warranties

["Luke Kowalski" <lkowalski@domain.elided>]

Hi,

Howard asks:
>Given the price of the car, I am considering a 3rd-party
>service contract (or warranty, whatever you want to call it.)
>Has anybody had any good or bad experiences with these companies?,

I would not get one.
I got one for the 164LS, and while it paid for itself (LCD display) it was
not worth having to fight with them on several occasions. They do not want
to authorize genuine Alfa parts, most make you pay for the repairs upfront
and THEN reimburse you, and they always get you on the fine print, refusing
to cover certain items or assemblies.
Furthermore, your Spider is not that complex, parts are inexpensive and easy
to find. A car like the 164 is a lot harder to service (modern designs and
fwd tend to cram things in).
Put the $1K to $2K you would pay for the warranty into the stock market as a
self insurance.
Get a 91 with less than 50K if the 94 with 1600 miles  is THAT expensive,
Alfas do not like to sit and be garage queens for 5 years. Mine all break
down if not redlined on a regular basis.

thx, luke

San Mateo, CA

74 Spider (also have the driveshaft thumping noise, rubber piece gets
swapped first)
82 GTV6 (one of the radiator fans does not work, must investigate...)
95 164 LS (I am just not using it...)
99 A6 Q (air dam catches parking blocks like mad)

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End of alfa-digest V7 #844
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