2010 Honda Civic: What Warranties To Get?

Hi;

I'm thinking about shopping for a new 2010 Honda Civic in about a
month.

A free online "how to buy a car" book I'm reading suggests buying a
warranty, sometimes from someone other than the the dealer.

I'm not eager about tacking on another $1000 to my budget for buying
the car.

Do new Civics come with a warranty?

If so, do they fall short and would I be served by buying an extra
warranty? If so, a warranty for what? What kind? What sort of
things are worth getting covered?

Thanks in advance for any info

Steve

 

you're joking, right?

 

Then don't. You might need one of those if you had a whiz-bang BMW with all
sorts of electrical stuff that will break once the car's past 3-years-old,
but a Civic won't need much outside of the standard factory warranty.

Sure do.

See here:
<http://automobiles.honda.com/search-results.aspx?question=warranty>

Click on your intended car to see what it comes with.

Stick with the factory warranty that comes with the car, it's more than
adequate.

 

Thanks Tegger!

 

Tegger wrote:

While the long-term jury is still out, thus far our two BMWs have been
every bit as reliable as any of our Hondas. The older of the two is a
2002 325i with about 120K on it. It's had significantly less work done
on it than my Accord did at its age (and, I might add, at less expense
despite the higher parts cost).

<snip>

 

I wouldn't, and didn't when I bought my 2003 Accord (new).

Good luck with your new car.

 

I guess it depends on who you talk to. My assistant has a 2002 3 series
with about the same miles. It has cost her an arm and a leg -- brake
problems, radiator and so forth.

 

i did a double-take on this one too. my friend's 2005 330i has munched
through very expensive brake disks, radiator, coolant sensor housing,
etc. not a cheap or reliable vehicle.

 

Wasn't 2005 the first year for the E90 330i? It remains true even today
that buying a first year model is not always the best idea. The E46
325i we have was the fourth year of that car's production (the same car
was first sold as the 323i and later rebadged). I know others who own
the same year of the same car and none have had the experience tww1491's
friend has had. I know people who bought 1999 and early 2000 model year
E46's and had problems, though.

So far as the brakes go, there are two things at work your friend should
be aware of. First, if you use the brakes too gently (what would be
"normally" in a Honda), you will not keep the rotors clear of surface
rust and the pads will wear quickly. A vigorous stop once or twice a
day will make the brakes last much longer.

Second, BMW rotors are notoriously soft. Aftermarket rotors are far
less expensive and work fine for street use. Also, aftermarket pads are
available that don't make the horrible brake dust the BMW pads generate.

 

no matter what the year/stage in the product cycle, radiators are mature
technology. there's no reason to have one fail like this one did.

don't buy that. doesn't happen on other vehicles so it shouldn't happen
here.

they're not soft, it's the oem pads. very high silica content means
they're very abrasive. you can run bmw disks and akebono ceramic pads
and get great braking without the high rate of disk wear - just like a
normal car.

yup. see above.

 

Of course they come with a warranty...do you know of ANY automobile
that does not ?
For the Honda CR-V, it's 3 years/36000 miles. You will likely hit the
36K miles much sooner than
you will the 3 years (I hit my 36K in my 2001 Civic commuter-car in 12
months !). Save your money;
forget the extended warranty and use the money to get the regular
recommended maintenance actions done.

 

Nearly all the technology that goes into cars is mature technology. But
new designs using mature technologies still get screwed up on a regular
basis, and cars are complex machines. Caveat emptor.

(Why do solder joints on Honda main relays go cold? Surely, soldering
relays to a circuit board is a mature technology! It happened because
some combination of materials choice and process did not create a part
that would stand up under extended use in the field.)

If you have a late-model 3-series BMW, try it, and see for yourself. I
don't know why it works.

I suspect it's because they have more pad surface area for the car's
weight than most (they have more pad area than some 1-ton pickup trucks
with 3-ton gross weights!), and one needs to generate enough pad/disk
pressure to keep them cleaned up, but I have not measured a bunch of
brake pad surface areas or otherwise tried to prove or disprove that.

That's the first I've heard of high silica content in the pads.
Clearly, either material or both could be the cause of the relatively
fast wear. I'll have to check into that.

 

a radiator is not a "complex machine".

that is a price/vendor incompetence issue. yes, it is mature
technology. and anyone who has been around electronics long enough
knows you shouldn't have mechanical load on a solder joint, especially
one that gets warm. which is precisely what mitsuba do wrong with that
relay - they didn't take the job seriously and gave it to a greenhorn it
would seem.

that's because it doesn't. the pads are high silica. they're naturally
abrasive - any application short of "zero" will "clean" the disk.

besides, if the disks are not "cleaning" in normal operation, you should
always check the calipers and sliders for smooth operation.
disassemble, lube and reassemble if necessary.

so it would seem.

the akebono's don't wear the disks at anywhere near the rate that oem
pads do because they're not as abrasive. if you used oem pads on
after-market disks, you'd see them wear too.