Buy the Subaru Maintenance Plan ?

I am in the midst of buying a new Legacy 3.6R and the dealer offered plenty of last-minute upsells.

What do you think of the Subaru Maintenance Plan? This is a big cost ($1000+) extended service contract that covers all of the scheduled maintenance for 100K miles plus towing, rental car and a tire road hazard warrantee. It is only useable at Subaru dealers.

 

I decided to skip the Simoniz Glass Coat.

 

BTW, by "in the midst of buying" I mean that the dealer is trying to get the car from another dealer.

I think you should go with the plan. I got the gold plan on my 3.6r and I think its going to be very useful. It will save you money in the long run congrats on getting a new car hopefully soon! I got mine yesterday and I love it a lot. What color are you getting?

The rumor is that it will be red with an ivory interior.

I really never gave much thought to car color before. The last time that I bought a car was 2002 and lots of colors were available. But, now most of the cars on the market seem to be so boring.

And you?

I saw one, not a 3.6R, on the lot when I was considering the Legacy, and it looked really good. Personally red is not my preferred color, but I liked the way it looked on the car. And I have noticed that most of the car colors are around the same, which is ok if you're a simple person. I got the Twilight Blue Metallic with black leather interior. I like it a lot, however my two preferred colors were the Graphite Grey and the Indigo Pearl. The 3.6R's are hard to find on the east coast.

I got the Maintence Plan on my 2009 LGT. It worked well for me, and even covered fixing two flats. My plan only went to 45k though.

 

Some things to consider:

1) How likely are you to drive the car to 75k+?

You won't recover any re-sale value on unused contracts if you sell the car early.

 

2) Would you take the car to the dealer for all service anyway?

If you'd do oil changes yourself, your costs would be lower.

 

These should help you figure out where your break-even point is. On my Legacy I needed to use the 30k service (expensive) for it to break even. If you plan on getting to that mileage its probably worth it.

I am in the midst of buying a new Legacy 3.6R and the dealer offered plenty of last-minute upsells.

What do you think of the Subaru Maintenance Plan? This is a big cost ($1000+) extended service contract that covers all of the scheduled maintenance for 100K miles plus towing, rental car and a tire road hazard warrantee. It is only useable at Subaru dealers.

The dealer is trying to confuse you. There is no 100k maintenance plan, otherwise $1k would be a big bargain. There is a 3yr/45k maintenance plan, and 100k _extended warranty_ plans. The latter does not include scheduled maintenance.

 

The dealer could be pushing some in-house crap though.

When my dad bought his 07 Silverado they pulled this on him. Sounded like a bargain but it wasn't like they explained it. We did get an extended 100k Warranty, but only for parts that failed prematurely. Maintenance was only covered for 45,000 miles or 3 years. Whichever came first.

I got the maintenance plan on my 39 month lease for $750 and it was definitely worth it. I was lucky in that their deal at the time was to bump you up to the next credit bracket so it actually made my monthly payment less by adding the plan. I have used it for my oil changes every 3,750 miles and the more in-depth maintenance at 15,000 and 30,000 miles. It has also paid for two brand new ~$300 Bridgestone tires that got nails in them at separate times.

When I bought my 07 buying the maintenance plan actually reduced my payment because part of the benefit of buying the plan was that they/chase lowered the apr on the loan 1 full percentage point. Made it an easy call for me.

It is nothing but a rip off..... do the math!

 

Some cliff notes:

-The maint plan goes to 36K and 45K

-It is "scheduled" maintenance....meaning every 7500 miles. (I know Subaru has a cliff note that indicates 3750 but 3.6R is scheduled for every 7500)

 

Depends on how long you will keep the car. This is something offered to me every time and I get in bunch of arguments with the finance people.

 

My car is a 45K 3 year lease which means:

 

7,500 oil change: $50.00

15,000 service / oil change: $50.00

22,500 oil change: $50.00

30,000 service: ~$700.00

37,500 oil service: $50.00

45,000 oil service: $50.00

I rotate my own tires every 5K

 

So that is: 5 oil changes: $250

30K maint : $700

Total: $950

The "Best" price they offered me was $1120 on the 45K plan and as you can see from the math their argument miserably failed with me.

