dad as well. I own 2 Camaros, and my dad at one point had an old C/K work truck and a 1990 Camaro before passing away. We have always heard mixed things about Ford's reliability, especially with the ecoboost engines. Then again, our sources of info have been quite bias (e.g., my friend has worked at Toyota and Mazda dealerships most of his adult life). Still, my buddy who used to be a Ford Service guy at our local dealership did tell me to watch out for the Ecoboost engine's "Crud buildup" on intake valves. Something about it being a problem on all direct injected engines, and the turbo making the problem that much more likely to happen. He recommended installing a catch can as soon as my warranty expires, and to have them cleaned before the 60,000 miles are up on the powertrain.

Correction (edit)! I just remembered my dad did own a Ford Ranger, I think it was a 1995 one, pretty old truck. It got stolen within two weeks of him buying it used around 2004. That's why I didn't remember it!

I guess we will see where long term reliability falls with the truck though! I'm happy with it so far. The only issue I've noticed is there is a bit of a buzzing sound when I accelerate in low gears, I'm assuming this is normal because it goes away once I'm past first and second gear. Feels a bit like the engine is working quite hard to get up to speed on those first two gears. Almost like its being forced to go faster than I'd want it to go given how much I'm pressing the throttle.

I've had enough anecdotal evidence thru friends as well as searching that says the Ecoboost engines are as reliable as anything out there. The valve deposits are a bit of a concern on the DI engines - I'm not quite sure why they haven't done the same thing as they have done with the 3.5 EB to clean the valves to prevent the problem - but it is a problem on all DI engines.

As far as power when starting up goes - I've never had any concerns there. It doesn't feel like it is working too hard to me - it is hard to get a 4400 lb vehicle moving from a stop. If it isn't fast enough for you, just press the gas harder!

I'm used to my '73 Capri which went from zero throttle to full throttle between shifts - pretty much. So there was a LOT of throttle movement there. My Ranger I can be pretty gentle on the throttle most of the time. Even when I was towing a trailer up mountain passes I didn't have to floor it. I don't think I even got to half throttle and it just kept pulling.

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[Truck2019]

I was talked into one, even though I told myself before going in that I wasn't going to get it. When you start thinking of all the electronics, ecoboost, new model year etc., it starts to make sense. The problem is, as with most warranties in my opinion, is that its always a battle to get things fixed under them. 'Oh, you didn't have a car tune up at all the 10,000 mile intervals, we're not covering it.' 'You didn't do X, Y and Z....we're not covering it.' 'Actually that part is normal wear and tear so it's not covered.'

After thinking on it that night, I canceled it the next day at no charge. Dealers make a lot of money on these, for good reason, most vehicles don't have issues. A 5 or 7 year warranty sounds good, but then you realize the first 3 years or 36,000 miles are already covered, so you really are only paying for 2 or 4 more years of coverage for that price. If something is faulty, it will likely fail early, and if not it will likely fail well after the warranty window.

It's all about risk aversion, but the stress of the additional cost as well as whether something will actually be covered when I need it, ultimately wasn't worth it to me.

 

[Brian]

I just cancelled an extended warranty on my Subaru since I plan to get a Ranger by end of year. One thing I noted is that if the extended warranty is financed, that refund will go to the lien holder first. It sounds right that your total owed will go down.

 

[Teeone]

I generally advise against extended warranties. Why? I have been in the industry for 30 years, and have had family members and close relatives and friends working at dealerships during that time. There are 3 profiteers on the selling end. The salesperson (at many dealers this is the “F&I” (finance and insurance) person who actually closes the deal, the dealership, and the company that underwrites the policy/warranty (the OEM or the third party). They all make profit up front. That profit used to be very high. Very. Not so much anymore, but they are in business to make a profit, not to lose money. And the reason they often give a hard sell is because it is a profitable item. It is all based on statistics and real numbers (chance of repair and cost of repair). I know how much some f&i folks make on a single extended warranty sale. It is appalling to me that they knowingly take people’s money the way they sometimes do. Their job isn’t that hard sometimes because the cost goes into a 72 month payment, so it is “affordable”.

Here can be times where it isn’t such a bad deal. New models are riskier for a consumer, especially with new technologies. However, there are assumed costs built into the pricing models.... It is like playing the odds at a casino. They may not seem like bad odds, and the odds between different games and within any
Game the self can vary, but the bottom line is, in the long run the odds are in favor of the casino.

