I have been looking into buying a used 997, preferably a 2005 Carrera 2S for some time now. This would be the culmination of wanting a Porsche all of my life (I'm about to turn 55). The rock bottom Porsche 911 prices, and the opportunity I had to remortgage my home to a much lower rate, and take money out, as well as the pending sale of my much loved, mint condition, 99 M3 made this all possible.

The plan was to find a near perfect car, and then purchase the extended warranty to provide the critical coverage when things like engines have been known to blow. I honestly do not think that any sane person would be without an extended warranty on a car like a 911, which has so many potential costly repairs.

I stopped by the one Porsche dealer local to me yesterday, and discussed my options just to make sure I would have no concerns getting affordable, and adequate coverage for whatever car I purchase. The plan they offer is through Fidelity, and, as an example, a 6 year, 60k plan for a car with 25k already on it (my worst case) was quoted to me at $2895.00. I was told that this plan would cover anything except wear and tear items. I specifically asked the service manager if I should have any concerns whatever about this warranty, would they use all Porsche parts, be serviced by the same mechanics who do the original Porsche warranty, and CPO work, and was given positive responses to each question. However, I should mention that this is a dealr that I dealt with for six years previously, servicing Audi's that I leased, and I do not trust them to any great degree.

Today, I mentioned this to a friend who is a manager in Finance in my corporation. He immediately asked who the extended waranty plan was through, and after I mentioned Fidelity, he told me a horror story about his brother-in law and his experience with a Fidelity extended warranty.

After looking into this online, I found a vast amount of threads out there, like this one:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/auto_.../fidelity.html


At this point I was extremely concerned about the viability of my being able to get an extended warranty, without which, my dream of owning a 997 series 911 might have hit a brick wall.

A friend talked to a Porsche service manager at one of the country's top dealerships on my behalf about my extended warranty concerns and was literally told that 'the only extended warranty that is worth anything is a Porsche CPO warranty!" Anything else is essentially worthless in attempting to get repairs made through a Porsche dealership." Now this was not a Porsche employee simply trying to push the CPO warranty, this is someone who my friend has had a long relationship with, having serviced his Porsches there for many years just being honest.

I was also in contact with another major Porsche dealer, and talked to the sales manager there and was told essentially the same thing. He even went as far to say that the 3rd party extended warranties are, in most cases, not even worth the paper they are written on. This dealer no longer even offers 3rd party warranties because they feel they would be stealing money from their clients to do so. He said that they did offer them in the past but were repeatedly unable to get authorization to have their customers cars repaired dealing with the companies involved. I do not specifically know which company(s) he was referring to, however.

Now I'm in a real dilemma. Since I cannot personally rule it out, while it's still "possible" there might be a company out there that does offer a good extended warranty, Fidelity is the only warranty that the one dealer anywhere near my location offers, and it is clearly a complete waste of money based on the link above, and a dozen others you could find just as easily. If I cannot get a usable, trustworthy extended warranty, I simply cannot afford to risk purchasing the 911 I have dreamed of, and have taken all these steps to make possible.

Is anyone aware of any options left to me? What can I do? I'm open to any advice. Thanks.


John

 

I certainly hope that is not the case. The car I purchased had a 6 year Fidelity Warranty Services warranty sold through a local Porsche dealership.

I hope to never have to make a claim. I do know of one person who got a RMS leak fixed under an extended warranty and I believe he had a Fidelity contract as well.

 

I got bad news for you, do a google search for Fidelity Warranty Services...you won't like what you read.

Dave

 

I had a warranty in the 90's which in fact did pay but it was not a simple process.

That was then and this is now . Insurance companies are very savy at wording these contracts so that they profit and have every loophole to deny a repair. Some things are covered and others are not and the cost to getting an extended isn't cheap to begin with.

Someone said that he "sleeps better at night" having it .
I don't understand how he can rationalize drawing a conclusion that his car would be fixed on an invalid argument. In fact if it turns out that the extended is never used or a claim is denied then one can actually add that expense to the ownership of the car .

 

I'd be interested to hear feedback from people that actually had to make a claim for their Porsche.

The RMS claim that I knew of did get repaired under the extended warranty by Fidelity at Rector Motors in Burlingame. The contract I have was purchased at Sonnen Motors in Mill Valley. I will probably call them just to hear from the horse's mouth what their take is on the extended warranty that they sell to their customers and maybe their own feedback on the claim process (I'm sure they will be positive about it, but at least I can get familiar w/ some of the service people there).

The only other option I heard of was EasyCare which was pushed by Auto Gallery in LA.

