Can my Extended Warranty company cancel my policy after paying out over $18,000?

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Aug 16, 2018
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TX, USA
(Excuse me with the super long biography. I am just looking for some insight)

I have owned my 2012 QX56 now for 3 years 8 months. When I bought it, my credit union convinced me to buy extended warranty for my QX, which I reluctantly bought at $3,700. Thank God I did buy it!

Well, after 4 months of owning my rig, I had to use my extended warranty to pay $2,500 to replace one of my DVD headrests in my QX that suddenly stopped working.

4 months after that, I came back from a major road trip where I beat my QX offroading in the San Juan mountains in Colorado. I kind of limped back home with broken front control arms, timing chain recall, needing new shocks, and some suspension parts.

Total cost for it to leave the dealership was about $11,000!!! You read it right. Dealership and warranty company split the cost. I had to pay about $1,200 for the shocks since extended warranty did not cover that.

Fast forward now to today. My extended warranty that I paid $3,700 for has paid out about $20,000 in repairs on my SUV. This cost has accumulated so high partly because each time I take my SUV to the dealership for repairs, they know I do have warranty and so they look up other things and recommend to be fixed, as long as my warranty can pay for it. My warranty always pays no problemo!
 
Read the fine print. Pretty sure that there is a payout limit based on book value, repairs paid for or purchase price. Can't imagine they would pay $8000 for a transmission if the truck is only worth $5,000 or if they have already paid $20,000.
 
What the dealer is doing borders on fraud.

The $11k repair cost you mentioned is absolute bogus. Sure, the dealer paid for half.... Is this a real warranty with a real company or is it something exclusive with this dealer ?

Anyway, read the terms of your warranty. The one that only you have the details and fine print for. No one here can answer this.
 
I took my QX last week for a recent problem for them to fix for me. My bill was $2,308. Warranty paid $1,950. I paid $350.

I got my car back and felt the problem was not fixed as it is a problem that happens every now and then. The car hesitates sometimes to take off after a complete stop. Then I tried to change my transfer case fluid after I got my SUV and realized that my QX has suddenly developed a very noticeable large oil leak that was not there when I took it to the dealership last week, especially as they lifted my car and accessed my transfer case during my last visit. And this oil leak is suddenly so huge that they had to notice it while under my car. But they never told me my car was leaking oil when I picked it up.

Well, I took my car back 2 days ago for them to try and fix what they had to originally fix but have not fixed.

I told them too to look at the large oil leak and tell me where it is coming from all of a sudden. Well, this is something my extended warranty can pay for, based on my coverage.

Well, they contacted my extended warranty and my extended warranty says they have to send an inspector to the dealership to look at the car.

It's been 2 days now and the inspector has not shown up yet.

But I have been worried. Can the warranty company cancel my policy? Well, it expires in about 1,500 miles. A friend of mine said I should sell that car. I personally do not want to because besides really loving my SUV, the warranty has fixed so much that if I sell this, I will be giving the new owner a very well maintained SUV that I THINK I should keep until atleast 200,000 miles before selling.

Sorry for the long essay. Would appreciate any insight.
 
Quick summary;

I have owned my 2012 Infiniti QX56 for 3 years 8 months now.

I paid $3,700 for extended warranty when I bought it.

I take my 2012 QX56 only to the Infiniti dealership for all warranty work and claims.

My Extended Warranty has paid about $20,000 in repairs as of today.

My Extended Warranty has about 1,500 more miles to expire.

Can they cancel my policy all of a sudden?

Here is a link to my maintenance thread which has details of all that has been changed since I bought my SUV with pictures of many things too and some receipts including the most recent visit to the dealership.

2012 Infiniti QX56 maintenance thread...
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by PetitFrereArmada
Well, they contacted my extended warranty and my extended warranty says they have to send an inspector to the dealership to look at the car.

Sounds like the warranty company is on to the dealer's scam that they've been playing.
 
Doug Demuro (a YouTube car personality) actually had something similar happen at CarMax with one of his cars. In his case, the warranty paid out similarly but he never got any flack about it.

I'd say just keep your head down and live life. If they cancel it, they cancel it. You got your money's worth.
 
Unless they have read the entire policy paperwork any answer here will be a guess. Extended warranties are similar to insurance policies, what I recommend you do is very carefully read the entire contract first, it will tell you what they cover etc etc etc more importantly it will tell you the contract LIMITATIONS AND EXCLUSIONS, it will also tell you the reasons or conditions for "dropping" you. No matter what people say or tell you the policy and the company are bound by the contract. The company should have notified you (in writing) why they ate dropping coverage. Remember the contract is written by lawyer s, and these companies are in the business to make money, like insurance companies if you are too much of a risk they can cancel the policy. If you feel you should have been dropped file a department of insurance complaint, the company must address the complaint and explain why they dropped you in writing when responding to the complaint.
 
That dealer was sketchy and yes the total payout is generally limited to the value of the vehicle, so they probably do have a way to avoid paying any more high dollar repair bills but you would need to read your specific warranty contract. Also what did you do to that rig? 4+ years and 60,000 *85k total on car) miles on my 12 g37x SEDAN including beaches, natl forest roads et and the undercarriage is still in good condition with 1/2 the ground clearance with all of frequent fluid changes, brakes, rotors, tires a gates serpentine belt. No wait they did replace the analog dash clock under warranty. What do you do to your vehicles?
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
Read the fine print. Pretty sure that there is a payout limit based on book value, repairs paid for or purchase price. Can't imagine they would pay $8000 for a transmission if the truck is only worth $5,000 or if they have already paid $20,000.

I think that is for a single event, not the total of all repairs.
 
