CPO warranty valuation?

[jlglr4]

The one thing about warranties is that they generally won’t cover things until they break. You don’t want to wait until your coolant crossovers start leaking to get them replaced, so I don’t see the warranty as being much use on those. (They also generally contain a disclaimer of warranty for consequential damage - so if a water pipe breaks and the engine is ruined from overheating, might be out of luck). Same with water-pumps and other known-failure items. I’d prefer not to wait for a break-down scenario just to use the warranty.

I do see value in the warranty for big-ticket items that are not known failure items that we would try to do preventative repairs for, and for things that won’t leave you stranded if they start to go. I’d also value the CPO if buying out of state or sight-unseen, as these cars are supposed to have gotten a thorough going-over by the dealer (but I’ll bet that’s not always the case).

 

[furbeerl]

I just used mine for the first time with what I was told was 2 weeks remaining. I'd just had a service and long trip prep the week before a 10 hour trip and mentioned having to add coolant a couple times recently and I was going on a 10 hour trip. Long story short, I had a significant coolant leak requiring me to top off frequently. Local dealership was 2 hours away so after Christmas I dropped it off and they diagnosed a water pump with cracked front and rear coolant manifolds saturated belts and other hoses and things. Total was around $5,500 some of which isn't normally covered but because I'd just had it serviced and check for coolant leaks was in the service records just a week earlier they covered it all. Except the small battery which they noticed was going - ECO was glitching on and off. So I'm a bit nervous to go without a warranty.