 

Now that is if you do not have any coupons. The dealer where I service my car constantly sends me 10%, 20% off coupons or $29,99 oil change offers.

 

They made it very clear to me that the Subaru service plan covers only scheduled maintenance and nothing else. So I don't know what people are talking about when they mention 3K oil changes and 2 tire replacements (since when you only replace 2 tires on a subaru under maintenance plan)

 

On a 3.6R you will most likely do 5K oil changes (what I do) and will end up paying out of pocket anyway.

 

I also have no desire to pay interest on a future service plan if I am financing or leasing the car.

 

Another thing to consider is what happens to your 1200 if your car gets stolen, totaled & etc...... GL claiming a prepaid service plan from your insurance company that has nothing to do with the value of the car.

 

Now if you are talking about "Subaru added security" which is nothing but an extended warranty, that is different. It all depends how long you are planning on keeping your car. I usually don't keep my cars too long after the warranty expires.

 

I hope it all makes sense.

Lots of good information here. I feel much better armed for the upcoming discussion with the finance guy.

I like the arguments from the two of you that said that it lowered your payments by changing the APR.

Unfortunately, right now Subaru is now offering 0%, so buying the plan can't get the APR any lower for me.

What is in the 30K mile maintenance that makes it cost $700?

Are the stock tires any good in snow, or should I get them swapped out (for which I will pay extra, I'm sure)?

They sell these plans because they make money off of them..

They sell these plans because they make money off of them..

 

I agree. The dealership is not a charity organization.

 

The dealer takes a large financial risk by buying inventory and hiring staff and buying property. I believe that everyone (including car dealers and manufacturers) should be allowed to make a reasonable profit for their work and risk.

Reasonable profit is the key. I hate it when someone tries to make an unreasonable profit from me.

I

They made it very clear to me that the Subaru service plan covers only scheduled maintenance and nothing else. So I don't know what people are talking about when they mention 3K oil changes and 2 tire replacements (since when you only replace 2 tires on a subaru under maintenance plan)

 

Maintenance schedule for 2007-2009 LGT is every 3750, fully covered under the plan. The plan also included a road hazard coverage for the tires. I will also vouch for that, it covered one replacement tire (shaved to match) and a patch for another.

 

Its not a bad deal if you plan to do all your maintenance at the dealer.

Are the stock tires any good in snow, or should I get them swapped out (for which I will pay extra, I'm sure)?

 

Stock tires are standard all-season tires. You can assume they will be bad in snow. You can either get a second set of rims/tires for winter, options for swapping to better all-seasons may be limited.

Maintenance schedule for 2007-2009 LGT is every 3750, fully covered under the plan. The plan also included a road hazard coverage for the tires. I will also vouch for that, it covered one replacement tire (shaved to match) and a patch for another.

 

Its not a bad deal if you plan to do all your maintenance at the dealer.

 

Both my 2008 Legacy 2.5 Limited and 2012 3.6R are on "scheduled" 7500 plan .... I do service my cars at the dealer and I did the math above.

 

The tire coverage is only covered under Subaru Added Security which is different than Subaru Maintenance plan.

 

Added Security = Enhanced Warranty (Doesn't cover oil changes & etc)

Subaru Maint Plan = Pre purchased Service Agreement.

 

I believe, you have purchased both of them inorder to get your service and road hazard covered...... or may be subaru had a different offering in 2008.

 

My 2005 Legacy included all service for free as part of a deal Subaru had going on back then. I never paid for service on that car.

 

I think money is should be kept in OP's pocket vs dealer's when there are no beneficial gains.

It has also paid for two brand new ~$300 Bridgestone tires that got nails in them at separate times.

I thought new car comes with tires that have road-hazard warranty from tire manufacturer.

 

Easy way to think about maintenance plan: you're essentially pre-paying all required maintenance with a small discount, locking in current service rates. Think about it as protection from inflation. That's about it.

My 36,000 mile maintenance plan included a 500 dollar coupon for a new car/lease or accessories. This became a worthwhile thing for me as my parents were heavily researching into a new Impreza and my wife was casually considering a switch as well.

 

In addition to scheduled maintenance, it also includes tire/rim repair/replacement. I do NOT have an extended warranty. I don't recall the cost of the plan.

Lots of good information here. I feel much better armed for the upcoming discussion with the finance guy.

