Mazda extended Warranty- Leftover 2010
 

Short story is that I swung a sick deal for a black 2010 mazdaspeed 3 (200 kms :) ). Now the dealer is tossing me scary stories about how I should do it cause it's a leftover and parts are expensive etc.

So to all GenPu's out there, have you had any problems with your car? Should I get the extended warranty or is the reliability of the stock car good? (I don't plan on modding or tracking much, if at all)

The full warranty is only 4 months in... thanks!

the 11's and 12's are mechanically identical to 2010's. If its a 2nd gen the only i difference between the 10, 11 and 12 are interior/exterior features (additions, removals etc). Other than than same engine, trans, etc as far as i know. I could be wrong.

Tell him that if the car is so prone to breakdowns that you probably should go to a different dealer and buy a good car. See what he says then.

Car is a leftover? This isn't a block of cheese. Cars don't go bad from sitting brand new on a lot. Ask the dealer if his dad is around and can help you.

edit - now I understand about the car using up warranty as it sits. My statement still stands about dealers being morons.

I have a 2010, mfr. Sept 2009. The only warranty visit I had to make was for the headlights DRL bulb heat damage to the inside of the plastic covers (shows up as a white haze right where the DRLs are). Otherwise nothing else.

If I were you, I'd disable the DRL bulbs and buy some LED bulbs (H8 size) to replace them with, or you WILL get the same problem I had. It's over $3000 to replace both headlight assemblies out of warranty. Don't get extended warranty, it's almost 100% profit for the dealership. I had a dealer tell me bullshit about how the turbo was going to pop and that it's not covered under the 5 year powertrain warranty - looked it up later, and there it was in the powertrain warranty.

Edit: wait a second. When was the in-service date of this car? If it was a left over but still technically brand new, the service date doesn't start until someone buys the car and the VIN is registered as belonging to said individual. Right?

The warranty start date was nov 2011 so it's only 4 months into warranty

It sounds like he's just trying to scare you into an extended warranty.

It goes both ways. Sometimes you buy extended warranties and they save you tons, other times you buy them and you never need it.

FWIW, I've seen extended warranty companies deny claims, but I've also seen them pay thousands of dollars to fix things. Look into the reputation of the company they're selling and make a decision based on that if you're concerned.

My honest opinion is to do what I'm doing. Drive the car until its about to go out of warranty, then make a decision. You can always buy an extended warranty. If you've had problems or whatever in the past, possibly bad egg, then you might want to consider it. But if you feel like your car is solid, then take the chance.

The warranty is from Mazda itself (Canada)... no one is telling me about issues. Is it fair to assume these car have been generally reliable?

I have a 2010 with 19,900 miles on it with absolutely no issues. I wouldn't buy into it but that's just me. Besides my car hasn't seen the dealer since it left the day I bought it.

I bought a 2011 back in November 2010. It's my daily-driver and I put about 120 miles a day on it. 37k miles later, and the only time it's been at the dealership is for oil changes and car washes. Dealer told me that if you buy the extended warranty but don't use it, you get the entire cost back, so that kind of sold me on it.

No need for extended warranty. Just take care of the car, read in detail what people say to do and not to do on here. I had no issues with my 2010 until I was stupid and put the mods on in the wrong order. One new engine later and I have been running great.
Don't let mine or other's Mazda ignorance fool you, these are solid cars if treated right.

Only 4 months into the warranty? —If you're planning to mod the car eventually, then I would drive the car another 3 - 4 months stock just to get a reasonable level of confidence in the car and to make sure it isn't a lemon or that it did not get abused for the 200km before you bought it. —Of course you can put on little things like a RMM, or swap out the shitty halogen DRL bulbs before they fuck up your headlight housing, etc.

I could say a lot about why I don't believe in the Mazda extended warranty (or any extended warranty for that matter), but it really comes down to the fact that you're forced to pay for it from the very beginning and you don't get any benefit from it until after the respective factory warranties expire. —If you sell/total your car, you're sure as hell not getting all that money back, and also I *personally* feel that the warranty tends to become unimportant/meaningless past a certain mod level or past a number of years that you've owned the car. —I mean, it's nice if you throw a rod due to bad tunes or being stupid when modding or whatever, and you can stock out and get new stuff for free - but I feel that the standard five year powertrain is quite a long period of time already. —Who knows what the future will hold? —Can you look ahead 7 years (assuming your extended warranty is an additional 2 years) and say that you'll have the same car then? —That's the reality of car ownership - people change their vehicles every so often, or shit happens, etc.

Anyway, tl;dr... I don't think extended warranties are worth it for a vehicle like this. —Maybe on a German car or some shit where you would never want to be caught outside of warranty otherwise you'll get raped by the dealer, but on a car like this? —I don't think it makes sense.

Walked in and told them no dice for the warranty. Thanks for the help everyone. Will donate once I get my speed3 tmm

I know probably too late...but I have had issues.

@ 10k miles replaced transmission under warranty: started "popping" out of gear @ 8k miles. Took it in after it got way worse and was broken trans mount + a lot of internal damage.

I went with the extended warranty. Got me to 60k b2b and 100k powertrain. Also increased my towing to 100 miles instead of 25 (at the time the closesed dealership was 40 miles). For like $2700 (i think) It was worth it.