Either way, if these extended warranties are crap then that really does suck for people who want to own these cars for the long haul, like myself.

 

I too was in the market for Porsche Extended Warranty over a month ago. After some research, I found out people in this and other Porsche forums have had good experiences with EasyCare. I checked their BBB rating, and they have an A+. I ended up getting it from my local Porsche dealer. 72 months, $100 deductible for $3100.

If your dealership does not sell EasyCare, you can go to their website, fill out a form, and they will follow up. Several weeks ago I posted the fine print of their Total Care contract.

 

The odd thing in my case was when I asked for an Easy/TotalCare quote, they directed me to something like a GM dealership rather than the local Porsche dealer. What is that about?

Do these policies only get sold through specific dealers?

 

Not a fan of extended aftermarket warranties. Had a bad experience a long time ago. A google search on Fidelity or US Fidelis will pop your eyes out. I bought my 05 Carrera new and I have the GEICO extended warranty on my insurance policy which was very inexpensive and covers me to 7yrs/100K. On that note, you have to have purchased the policy within the first 15 months of ownership. It covers everything except routine maintenance and wear and tear.

Funny thing is I only have 8600 miles on it 4 1/2 yrs later and except for routine maintenance and rear tires, nothing has needed to be done.

 

To Slapshot:

There are numerous threads here on extended warranties, so you can research yourself to death if you want to. Unfortunately there are a # that are 'crap', with US Fidelis probably leading the list. Some repeated advice is to get the one that your dealer (if you expect to use him for service) is selling. I'm not pimping for them, but EasyCare seems to enjoy a good reputation, so you might check them out. You will get a better price if you can find an 06 still under the Porsche warranty rather than the 05 you mentioned. Further, the price quoted, especially at a dealer rather than online or on the phone, is negotiable (even if he shows you the 'price chart'). If you get one and you read the fine print they ALWAYS say (I think) that you must call for approval first - a pain in the butt but not if it prevents denials. Lastly, if you are going to keep the car for 4+ years, a few grand for a "Platinum" policy is insignificant even if you never have to use it.

 

With extended warranties, you are basically betting on the odds of a car breaking down during the coverage period. Of course some will never need to use it, but with one major repair you'd probably get your money worth right away, specially with the cost of Porsche repairs being so high.

Most might think Toyotas never breaks down. We bough an extended warranty on a Toyota mini-van, and over the 5 years it has paid for itself at least 5 times over. One thing I did learn is that there is a hefty margin for these extended warranties. For the Toyota platinum warranty we are talking in tune of 300% markup. Some nice guy found a dealer in the midwest that was selling warranty at near cost, posted the info on a forum, and everybody and their mom went to him for warranties. So shop around for the best price...

 

+1 for easycare. Had an extended warranty through them on my 996, 997 and x3. Havnt had one issue getting anything fixed, knock on wood.

 

yes they are worthless. how do i know? i get about 10-15 calls a month from telemarketers trying to sell me 3rd party insurance along with 4 or 5 letters in the same period. sometimes its for cars i no loger even own.

if you have to tele-market it, well then you know the rest.

 

I have to disagree. I have purchased extended warranties for several cars (all Porsche's and Mercedes) and have every time had a very good experience AND have always gotten more paid out in work than I originally paid. In fact, I just had an alternator go out in a 2003 Porsche and the warranty picked it up, no problem. I do buy them from my dealer and in turn they handle all of the correspondence and details. I don't have the company name in front of me but will post up later.

 

Well, I've discovered some good news regarding extended warranties that matches with what I have searched in this and the 996 forum tonight. In my additional research, and from everything I can see, Easy Care is the exception to this rule. I have found nothing but positives about them, and they have won numerous JD Power awards for their quality of service.

I then followed up and talked to the service managers of two quality Porsche dealerships who offer Easy Care, and they both said that they are able to secure all needed repairs for their customers through them. Both felt it was an excellent company to deal with.

Unfortunately, there is also bad news. The local dealership quoted me an extended warranty policy from Fidelity covering 6 years and 60k miles for $2895.00. I had been using that in my budgeting numbers to verify that I had enough money to allow my purchase of a 2005 C2s as I have been planning during my search the past few months.

The dealer across the state that I contacted about Easy Care quoted me a 4 year - 50k extended warranty for $4671.00! Clearly, you seem to get what you pay for, but that large an increase may have blowm my chances to buy the 997 right out of the water, as my budget was just large enough to accomodate the cost of the car, the sales tax, and the Fidelity warranty.


John

 

I will give easy care a call and see how much they will quote me for my 997. I'm only looking for 2 years tho