If you believe that I have some dry swamp land I'll sell you cheap :biggrin2: . Hey maybe on a Bugatti Veyron or some other uber exotic but if you own those cars generally your not concerned with maintenance .
$3,500 AC Compressor really?
I keep seeing an ad on TV selling extended vehicle warranty.
One of their selling points states that AC compressors cost $3,500.
I am wondering what kind of vehicle has such a beast, or am I still in the times where under $400.00 got this repaired.
ED
One of their selling points states that AC compressors cost $3,500.
I am wondering what kind of vehicle has such a beast, or am I still in the times where under $400.00 got this repaired.
ED
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I just had to put a non OEM in the BMW......$599/autozone
And I used to rebuild the old Harrison/Delco A6 for $20 in parts and $30 in labor. Yorks were about same. Then along came Dieselkiki and Nippondenso.
Glad I don't do them any more.
The way some compressors are hidden and the amount of stuff to remove to get to them, the $3500 might not be too steep. :devil3:
Last one I put on my S10 was $229 and is still going 5 years later and spitting out 42* air. Must have got a good "scald" on that one. :wink2:
RR :smile::smile:
Glad I don't do them any more.
The way some compressors are hidden and the amount of stuff to remove to get to them, the $3500 might not be too steep. :devil3:
Last one I put on my S10 was $229 and is still going 5 years later and spitting out 42* air. Must have got a good "scald" on that one. :wink2:
RR :smile::smile:
Non-manufacturer related extended warranties are about as worthless as home warranties.
Just a legal scam.
Although a contaminated system can in fact get very expensive, like what happens when a compressor grenades.
And the new YF-1234 refrigerant is very expensive.
Just a legal scam.
Although a contaminated system can in fact get very expensive, like what happens when a compressor grenades.
And the new YF-1234 refrigerant is very expensive.
Dave Ramsey talks about this often on his radio show. Extended warranties are one of the worst things you can waste your money on. I'm not sure where he found the stats, but I trust him, so when he says the extended warranty companies only use 12% of their premiums to pay claims, I will take his word on it. That means you have roughly an 88% chance of getting ripped off - even worse if you could do the repairs yourself, or you're at least willing to shop around for where to get the repair done.
Dave Ramsey Q&A
The PennyHoarder seems to support Dave's assertion. Notice the numbers that are quoted are from a Consumer Reports survey of their readers, who are probably more savvy than the typical person.
Dave Ramsey Q&A
The PennyHoarder seems to support Dave's assertion. Notice the numbers that are quoted are from a Consumer Reports survey of their readers, who are probably more savvy than the typical person.
If oil change on high end MB is $1200, and you can NOT DIY it, $3500 for AC comp sounds about right.
$3500 for AC comp sounds about right.
It could certainly go that high. Realize that for a professional job, not only do you have to replace the compressor, the entire system has to be flushed (to remove any chunks of metal that may have gotten into the system from the guts of the compressor shredding), the expansion valve(s) need to be replaced, the filter-drier, and the condenser core may also need to be replaced for the same reason. If it was you or I, we'd probably install an in-line filter and call it 'good enough', but a pro who's going to warranty their work won't do that. Trust me, I know from experience that the evaporator core in the back of a minivan is no picnic to get to to replace the expansion valve.
It's my own opinion, but I believe that any and all insurance programs are just legal PONZI scams.Dave Ramsey talks about this often on his radio show. Extended warranties are one of the worst things you can waste your money on. I'm not sure where he found the stats, but I trust him, so when he says the extended warranty companies only use 12% of their premiums to pay claims, I will take his word on it. That means you have roughly an 88% chance of getting ripped off - even worse if you could do the repairs yourself, or you're at least willing to shop around for where to get the repair done.
Dave Ramsey Q&A
The PennyHoarder seems to support Dave's assertion. Notice the numbers that are quoted are from a Consumer Reports survey of their readers, who are probably more savvy than the typical person.
This includes medical, Life, Auto, Home, Flood, Business liability, and all other insurances.
They are eager to take your money, but when the time arrives that they should pay, for what is covered, they pull the run around, and pay as little as possible, and often nothing.
I have been through a few battles to get my due out of them .
I have seen a person have an extended warranty, and be told that it don't cover fuel injectors, those are "wear parts", and need replaced as a regular maintenance.
ED
It's my own opinion, but I believe that any and all insurance programs are just legal PONZI scams.