 

[NVHoonigan]

They wouldn't price adjust it, so I returned both. They had me fill out a piece of paper and sign, basically saying that I changed my mind, and would cancel both extended warranties. I did get a copy of that paper, but there was nowhere for the salesman to sign on it, which is concerning. Further, I hope they don't attempt to retaliate by raising my APR from 0% because they are mad I cancelled the policy. The policies were in no way part of the APR negotiation, nor does it explicitly state in my contract that my APR would be increased if I cancelled extended warranty. What the finance guy said would happen is my payments would stay the same, but the total due would go down by the $4700 cost of the two warranties. Does that sound normal?

That is correct. The amount you agreed to was included in your financing so if you cancel the product it would be sent to the lienholder to be applied to your principal balance. Normally this is something you would absolutely want since you would be paying interest on a product you don't even have anymore but since you had 0% interest, it will effectively just reduce the term of your loan. Payments will stay the same as contracted.

 

[tugger]

I have seven years $100 deductable

 

[PL8SWPR]

The dealership would not sell them if the average person got their money's worth out of them. They sell them to make money.

I have bought 4 new vehicles over the past 20 years (not counting 2 still under standard warranty) and I have never had a situation where I would have used an extended warranty.

 

[peterson1604]

I purchases a 6 Year 75,000 from Ziegler Ford ESP and it ran me just over $700 with rental added in. Cancel that baby. Do it today, don't delay!

https://www.zeiglerfordesp.com/

 

[Hounddog409]

Hi all,

I picked up my ranger a few days ago, and it has been good so far. One thing I discovered after leaving the dealership was that the price I paid for the extended warranties was quite a bit more than what I should have. I was unaware that I could haggle these prices as much as I did with the truck, so when they offered me a $300 "discount" if I took them, I accepted. Sadly, I fond out that I probably overpaid a combined $1500- $2000 for these.

Fortunately, in CA, there is a 30 day window where for $100 processing fee, they refund the extended warranties no questions asked, no worries about prorated nonsense so long as I haven't gone in for service. The issue is, I have to refund both of them at the same time.

Here's what I paid.

Warranty 1 - Ford Premium Care, $0 deductible, Covers bumper to bumper 7 years or 100,000 miles (I will reach the years first, I don't drive much). I paid $2360 (For this one, though it is overpriced, I do not think it is completely unreasonable).

Warranty 2 - Ford Premium Maintenance Plan - Covers all maintenance needs (and apparently alternator falls into this as well?) for 7 years or 75,000 miles. Cost $2340.

These overlap with the included 3 years 36,000 bumper to bumper and 5 year 60,000 powertrain. In other words, Warranty 1 really just covers the last 4 years bumper to bumper.

What do you guys think? Should I go back and cancel, and try to find a better deal elsewhere? There are some horror stories of my dealership being difficult to work with with regard to cancellation of these insurance plans. I read a few reviews on the dealership's google page that say it took people months to get their money back, and many days of contacting dealership.

I got the warranties for 2 reasons (1) The damn Ecoboost and all the electronics in modern cars/trucks that are prone to fail, and (2) I'm a teacher, and, quite frankly, I didn't want to worry or spend a long time shopping around for mechanics and good prices when/if something happened to the truck.

Thays crazy. I never buy any extended warranty, let alone at that price.

 

[THLONE]

It is insurance. You buy insurance for your car, house, health, etc. Only you know if you need insurance.

 

[Jms81661]

I mean, that looks legit. Man, I just hope that the process of canceling the warranties is not a complete nightmare like some people have said it has been for them. For most folks who seem to be posting about having problems, they were trying to cancel after the 30 day cancellation window, and had to get a prorated amount back.

When I got home and actually looked thru all the paperwork. I saw the price of the esp and went ballistic. I bitched when they tried to sell me the service warranty for $1000! She knew I'd never had agreed to the esp price so it was kinda snuck in there. It's on me, I should've paid more attention.
When I went back that same day and and talked to them it was cancelled that day and deducted from my total bill about 2 weeks later.

 

[GregsFX2Ranger]

I think the prepaid maintenance plans are overpriced and really don't cover that full variety of services for the price.

Most definitely would purchase a FORD PROTECT esp.

I agree with another member about Zeigler Ford. Bob Cline over there has offered discount codes over in the F150 forum for a while. That is where I bought mine as well.

https://www.zeiglerfordesp.com/

Promo code "PAYINFULL" deducts $250 off the online price!

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