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Purchase Extended Warranty or Not???

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2012 P85 - Got the warranty because car was so new at that point and fear of high cost of repairs. Had a lot of minor fixes early on, nothing major. Since going past std 4 yr warranty and into ESA it has paid for itself. Center screen bubble replacement, fan issue that required entire driver screen to be replaced, and sun roof mechanism replacement. Well worth it but I also got the early adopter price of $2400 for the plan.

Wow, $2400, that's close to HALF the current cost :(
 
Similar to others, I normally do not purchase extended warranties. But I decided with this sizable investment, to have peace of mind should anything happen in the future. Although my car has been relatively trouble free, the occasional items that have needed service / replacement (HVAC, battery heater) were big ticket items that would be painful to cover out-of-pocket.

Furthermore, I knew that keeping the car under warranty would increase the resale value when I private sell, and the contract can be cancelled with a prorated refund if I choose to do so.
 
We've purchased 3 Tesla vehicles since early 2013 - and purchased the extended warranty for all 3 because we expect to keep each vehicle for at least 80-100K miles.

Not only does the extended warranty provide you price protection from major repairs (such as MCU replacement), it also now includes Roadside Assistance and towing to the nearest Service Center.

The extended warranty for our 2012 S P85 didn't include towing - and when we broke down in the middle of Kansas and had to be towed to the KC Service Center, we had to make arrangements through our insurance company for towing. Now Tesla includes that with the warranty.

Another benefit of the warranty - if a problem does occur, Tesla may be willing to replace additional components related to a failure, if they aren't sure which component caused the failure. If you're paying for this a la carte, you'll likely want to fix only the failed component, which might save in part costs but could increase labor costs for increased diagnostic times. The failure in KC was with the front trunk lock assembly - at a Supercharger the front trunk latch popped open and could not be re-engaged, leaving the front trunk partially open - and unsafe to drive at highway speeds. Because of the potential risk of this recurring while we were driving on the highway, Tesla replaced every component related to the front trunk latch. Probably more parts than I would have been willing to purchase a la carte.

Extended warranties are insurance policies - some owners will save money, others will lose money.

For us, we're willing to take the risk on overspending on the warranty in exchange for the assurance that we won't overspend on repairs between 50-100K miles on the vehicles.
 
Roadside Assistance and towing to the nearest Service Center.

if a problem does occur, Tesla may be willing to replace additional components related to a failure

Extended warranties are insurance policies - some owners will save money, others will lose money.

Couldn't be said better than what @bob_p has articulated. The "insurance policy" aspect of it is very convincing and that's why I purchased mine at the end of the 4-year ownership. You don't get the ESA thinking you will probably not use it, you get it to cover your expenses "when" you need it.
 
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I also think it's highly dependent on how many miles you drive. I normally don't purchase ESAs, and I didn't on my 2015 85D. I didn't for two reasons: I drive about 25k miles a year and it gave me so little trouble the first 50k miles.

So I decided to gamble and it paid off. I had $300 out of pocket, after warranty repairs (door handle). At 107,000 miles and still going strong.
 
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...So I decided to gamble and it paid off. I had $300 out of pocket, after warranty repairs (door handle). At 107,000 miles and still going strong.

ESA is just like an insurance: You are proof that the odds are in your favor because bad events don't happen to the majority of people (fire, flood, plane crash, ebola, ESA claims...)
 
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