The bottom line is it is not getting any easier to decide. This of course leads me to believe it is more profitable for the ones you buy the guarantee from. Actually I am a bit torn. Some real questions are if you gamble and lose, what are the consequences and cost? What can you get on the open market and at what cost?
A recent case was getting a set of Bridgestone Dueler AT Revo's, a best of breed tire. The local Bridgestone vendor offers the full enchilada: free rotation, free flat fix, road hazards, almost religious in working you in if you have a problem.
Actually for the same products, the local vendor is competitive with Tirerack or Discount tire, (app the same price for products)sans local tax (8.25%) If you add in the extra priced warranty, the tire costs more and that does not even count the extra cost of local mounting. (40-60 dollars)
So if you have the problems on the road then in theory you can bring it to the local Bridgestone vendor and he will honor the gurantee. I am sure it depends on whether the guarantee includes the local dealer charges such as patching dismount remount and balance costs. Of course, if you have the extra warranty, it should/will cover any out of pocket costs.
So in this case, I have a vehicle that sees a lot more time out of town and the local club warehouse offered the full enchilada and has warehouse clubs in most every place that I seem to go. So the warranty is good at any Costco.
The worse that has ever happened to me in over 1.2M miles of driving has been a slow leaking tire due to nail. I had a ultra high performance tire take a nail and the total cost to jack up dismount rim and tire combination, dismount, patch, remount, balance and retorque the lug nuts was 11 dollars.
Tire warranty was
" "Unlimited Time - Free replacement first year or 25% of tread, then prorated to final 2/32" of tread."
I might be a total anomoly but I have a tendency to think my experiences are pretty common. Upshot I would not get it.
[ May 30, 2005, 05:26 PM: Message edited by: ruking77 ]