By definition, that what insurance is, except that most are required to keep a certain percentage of 'liquid equity' to pay claims.
This includes medical, Life, Auto, Home, Flood, Business liability, and all other insurances.
Medical depends on where you get it. Life insurance is fairly well regulated, and they rarely get out of paying those claims (it's not like they can dispute whether someone's dead in most situations), and until your family is financially secure without the breadwinner's income, the breadwinner should have life insurance. Auto coverage you probably don't need, other than liability, as required by law, and full coverage required by your auto loan provider, to provide the security for the collateral for the loan (the car). Same with homeowners insurance, if you have a mortgage - the house is the collateral for the loan; although if you can't afford to buy a new house out-of-pocket if yours burns down, you better keep the insurance until you can. Flood insurance, meh. Business liability is usually required so that if your business financially harms someone, they don't get stiffed if you fold up your business and walk away.
I think insurance is all a rip off with the exception of auto... sort of.
Like it's still a racket, but it's a necessary one cause if you plow into someone it's not right to leave the victim hanging with no transport cause of your driving. So, we have auto insurance, which will make the victim right - often times even if the driver of the other vehicle doesn't have insurance.
That said, if anyone has the mental acuity to do their own car maintenance, they /really/ should. I can't even add up all the savings we've gotten off doing our own work, min. $80 every year to switch over summer and studded tires, breaks run 300-600 to replace, it's somewhere north of 4k to get a new a transmission, just changing out a battery can cost ya 500.
TONS of money saved if ya get some mechanical know-howz... and a compressor, love the compressor...
Like it's still a racket, but it's a necessary one cause if you plow into someone it's not right to leave the victim hanging with no transport cause of your driving. So, we have auto insurance, which will make the victim right - often times even if the driver of the other vehicle doesn't have insurance.
That said, if anyone has the mental acuity to do their own car maintenance, they /really/ should. I can't even add up all the savings we've gotten off doing our own work, min. $80 every year to switch over summer and studded tires, breaks run 300-600 to replace, it's somewhere north of 4k to get a new a transmission, just changing out a battery can cost ya 500.
TONS of money saved if ya get some mechanical know-howz... and a compressor, love the compressor...
$80 every year to switch over summer and studded tires
I have one vehicle where I do that, but since I have the tires from a local tire shop mounted on an extra set of rims, they balance them and swap them out for free. The other vehicles have to make do with all-seasons with the best ice & snow traction I could find (which is actually pretty good - not as good as studded, but the season where studded tires are allowed is fairly short here anyway).
Sorry for the diversion, folks; back to the subject.
Yes, car repairs can be expensive, especially for those who don't have the skills to DIY, or the willingness to ask/shop around, but they are also unlikely. Instead of wasting money on an extended warranty, a person would be much better with what Dave Ramsey and Clark Howard suggest - put the money in a savings account for repairs.
The bottom line is that we should have insurance (the voluntary kind) only for events that would be financially catastrophic if they were occur - death of the family's breadwinner(s) that the family counts on, destruction of the family's home, etc. For things you could afford to pay out-of-pocket or even on a credit card, it's similar to gambling at a casino, where the house always wins, but without the fun. Extended vehicle warranties are like gambling at a casino where all the games are rigged to take your money 88% of the time, instead of the normal 8% or 10% of the time.
Nice, we've got extra rims, but not even our buddies at Alaska Tire can give us free change-overs every 6ish months hehI have one vehicle where I do that, but since I have the tires from a local tire shop mounted on an extra set of rims, they balance them and swap them out for free. The other vehicles have to make do with all-seasons with the best ice & snow traction I could find (which is actually pretty good - not as good as studded, but the season where studded tires are allowed is fairly short here anyway).
Sorry for the diversion, folks; back to the subject.
Yes, car repairs can be expensive, especially for those who don't have the skills to DIY, or the willingness to ask/shop around, but they are also unlikely. Instead of wasting money on an extended warranty, a person would be much better with what Dave Ramsey and Clark Howard suggest - put the money in a savings account for repairs.
The bottom line is that we should have insurance (the voluntary kind) only for events that would be financially catastrophic if they were occur - death of the family's breadwinner(s) that the family counts on, destruction of the family's home, etc. For things you could afford to pay out-of-pocket or even on a credit card, it's similar to gambling at a casino, where the house always wins, but without the fun. Extended vehicle warranties are like gambling at a casino where all the games are rigged to take your money 88% of the time, instead of the normal 8% or 10% of the time.