The warranty typically ends when a repair cost exceeds the book value of the car, this typically happens with so called "lifetime warranties." IIRC is applies to extended warranties that have a time mile limit as well. I'm out of the loop for a while now so it might have changed a bit. So if the car is worth $3,000 and it needs a $4,000 transmission for the sake of argument you'd get a check for $3,000 and the warranty ends. You could have $20,000 in repairs over the life of the car in small increments that never exceed the value of the car, and be covered. If the warranty company feels they're getting screwed or the cost of a repair is too high they might send out an inspector to approve said repairs. You might sit w/o your car for a while if that happens.
 
Makes me happy to drive a trouble-free Chevrolet. I don't think I've spent that much in non-maintenance repairs over the last 30 years on multiple vehicles.
 
Originally Posted by Danno
Surprised they covered the control arms etc. since that occurred off road.

Unless you didn't disclose that?


I don't know how well I should disclose it to them. I basically drove my car to the dealership and told them that there is a clunking noise coming from the front suspension. I dropped the car and went home.

They called me and said control arm is broken and other things including the car being part of a recall for a new timing chain. They told me my front suspension needs some new parts and they cannot fix it except the shocks too are replaced brand new. And that my extended warranty covers everything except the shocks. That I have to pay for the shocks before they can fix all other front suspension part to make sure everything up front will be brand new. I agreed to pay the $1,200 for 2 new oem shock and they went on and fixed my front suspension, changing all parts needed.
 
If I was in your position, I would accept that $3,700 for $20,000 back (even if it would be $10K at a non-dealer) was a heck of a deal, count my blessings and move on... to dump that car and get something more reliable.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
Read the fine print. Pretty sure that there is a payout limit based on book value, repairs paid for or purchase price. Can't imagine they would pay $8000 for a transmission if the truck is only worth $5,000 or if they have already paid $20,000.


You are very correct. Interesting you mention $8,000 for a new transmission.

My QX56 had the ECU go out and that was replaced under warranty for I think somewhere around $3,000. At that time, I thought my transmission was out. I had called the dealership and asked cost of a new transmission for my SUV. They told $8,000. I turned around and called my Extended Warranty and asked them if my transmission went out would they cover it? They said yes, it is covered under my contract. My suv had died at Walmart and I did not know what was wrong. I was hoping it was not the transmission, but had called dealership and warranty company on the same day to find out.

I had my suv towed for free (using my AAA membership) on a truck for 40 miles to the same Infiniti dealership I use. They told me it was ECU and everything was covered by my warranty.
 
Originally Posted by PetitFrereArmada
...with broken front control arms, timing chain recall, needing new shocks, and some suspension parts.

Total cost for it to leave the dealership was about $11,000!!!

Remove the timing chain work from the cost since you keep calling it a "recall". On the other hand, recalls generally only apply to safety issues and a timing chain (failure) won't fall under that.
 
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
What the dealer is doing borders on fraud.

The $11k repair cost you mentioned is absolute bogus. Sure, the dealer paid for half.... Is this a real warranty with a real company or is it something exclusive with this dealer ?

Anyway, read the terms of your warranty. The one that only you have the details and fine print for. No one here can answer this.


Tell me about it. When they had called me and told me my repair cost was $11,000, I was ready to sell that car that same day. But I am happy my warranty covered it.

I did not know I truly had bought a car that would be plagued with so many problems down the road. I have thought of giving this car up, but my warranty has been exceptionally good to me. When my warranty started payin earlier on my car, I was shocked they were paying. I was always wondering if things were covered and would call them often to make sure it was covered.

This is what will happen. Something will be wrong with my car. I will take it to the dealership for problem A. The dealership sees I have warranty. They say they will check my concern and do a complimentary check also around the car. Soon, they will call me and tell me that they can fix problem A under my warranty. Then they will say they found problem B and C and my warranty can pay for it.

Well.I was worried whenever they told me that. In my mind, I did not take my car there for that and I do not want them to fix something and say I have to pay. So, I always called my warranty to say my dealership just called me that my car has problem B and C, will they truly cover it or is the dealership telling me a lie? My warranty company will say, yep! We will cover it under warranty. I would hangup and be shocked.

Well, since the cost got above like $12,000, I have been scared to call my warranty for any questions, fearing they may just cancel my contract for whatever reason, since they have paid so much.

Mind you, they have paid about $20,000 so far and guess where my car is today? At the dealership!!! For a repair that may be more than $1,000. So, imagine the cost to the warranty company. Now they are sending an Inspector to look at my car. Who knows if my warranty will be canceled? I am currently driving a brand new 2020 Infiniti QX60 as a loaner from the dealership.

Oh, did you ask if my Extended Warranty is real? My Extended Warranty is not through Infiniti. It is a stand alone company. I felt like it was forced unto me by my credit union. I never wanted it, but thank God I was convinced into paying for it because that $3,700 at that time sounded like I was about to waste too much money.

My Extended Warranty company has very bad reviews online from other people but if I was to give them a review, it would be stellar! They have been truly outstanding to me.
 
Originally Posted by Reddy45
Doug Demuro (a YouTube car personality) actually had something similar happen at CarMax with one of his cars. In his case, the warranty paid out similarly but he never got any flack about it.

I'd say just keep your head down and live life. If they cancel it, they cancel it. You got your money's worth.


Exactly how I am feeling now. I am not calling my Extended Warranty company again for nothing. I used to call them each time they had to pay a claim because I was truly worried if the dealership was telling the truth that they will cover it or will I show up to pick my car and the dealership say, sir, you have to pay for this as they refused to pay for it.
 
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