I'll jump in here with my take on warranties as a selling dealer. Yes, they are a huge profit center for my dealership(marine). I personally never buy a warranty, but that is mainly due to the fact that I can perform most work myself, or have a connection with a business in the area that I can barter my stores services with. That said, there is only one real reason I encourage my customers to buy an extended warranty, which by the way typically will cost 2-3000 dollars, and that is this: We can remain friends longer. Nothing stresses the dealer/customer relationship more than mechanical problems, and with a warranty in place, I know that if the customer has a failure in the next 6 years, I can repair it under warranty. I can take that monday morning call from a guy who just blew his engine and is really pissed and say "bring it in, we'll get it fixed asap, under warranty".
This is not to say I won't help out a good customer without a warranty, I'll often go to the manufacturer and try to get "good faith" approval on units just out of their factory warranty or that had an obvious defect that should be corrected. But sometimes things break clearly out of or past the term of the original warranty and just won't be covered by the factory. It is not fun telling the guy with a 3 year old boat that he paid 50k for that his blown motor is out of warranty and he's facing a 5-8k repair bill.
One interesting angle I have available is a money back warranty. This warranty is backed by Duetsche Financial, and is kind of cool because of this: You pay the warranty up front, but if you do not use it over it's term and never submit a claim, you are entitled to a 100% refund at the end of the warranty term. I do not know if this is available to the motorcycle guys, though.
Anyway... that's my take...your mileage may vary.....
TBone
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