Ford Extended Warranty - Is It Worth Your Peace of Mind?


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Well you might think the title of this post might seem cynical... but actually the idea came from Ford's India website for this specific topic (see below).

Here is the story... In early 2013, I bought a Ford Figo (top end Titanium) and also took extended warranty as well as the 5 year SSP plan. There was no offer or anything...I paid full value.. considering it a good investment. From 2013 to now the vehicle has been regularly serviced and every issue/niggles that had cropped up reported back to the service center (Ganges Ford) and looked into. Some issues still remain but overall the experience is neutral to slight positive. Also my daily kms came down due to change in my job profile (which I had not anticipated earlier), hence I could only do about 18K kms in these 3.5 years.

Two issues that still bug the car.. is the horn that can stop working anytime (has been replaced twice) and the driver side window which can also stop working without any reason (some time during heavy rain) but again start working (without any apparent reason). These issues aside there not been major problems till this happened.

Last Thursday while driving back from an engagement, I noticed the ABS light on the dashboard. There was no problem in driving, no noise or any indication that something was wrong except the ABS light.

I immediately called up the Service Center (Ganges Ford, Kolkata) and decided to give them the car in the afternoon so that they can investigate. I got a call from them late evening that there was an issue with the 'ABS bearing' and somehow it has been damaged due to some thread wrapping around it. Only solution was to replace it and that would cost me ~Rs. 3K (one side).

Since I had extended warranty, I was sure that this would be covered however to my surprise I was told that it would not be. On asking why not, their warranty person told me that this item is covered during the first 2 years/40000 kms of default warranty but not covered under the 3/4 year of extended warranty, which is strange since there is no place in the warranty certificate or on any website that says so. Nor is there a list of parts given that would not be covered under extended warranty. I have this conversation on record so it would be easy to prove if asked later on.

Only thing that the certificate says is that it should not be a wear and tear item or a consumable. Also my query on how a thread can get inside the 'ABS bearing' when it should be protected by a seal, was not answered. The ABS bearing (for the benefit of the readers) is a bearing with a magnetic etched ring that feed continuous pulses to the ABS sensor. This magnetic etching is sensitive to the extend that any dust, oil will cause it to malfunction so a proper seal is essential. So my surprise when they said that a thread had caused the issue because the seal should have stopped it.

Any way I contacted Ford through their official email and the only thing I got as a replay with a complaint ID. Two days of follow up and was able to speak to Rahul from Ford Chennai, who was not able to provide any information except that they had spoken to the same warranty person at Ganges and the best they could do is offer me '4% discount on material and 10% on labor'.

There is no reply (till now) to my queries on why this should not be covered under extended warranty or to provide me with the list of parts that are not covered under extended warranty.

Fed up with this treatment, I decided to have the repairs done paying full price and received the car back on Saturday (28 Aug '16).

Wanted to share my experience with fellow forum members for three main reasons:
1) So that other can share similar experience with Ford extended warranty and whether it at all makes sense to avail this feature (you are actually paying a good amount). This would also help new owners who are thinking of buying Ford cars and extended warranty in general.[confused]
2) Share the list of parts that are not covered under extended warranty. If that list exists with someone .. they can share.
3) Give this link to Ford so that they can contribute to this discussion since they are shy it seems to answer to my emails.[frustration]

PS: After I got back the car, I have not been able to engage ABS even once, and since this is something you cant be sure of as there is no sure shot test, I will keep a watch out for the next couple of days before I go back to the Service Centre. Is there any way to positively check this?
 

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Getting extended warranty is good, it will be useful for big problems like engine failure, steering problems etc. But cant say about minor parts. Also extended warranty is a way by which carmakers make the customer to visit the service centre for servicing which in turn generates revenue. The warranty gets void if you visit a outside mechanic.
 

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