We purchased a '05 Excel 5ver last year and are very pleased with it. It is no longer under warranty so I asked Good Sam's for Quote on their continued service plan. Their quote came to 360 /yr with a 300 deductible. Is it reasonable to expect to pay over 660 /yr in repairs. We are going to be on a very tight budget but will have some allotted for repairs. Has anyone that has been on the road for a while encountered extensive costs in this area. In other words does this sound like a good deal or not?
Darrell and Judy said
09:41 PM Feb 1, 2008
This is a hard question to answer because it depends on your financial situation and how much of a risk taker you are. Let me give you a little of my background so you can understand where I'm coming from. First of all, we are debt free and did not finance the RV or the truck. Secondly, we maintain an emergency fund of $5,000. Thirdly, we negotiated a seven year extended warranty plan into the purchase price of our RV. But if we had purchased a used rig my answer would be that I would not pay $360 for a $300 deductible plan. We have had our unit for two years now and have not had any major repair costs (we have a 2006). I would believe that any significant repairs costs would most likely be for the truck and not the RV - however, refridge, A/Cs, and furnace could be expensive if they needed to be replaced. To date, we have not even experienced $300 a year in repairs on the RV, let alone the additional $360.
Darrell and Judy said
09:45 PM Feb 1, 2008
Oh yes, one last thing. I am able to perform a great deal of the repair work on our rig myself.
ahoweth said
08:14 AM Feb 2, 2008
Hi Dream Reachers:
I am pretty much in agreement with Darrell and Judy, with one small difference. I just plain don't like extended service contracts. They are cumbersome to use to say the least. You also need to be very careful and learn exactly what the service contrat will actually cover and what you will have to do to get them to pay off on covered items. Additionally, if you are able to handle some minor repairs yourself, then unless something big bites the bullet you will never use it. An emergency fund is a much wiser way to go. If you can add to it each year the expense of your contract, ($360) and the deductible ($300) then in just 2 years your emergency fund will have grown by over $1000. Also you can use the emergency fund for things that may arise that the service contract wouldn't cover. It would take a little discipline on your part to make this work but I feel it is the better way to go and it puts you in charge of what you spend the emergency fund for.
Just my 2 cents.
Roz said
08:34 AM Feb 2, 2008
Greetings, Dream Reachers!
Both Darrell's and Alan's comments are echoed here. After two RVs, we have not had expenses that exceeded the deductible. With a motor coach, the fear of the engine dying is the biggy. We purchased a four year old coach with 43,500 miles. The only significant expense for the engine was replacing an air cleaner filter after travelling miles on a dusty road. Will not do that again. The second coach was new and no problems in two years.
Alan's suggestion of actually banking the money each year into an emergency fund is very sound advice.
Charles
dream reachers said
07:24 PM Feb 2, 2008
I want to thank ya'll for your comments and advice. You really helped confirm my feelings. I have never taken service contracts on anything else I have purchased. We do believe in keeping a sizable emergency fund which will help with having a high deductible on medical insurance. Hopefully we won't have to use it our first year out on the road and can let it grow.
Sandra said
10:55 AM Feb 3, 2008
We've been on the road fulltime now for 3 1/2 years. We haven't even paid out what you would pay in one year for the warranty in repairs during this time. Our unit is a 2004 Titanium.
bjoyce said
01:52 PM Feb 3, 2008
We have a friend who is partially handicapped but happilly full-timing in a 5th wheel since she can handle the essentials. For her a continued service plan made a lot of sense and she has used it since she can't do a lot of things herself. We don't have one. At least Good Sam has really dumb rules about maintenance intervals that make no sense for a diesel pusher as a friend found out the hard way.
phyllen said
03:16 PM Feb 3, 2008
We bought this plan last year. Now, after some time has passed, I feel we wasted money. All repairs come in Under the deductible. More can go wrong with a MH, not so much with a fiver. When it comes up for renewal- I'll pass. We, too, have an emergency fund - should have put the money there.
I am pretty much in agreement with Darrell and Judy, with one small difference. I just plain don't like extended service contracts. They are cumbersome to use to say the least. You also need to be very careful and learn exactly what the service contrat will actually cover and what you will have to do to get them to pay off on covered items. Additionally, if you are able to handle some minor repairs yourself, then unless something big bites the bullet you will never use it. An emergency fund is a much wiser way to go. If you can add to it each year the expense of your contract, ($360) and the deductible ($300) then in just 2 years your emergency fund will have grown by over $1000. Also you can use the emergency fund for things that may arise that the service contract wouldn't cover. It would take a little discipline on your part to make this work but I feel it is the better way to go and it puts you in charge of what you spend the emergency fund for.
Just my 2 cents.
Both Darrell's and Alan's comments are echoed here. After two RVs, we have not had expenses that exceeded the deductible. With a motor coach, the fear of the engine dying is the biggy. We purchased a four year old coach with 43,500 miles. The only significant expense for the engine was replacing an air cleaner filter after travelling miles on a dusty road. Will not do that again. The second coach was new and no problems in two years.
Alan's suggestion of actually banking the money each year into an emergency fund is very sound advice.
Charles
We don't have one. At least Good Sam has really dumb rules about maintenance intervals that make no sense for a diesel pusher as a friend found out the hard way.