I like the arguments from the two of you that said that it lowered your payments by changing the APR.

Unfortunately, right now Subaru is now offering 0%, so buying the plan can't get the APR any lower for me.

What is in the 30K mile maintenance that makes it cost $700?

Are the stock tires any good in snow, or should I get them swapped out (for which I will pay extra, I'm sure)?

 

I don't have the checklist in front of me, but generally the 30k mile service includes all fluids (brake, transmission, coolant etc.), brake check, fuel filter, air filter, suspension and steering check, and on and on. One thing I forgot to mention is that the plan covers oil changes at 3,750 mile intervals if the car has a turbo, otherwise it is every 7,000 miles, so that could affect your decision. I can confirm that it comes with a $500 coupon for your next Subaru if you have all of the scheduled service along the way. The one poster that said it doesn't add up to being worth it may be correct if nothing goes wrong, but like I said I got two brand new tires because of flats. There are other benefits like that that you can read about in the plan details at the dealership. If you get lucky and nothing happens aside from routine oil changes and tune-ups then yes, it may not be worth it. However, I drive in the real world and have been extremely thankful for it, and would have been just as pleased if it hadn't lowered my APR.

I purchased this plan for my legacy because I do all the maintenance anyhow and found it be a huge savings.

 

The nice part was the ease of getting my service done. Rather then me picking and choosing what I did or did not want, anything that was recommended was done and I paid nothing out of pocket.

 

Synthetic oil costs like $70 and every time I had to rotate my tires. Each Subaru I visited charged $120-$145 + tax/fees for this visit(level B visit).

 

at the 15k visit(15 & 45) it covers the LEVEL c which costs around $265-$300 depending if they have to flush the brake fluid(my prev legacy was $260 at 15k & $302 at 45k) my maintenance plan pays for these including the costs of fluids filters parts/labor & sales tax. My last visit on this new legacy was the 15k level c and the repair order was billed out for over 300+ in billables but was 0'd out with the maintenance coupon. I got brake pads changed in the front a new spark plug along with wiper blades and the level c service. all no charge.

 

at 30k the dreaded LEVEL D service!!! everyone knows it can run $500-$800. I paid $577 on my last car and this plan covers the level d also.

 

plus it includes tire hazard & $100 per occ roadside. I didn't even know it had either of these features until last week when I blew out my front & rear tires on a pot hole that had a piece of a plow shard poking out. The plan covered the tow to the dealer on a flatbed(awd has to be on flatbed) and when I got to the dealer the plan gave me 2 brand new Bridgestone tires. They mounted, balanced, aligned, and set my TPS sensors and it COST ME NOOOTHING at all

 

THE last and final break I got from this deal was the $500 rebate. My wife had a Toyota corolla that couldn't get out of it's own way in new England winters and she had been interested in an impreza for quite some time. I didn't realize this plan included a $500 rebate until we were in the finance office and the finance guy found it in the computer and we received an addition $500 off after all negotiations were complete.

 

I'M ABSOLUTELY SHOCKED at the value vs. what I paid for it. I told one of my friends to get the maintenance plan when he was buying his Subaru but he was buying pre-owned and apparently this is only offered on new cars at the point of sale.

 

I have seen maintenance plans before that only cover oil changes and the Subaru new car maintenance is not one of them.

 

definitely A GOOD BUY :lol::lol: WILL SAVE YOU LOTS OF $$ & TIME AT THE DEALER

Yea it depends on how much they are willing to do it for. I was offered a gold plan for 100k extra miles and all that goes with it for $1,100 on my 07 wrx when I bought it used in 09 with 25k miles. So I thought it was well worth it. Then I was offered it on a used 05 lgt for like $2500+!! I said most definitely not, unless there is something about this car your not telling me and in that case I don't want it.

 

I almost did the scratch and dent warranty for a few hundred but decided against it. With all the fine print on how big the scratch or dent was supposed to be I said with my luck it will be bigger than allowed IF I get any. But in anycase on a new car for less than $1500 I would say yes without even thinking. At some point if you decide you dont want it you can call the dealer and get a refund for a pro rated amount. For example I got the warranty on my 07 wrx for around $1100. 2 years later I went to sell the car so I didnt need the warranty. Called up subaru and got a refund check for $6xx.