Hi Folks,

When I purchased the car, dealer offered me 3 yrs/45000 of the Gold Preferred Plan. He said it will cover _everything_ but tires and brakes. All the oil changes, all services, Tuneup(plus rental car for the overnight) etc...The offer was for $1500 (3 yrs/45000).

Do you have any good/bad experience with that kind of service?Is it really $0 deductible?He claimed tunning is $500-$600 per year.

Thanks in advance,

I would say no, thats its not worth it, but then again I have never owned a car for longer then 3 years. Tunning can cost about that much...but above you said Tuneup and Tunning. Those are 2 different things. Tuneups are like replacing the spark plugs, radiator fluid, oil, spark plug wires. Things like that cost around $50ish...matter on quality...there all the same tho.

Tunning requires a computer that tunes your air/fuel ratio and other things like the ecu. Don't know alot about tunning.

When the dealer offered me the deal, I declined.

The money you spend on the package is the same as if you did the normal maintanance and didnt buy the package. And actually it would be worth it if they covered tires and brakes, cause those are the things you would have to change anyway.

Just how much actual necessary maintenance is required in 45,000 miles?Assuming an oil change interval of 5000 miles, that is nine oil changes. An oil change is around $25 at the dealership or $225 total. You will need an air filter around 30,000 miles. I am not sure if the Versa has a cabin filter. Filters run around $25. Put them in yourself. It would be a good idea to change the transmission fluid out at 30k miles. You said the deal did not include tires, so I guess it doesn't include tire rotations, which should definitely be done every 5 - 7k miles.

That is about all there is in the first 45k miles. Of course the dealership will try to sell you a lot of unnecessary service, things like, fuel system cleaning, battery service, etc. The total for all the necessary and legitimate services isn't much more than $500 in the first 45k. Less if you do your own oil changes.

I say, no deal.

sooner4x4 wrote:Just how much actual necessary maintenance is required in 45,000 miles?Assuming an oil change interval of 5000 miles, that is nine oil changes. An oil change is around $25 at the dealership or $225 total. You will need an air filter around 30,000 miles. I am not sure if the Versa has a cabin filter. Filters run around $25. Put them in yourself. It would be a good idea to change the transmission fluid out at 30k miles. You said the deal did not include tires, so I guess it doesn't include tire rotations, which should definitely be done every 5 - 7k miles.

That is about all there is in the first 45k miles. Of course the dealership will try to sell you a lot of unnecessary service, things like, fuel system cleaning, battery service, etc. The total for all the necessary and legitimate services isn't much more than $500 in the first 45k. Less if you do your own oil changes.

I say, no deal.

In order to maintain the warranty, you would need to bring the car every 3 months or 3500 miles. Here in SD, service might cost you $30-80 depends on which mileage service you are doing.The tunning one year (or 15K) is around $400. Tire rotation and alignment include in the annual tunning.So: 4 * 40 * 3yrs + 400 * 3yrs = $1680

I have another car, which I maintain at the dealership (Ford Taurus). There is a service booklet just like my new Versa has, with prices. Not all services cost $30-40. Some costs $100 and some even $225.

Go figure ...

Not exactly true on the need to do an oil change every 3500 miles to maintain your warranty. According to the manual, their are two schedules listed, one showing a 3750 OCI (oil change interval) and the other showing a 7500 OCI. A 5000 OCI is a common interval for other makes and is a reasonable round number, that if followed will see a car many hundreds of thousands of miles. If you are spending $30 to $80 every 3500 miles, someone is bending you over. Dealerships are pros at selling unneccessary and expensive service.

Spending around $1600 in five years or 100,000 miles of driving to service a vehicle is about right.

Similarly, going into the dealership every year or 15k and plunking down $400 for no good reason, well, we are all free to throw our money away. Anyone donating their hard earned cash to the dealerships like this are probably treated very well there. A fool and his money is easily parted. A fact not lost on owners of dealerships who train their service advisors well.

Anyway, this is a free country and we are free to spend our money any way we want to.

wow, that's a ripoff. that's not even close to a good deal!

I bought it on my car, the exact same plan (gold plan, 3 year 45,000 miles). I figured it's about the exact same price or maybe even a little more expensive than doing the services individually, but my thought is this: Extended warranties are something you can take a risk on when you buy the car (not buying the warranty means always hoping that nothing goes wrong) but when it comes to maintenance, you're going to pay for it no matter what, so you may as well finance it with the car. The rental car coverage is a joke (I think it only covers one rental every 30,000 miles and only $30 or something like that), but the plan covers ALL preventive and routine maintenance within the 45,000 miles. It seems to me like everytime my old cars came due for an oil change, I was broke and couldn't get down to the dealership. With this plan, I just bring the car in every 3,750 miles and they do whatever needs to be done to it, whether it's an air filter, oil change, spark plugs, etc. and don't pay a dime for the visit. This way they can never try to say the car was improperly maintained to get out of doing some warranty work. It's registered through Nissan under the VIN, so you can go to any dealership, and if you sell the car before the plan expires you can get a pro-rated refund for whatever was left or transfer it to the new owner. It made sense for me and my first visit about a month ago was a positive experience (they only did an oil change the first time around). I'll be taking it in for the 7500 mile within a couple of weeks, and I'll let you know how it goes.

My daughter bought something similar, offered by the dealer instead of Nissan, which covers all service (done by them) through 45k miles with no time limitation and doesn't provide a rental but it only cost $625. They also give a 10 year/100,000 mile powertrain warranty with all new cars bought there. I had bought mine from a different dealer and got nada...

jfanaselle wrote: but my thought is this: Extended warranties are something you can take a risk on when you buy the car (not buying the warranty means always hoping that nothing goes wrong) but when it comes to maintenance, you're going to pay for it no matter what, so you may as well finance it with the car.

That what I was thinking. It seems that you can always get out of the plan and get the prorated amount left.

Thanks for sharing your experience.