OT-I'll take the recognition as the "Biggest Idiot Here

641Dave · May 22, 2012

Well, when all said and done with the toyota highlander.

$5,900.oo to put in a USED motor with 90,000 miles.
$2,800.oo paid by Easy Care Extended Warranty
$3,100.oo out of my pocket.

Well, if I would have known how this was going to go down, I would have parked the dang thing in the driveway and picked up a junk yard motor like they did and figured out how to put it in.

The way Easy Care got out of it was to say I damaged the motor by continuing to drive it after it blew the head gasket. Crazy thing is, however it blew, it never registered to the thermostat. When I pulled over the water in the radiator was cool and even the heater core. I don't get it.

Anyway, I feel like I got passed around the campfire on this deal from both the dealership and the warranty folks.

Call it a rant, or a painful recollection, but if you ever get put in the spot to buy and extended warranty. well...

...and to think, this was suppose to be the summer of 641Dave. :roll:

Errin OH · May 22, 2012

$5900 for a used motor install???

Did Easy Care point you to the shop? Or was it your choice?

$2800 (much less the $3100) should have covered it all. For $5900 you should have had a reman with 36/36 warranty.

wisbaker · May 22, 2012

That's about how the extended warranty racket works. They are marginally
better if you get one from the vehicle manufacturer but that means you
have to deal with a new car dealer ($$) and probably use their service
department ($$$), you'll probably come out ahead putting your ($$$$$) in
the bank and using it to fix your car when it dumps or buying another.
The major flaw in the extended warranty racket is the warranty company
pays around 40% commission to the selling dealer so almost 1/2 your money
is gone immediately. By the way if you want to mess with your car
salesman and maybe even get back at them- buy the warranty and credit
life and cancel it all 2 weeks later, most houses will "charge back" the
sales man so they have to pay back the commission they got on your
warranty and credit life, puts 'em in the hole to start out the week. You
wait two-three weeks to make sure the vouchers are cleared and they got
paid for the deal. Still might want to cancel your Easy care extended
warranty, they've already made money on you but if you cancel it they'll
make less.

Mike (WA) · May 22, 2012

Something's going on here- probably a kickback. I spun a bearing in my Buick, and my mechanic bought and installed a used 3.8 for $1,000. Granted, he felt sorry for me because I had just had to get a reman transmission (total cost $3,100), but he told me the motor deal would have been about $1,800 "retail".

paul · May 22, 2012

I'm glad you can somewhat joke with it all.

We probably all get the same award, just whether we admit it or not...

--->Paul

dhermesc · May 22, 2012

The V6 Engine for the Highlander is a bit more expensive $1500 to $2500 for one with decent miles.

Seems to be a lot of dead GMs with the 3.8 engine.

Anonymous-0 · May 22, 2012

I think that's a traveling trophy and you might not keep it very long.

JerryS · May 22, 2012

If that's the only---or most expensive---blunder you've ever made, consider yourself a genius up against my history. My bad decisions, bad investments, bad timing, bad luck have cost me close to 200 grand over the past 20 or 25 years.

Brokenwrench · May 22, 2012

Dont think I"d consider you an idiot. If the facts of how crappy most aftermarket warranties are had been presented to you, you probably wouldnt have bought it.

Im in the repair business and I hate dealing with them. The customer always gets jacked around.

Used to be that they would want an itemized repair order, then they would just pigeon hole the crap out of it. In more recent years, they just want to know what the total cost of repair is going to be, then lower the boom on the customer, telling them they located a used part and then dictate to the shop (me)how much they will pay me to put it in. I can"t remember a customer yet that has walked in, had his vehicle fixed and the warranty company has picked up the tab. Almost always, the warranty company is paying out less than you paid for the warranty.

Had one customer who paid around 2k for a warranty plan on a duramax/allison. When the trans went out, and even a used one was costing more than that, they just refunded him his money and walked away..

RodinNS · May 22, 2012

Well... at least you learned the hard way that you never pi$s away good money on an aftermarket warranty ever again...
When I bought my truck last fall they tried the upsell me the warranty. Business manager finally asked me who does my repair work... 'Me' I said. Oh. You're good to go then.

Rod

641Dave · May 22, 2012

(quoted from post at 16:25:10 05/22/12) I'm glad you can somewhat joke with it all.

We probably all get the same award, just whether we admit it or not...

--->Paul

If I don't joke about it, it will eat me up. Yeah, $3,100 would of done allot of things for me and my family.

It was a 4 cylinder. I've found a reman for $1,800 already after the fact and decided to stop looking.

I even took a vacation day off to go haul the thing into the dealership myself to save some money. They wouldn't even compensate for that. My better business bureau complaint got a reply from their lawyer pretty much making me look like an idiot for starting the car. lol.

Dang fellas. This one left a few whelps.

Yeah, heck of a lesson indeed.

I'll shut up now but thanks for listening.

dhermesc · May 22, 2012

You can do that in a day - if you marry the wrong person.

JerryS · May 22, 2012

Right; didn't mention that one.

Dodgeit · May 22, 2012

(quoted from post at 13:20:55 05/22/12) Right; didn't mention that one.