True story, put your insurance money in the bank/Money Market and let it make money for YOU, instead of wasting it paying someone else to make money off your own money...
As mentioned, insurance by its nature is a gamble. I suppose if you can afford the risk without it, give it a go. I certainly could not afford to re-build my house if it burned down. I recently had my 2017 truck written-off and was quite happy with their settlement that allowed me to buy a virtual match replacement. No courts, no lawyers.
I threw to dice with a 3-year extended warrantee on my motorcycle and all if got me was front wheel bearings so, not so cost effective, and their renewal price was steep. My used 2017 truck came with the remains of a manufacturer's extended warrantee that covered new injectors (not considered 'power train'), just before it was written off as it turned out. I threw the dice with my replacement (used) truck. I didn't think it was all that expensive, relatively speaking. Parts cost aside, I can certainly image that labour costs to replace some underhood components are pretty high - everything is jam-packed in there and I am well past doing it myself.
I usually do my own tire/wheel swap. My problem is storage. I have a tire rack mounted high in the garage and every year it is getting harder. I'm going to have find alternative space down the road.
I threw to dice with a 3-year extended warrantee on my motorcycle and all if got me was front wheel bearings so, not so cost effective, and their renewal price was steep. My used 2017 truck came with the remains of a manufacturer's extended warrantee that covered new injectors (not considered 'power train'), just before it was written off as it turned out. I threw the dice with my replacement (used) truck. I didn't think it was all that expensive, relatively speaking. Parts cost aside, I can certainly image that labour costs to replace some underhood components are pretty high - everything is jam-packed in there and I am well past doing it myself.
I usually do my own tire/wheel swap. My problem is storage. I have a tire rack mounted high in the garage and every year it is getting harder. I'm going to have find alternative space down the road.
I deal with car warranties and most don't pay the whole ticket. No diagnostic. I charge $100.00 hr and regular vehicles and $125.00 hr on Mercedes Benz, BMW, Volvo, Mini, Lexus, Infinity, and all diesels. They might pay $75.00 and say I can't charge the customer the difference. Or they will use the warranty labor which is less than regular labor hrs. Then I tell them I'm not losing money because of your cheap policy. So I charge the customer the difference. They usually get mad at the insurance company and generally drop them. I hate dealing with auto insurance companies.:vs_cool:
^^ True story. My husband has to hassle with "dealership insurance" on RV's all the time and they almost never pay for the fixes. Warranty on a new or "certified" purchase is a little better, but not as much as you'd assume. He basically warns them all that they're probs going to have to pay 80% of the bill out of pocket - which is typically in the 10s of thousands with RVs.
I wonder if there is some vehicle out there where the compressor is so buried that labor could drive the job costs through the roof. Maybe they cherry picked that to justify the advertisement. My old 1994 Z28 Camaro was tough... it was like an 8 hour book job IIRC requiring a lot of disassembly to get at it. I did the job once myself in a non-standard way, somehow getting the old one out and the new one in without all that work. But I looked at it again years later whilst doing an oil change or something and couldn't figure out how the hell I had done that.
1994 Z28 Camaro was tough... it was like an 8 hour book job IIRC requiring a lot of disassembly to get at it.
I hadn't thought of that, but I'm sure there are a few like that. Add that to the parts, the labor to replace other hard-to-get-to components, specialized equipment, etc., and I'm sure they found one shop somewhere that would quote them $3500. That's all they really need for the advertisement. They wouldn't be the first to use the extreme case to sell their product.
I have a 2002 Kia Sedona where replacing the alternator is about a 4 hour job, even though it's right on the front towards the top. There's not enough room between the frame and the engine, though, so it has to slide across to behind the engine, requiring a dozen other parts to be removed. The spark plugs are similar - 3 hour book time.
Yeah, some of the maintenance is just crazy... the book rate on spark plugs and wires on the Camaro was 8 hours. The #2 plug on that car took me 2 hours alone. And the y-pipe had to come off to get the rears. And the others weren't easy either. They give you a 100,000 mile service interval and then make you pay dearly for it.
The #2 plug on that car took me 2 hours alone. And the y-pipe had to come off to get the rears.
Ouch! Even my Sedona isn't that bad. The air plenum has to be removed to get to the back 3 plugs, but I found a shortcut with a flex head ratchet that lets me complete the job in about 2 hours.
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