Is Honda Care worth buying?

[Porsche tech]

I purchased a Fidelity Warranty Services policy offered by the Honda dealer when we bought our 2011 Odyssey. It was for 8 years / 100,000 miles. When the term runs out, if there has been no claims made, I get the purchase price back. My plan was to use it for catastrophic failures only. Closing in on 6 years old and so far so good (no claims).--Dave

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[DjinTonic]

It's a personal decision that you can justify either way. My two cents: I went for the longest 8-yr. policy with Hyannis. For the 5 (actual) years of coverage, figuring in the savings for the AAA I won't need ($60/yr) it comes to, about $140/yr. Worth it to me just for peace of mind. Or it could be a big savings should something really go wrong. When a sensor failed on my '96 civic coupe it was $600 (granted, that was after the 8th year, but it's food for thought -- nothing was broken, except for the sensor itself). That car, of course, didn't have navigation, sensing, etc.

 

[Ethan]

All I can say is my parents wish they had purchased the Honda care warranty on their 2011 Odyssey w/69k. Struts, shocks, axles, heated seats that stopped working, all out of pocket repairs that needed to/need to be done. That said, they have a 4th gen CR-V which has needed little to no repairs in 90k miles. If you can get Honda care for $1,000, it's cheap insurance and will pay for itself in one repair.

 

[Slickone]

It's a personal decision that you can justify either way. My two cents: I went for the longest 8-yr. policy with Hyannis. For the 5 (actual) years of coverage, figuring in the savings for the AAA I won't need ($60/yr) it comes to, about $140/yr. Worth it to me just for peace of mind. Or it could be a big savings should something really go wrong. When a sensor failed on my '96 civic coupe it was $600 (granted, that was after the 8th year, but it's food for thought -- nothing was broken, except for the sensor itself). That car, of course, didn't have navigation, sensing, etc.

FYI, Honda includes roadside assistance free with the standard warranty, if that's what you had AAA for.
http://owners.honda.com/vehicles/roadside-assistance

Toyota only gives you RA for 2 years (vs. Honda's 3).

 

[DjinTonic]

FYI, Honda includes roadside assistance free with the standard warranty, if that's what you had AAA for.
http://owners.honda.com/vehicles/roadside-assistance

Toyota only gives you RA for 2 years (vs. Honda's 3).

Yes, that's why my calculations are for the 5 years of effective coverage, after the 3 years in the standard warranty are over. I had AAA for my '96 Civic.

 

[xtherebellion]

A dealer in Ontario first offered the waranty for 1,640 CAD. I declined this, but when I picked up the car the finance manager came over and gave me another pitch, and it was month end, so he says he'll give it to me at cost, which he priced as 920 CAD. Not sure whether it was cost or not, but I used to work at Best Buy, and I do see the managers push for counts and not always values, even giving away a warranty at cost is better than not getting a warranty at all.

I'm financing my car for 5 years, so the coverage is 7 years, 160k. As others said, the peace of mind is worth it to me. It would be nice if the warranty pays for itself, but at the same time I would hope that taking good care and maintaining my car will prevent most problems.

 

[JMT]

My brother purchased a Honda Civic in 2006 and I am unsure if he has even changed the oil. That was a joke as I know he does not follow any sort of maintenance schedule on his car. Car has high miles and is still on the road. My wife has a 2013 Accord and it is a great car. Besides brakes and new tires, there have been nothing required on the car besides changing the Air and in cabin filters. The CVT fluid needs to be changed and I have been urging her to have it done. I may have to set the appointment for her as my pleas are falling on deaf ears.

So when I purchased my Civic I figured the 3 year 36k coverage would suffice and if anything goes wrong it will come up in the next 2 years and 11 months. If you prefer to pay extra $$ for the peace of mind of additional coverage by all means do it. I can sleep well at night with the decision I made to not pay for Honda Care.

 

[10thDave]

I always say that buying extended warranty is wrong on principle alone. If you buy it, you're essentially betting that your car will fail. If that's the case, why'd you buy the car to begin with? That's the principle behind it before I get into how $1,500-$2,500 now that you didn't pay Honda is worth a lot more than any repair that you will perform withing 7 years or whatever your plan is.

See I purchased an extended warranty. Normally I would never do this, ever, but with the nightmare that my last vehicle was I just decided to get it just in case I got a lemon vehicle again (we have no type of protection for that type of thing in Canada at all)

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