When purchasing a used truck, it is vital that you have a plan for what happens when the inevitable breakdown or wear-out occurs. It’s no secret that a used truck will have used truck issues, which is why coverage that caters specifically to trucks with expired factory warranties exists. A basic factory warranty will cover a truck for up to 200,000 miles, or roughly two years. With six out of ten used trucks being likely to experience major equipment failure in their lifetime, you can understand why two years of coverage isn’t enough to fully protect your investment.
Wade Bontrager, CEO of National Truck Protection (NTP) joined us on the Successful Driver Podcast to discuss warranties and to share some tips on choosing the program that’s right for you. When asked who needs to consider a warranty, Wade’s simple answer was, “anyone who’s not flush with cash.” To elaborate, he added that “it’s really the smaller guys, the single owner-operators where if they have a $20,000 engine claim or a $25,000 engine claim and they get a couple of those in six months…they’re out of business.”
According to actual claims paid by NTP customers, half of all claims have repair costs of over $5,000 and one in five cost over $10,000. Protecting your truck from equipment failure is big, but how do you know what coverage to get? Wade provided three simple parameters to help first time truck buyers narrow down what they need to select when shopping for warranties.
What components are covered?
Know what components you want covered and make sure you’re aware of what is part of the plan before purchasing. There is a big difference between full coverage and catastrophic coverage, for example.
What conditions are applied to the coverage?
It’s important you know how your coverage handles things like deductibles, progressive damage, and pre-existing conditions.
How long of a warranty do you need?
This depends largely on where you are with your finances. For example, Wade recommends you purchase coverage to match the length of your loan if you’re financing a truck.
“Make sure you look at the covered components and see what’s covered and make sure that’s covering the things that generally fail and that’s what we’ve tried to accomplish with our products; building a suite of products that really cover those things that fail and doing it very transparently. We want to make sure people know what’s not covered as well. Our product has gotten pretty broad, so it covers things like comfort package that does cover things like the radio and air conditioner and radiators, things that aren’t normally covered by our market.”
Visit NTPWarranty.com to learn more about what they offer and watch Wade’s full interview for more helpful warranty tips and info!