I had a different experiance with the extended warranty company. My out of pocket was $300 on 2k+ bill.

Sorry to hear of your bad luck. Something doesn't sound right though. I know there are somethings not covered by the warranty, and some that are. Did the people doing the work bill you for misc. crap? The cost of the engine plus the labor to install, should have been covered under warranty. The only way they can weasel out is if they can prove you had a intentional hand in causing the failure. Did you drive it for a period of time with the CEL light on?

Try to sue in small claims court. If they don't show up you automatically win.

641Dave · May 22, 2012

There out was that I continued to drive the vehicle after it got hot.

Here is what happened.

I got in the vehicle and drove it, I noticed the heater wasn't blowing any hot air. I reached down to turn the heat up, but it's already up. I look down and the thermostat is still on "C". The check engine light is on though.

I pull over and she stalled and never lit again.

At that moment, I felt the hoses and they were cool and with no pressure. The next day I check the radiator and it has water to the top.

I checked the oil, no water in the oil.

They said that they would replace the head gasket but my continuing to drive while hot is not covered and my negligence.

I'm not that stupid as to drive it while it's hot.

They made the dealership do a complete teardown. Dealership said that was $1,800 and I suspect they only did a half arse teardown for the Easy Car adjusters to look at.

If I would have seen a hot temp gauge, she would have been off before it stopped rolling.

The $5,900 from the dealership was for a teardown and a complete used motor.

gtractorfan · May 22, 2012

The way I see it, it all depends on who you are and that applies all over.

larry@stinescorner · May 22, 2012

I dont know if you are the biggest idiot,I have done a lot worse than that!

Mark - IN. · May 22, 2012

I've been married 26 times, and you're the idiot? I'd say that title goes to the 26 women that married me. I should divorce some of them someday.

Mark

Iamarv · May 22, 2012

Don't feel bad. I got stung on Lexus "sudden acceleration" deal. What a POS that car was. Cost me 20 grand to get out from under it. No more Lexus/Toyoto"s for me.

Glenn Warner · May 22, 2012

I have the ultimate idiot award covered . Me and my family invested in some mortgages with
a fella,at the tune of $1.2 million , including all the back interest ,foreclosure charges , unpaid taxes ,water bills etc .at the current rate of getting rid of these properties we might end up with $600,000.How would you like to be that fella and wonder when you are going to look over your shoulder and see me there in your face. so dave your $3,100doesn't look quite so bad .

David G · May 22, 2012

Nope, I have that title.

Anonymous-0 · May 22, 2012

You can have the title,makes me feel better it has now passed on.

NCWayne · May 23, 2012

I'v have made them show you the fault codes in the computer saying the thing ran hot. Any shop with a code reader should have been able to do that very easily. If there was no code there was no overheating incident.

I can say I have seen engines run hot, and not register as hot on the guage, because they ran low on coolant. Due to the low coolant the sensing bulb was not imersed completely in the liquid and because of that was sensing air temp in the system and not sense the true temp of the water. Thing is, in your case, you say the system was full after the fact so that should not have been an issue.

That said if it was full of water and overheated, it should have blown coolant past the pressure cap, and based on what your saying it didn't do that either. In the end it sounds to me like you got screwed. Not being in the situation personally I can't speak to the whole situation other than to say that at this point, if I were you, the very least that would happen would be that everyone involved got a bad rap with the BBB. The I'd make sure a few calls were placed to the local news stations that have 'consumer protection squads' and see if they will be willing to turn lose some bad press on them.

ASEguy · May 23, 2012

I have seen some aftermarket warranties do this. Always buy a factory extended warranty, they are much better. We had the Chrysler Service Contract and it was a decent package with several levels of coverage.

flyingace · May 23, 2012

You learn from your mistakes. You need to be a repeat idiot to get the award.

JDseller · May 23, 2012

An education takes money and time. It is not just colleges that take this money.

You just learned the fact that 90% of the extended warranties are not worth the paper they are written on. Like some one said. A big chunk of the money goes right to the seller for selling the thing. Then the issuing company uses every little fine printed legal wiggle to not pay anything.

For those that think the warranties are great. Put the same amount of money back yourself an it and the interest will always pay for more than the insurance ever would.

I really like new racket of the extended warranties they try to sell on cheap tools and such. I just bought a little carry around air compressor. It was on sale for $99. They wanted to sell me a $39 dollar extended warranty form some third party. That is right a 40% warranty cost.

I was not raised to be a fool. It seems that too many people want everyone else to care for/protect them so they are binked out of their money and then wonder why they are broke all of the time.

641Dave. You did not say what you paid for the extended warranty up front??? I bet that you could have had the engine replaced locally for less than the warranty cost.

641Dave · May 23, 2012

I paid $1,200 up front for the extended warranty.

yeah....

dr sportster · May 23, 2012

I'm pretty sure that title goes to dave2.

wisbaker · May 23, 2012

$5,900 for a used truck motor? I didn't realize that
John Deere got into the truck business? Green paint
is more expensive than gold plating!! Sorry I
couldn't resist.-SBB

OT-I'll take the recognition as the "Biggest Idiot Here

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