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Daniel Robinson is a content writer specializing in auto insurance, car warranties and car shipping. He has written about these topics for MarketWatch and Jalopnik. Daniel studied American literature and technical writing at East Carolina University. He is based in eastern North Carolina and spends his spare time cooking, playing guitar and getting schooled in video games by his 12-year-old son.
Cars Protection Plus is a reputable provider that offers a wide range of vehicle protection plans. However, its warranties are only available through dealerships, making it difficult to understand how much the company’s warranty plans cost before investing a significant amount of time and effort.
Transparency is a major factor in finding the right extended auto warranty provider. Although you can access some coverage details on the Cars website, you’ll need to visit a participating dealership to get the full story.
Michael Chung, senior director of market intelligence for the Auto Care Association agrees: “Be sure, as a consumer, to understand exactly what is covered, as well as if there are any exclusions and requirements,” he said.
Endurance offers six plans ranging from powertrain to bumper-to-bumper protection, whereas other providers usually offer three or four. Endurance’s Advantage plans combine mechanical breakdown coverage with maintenance benefits, which means services such as oil changes, tire rotations and brake pad replacements are covered under your warranty. Only one other provider — Omega Auto Care — offers these benefits.
Endurance is also a direct warranty provider, meaning it both sells and administers its vehicle service contracts. You won’t deal with a third-party company when filing a claim with Endurance — you’ll work with the company from start to finish.
Endurance currently lacks a rating from Better Business Bureau (BBB) due to an established pattern of complaints. This includes claims denied for preexisting conditions, difficulty canceling contracts and long delays in authorization for repairs. Unfortunately, as of December 2023, BBB had made a note that these complaints haven’t changed.
We gathered quotes from Endurance using a 2020 Hyundai Elantra with 30,000 miles and a 2018 Toyota RAV4 with 50,000 miles to show how plan costs vary between vehicles.
For our 2020 Hyundai Elantra, the Supreme plan cost $90.11 per month. This amounts to $2,703.30 in total with a 30-month payment plan. Our 2018 Toyota RAV4 was quoted $94.04 per month for the same plan, which totaled $2,821.20 with a 30-month payment plan.
Both vehicles were given quotes for plans lasting 2.5 years/40,000 miles with a $100 deductible, which is a short-term length for the price. For example, the quotes we gathered from Autopom were similar in total price for 5 years/100,000 miles of coverage.
Endurance’s six levels of coverage provide you with an impressive range of vehicle service contracts to choose from, making it easy to find something that fits your needs.
Each plan’s benefits include 24/7 roadside assistance, towing, rental car reimbursement, trip interruption coverage and lockout services. You’ll also get one free year of Endurance Elite benefits, which include premium perks such as key fob replacements, collision discounts, tire repairs and replacement, and total loss protection.
Endurance has thousands of reviews across different review platforms. It holds customer review ratings of 3.6 out of 5 stars with BBB and Trustpilot, and a rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars on Google Reviews.
Endurance warranty reviews are a mixed bag. Many customers on Trustpilot, like Tommy L, praise Endurance’s helpful customer service representatives. Most negative reviews center around denied claims and difficulty canceling contracts, which isn’t surprising given BBB’s alert for patterns of complaint. However, these reviews are common in the extended warranty industry.
Cars Protection Plus offers a greater variety of coverage options than most of its competitors, with 11 plans to choose from. These plans overlap slightly, but they also have some interesting customization options. However, Cars falls short when it comes to transparency.
All things considered, we give Cars an overall rating of 3.7 out of 5.0 stars. This puts the provider in the bottom third of the 43 warranty providers we researched and reviewed.
Our favorite aspect of Cars Protection Plus is the variety of coverage options it offers. In addition to seven primary plans, you can also choose from one of four Flex Protect warranties that can cover up to $160 per hour in labor costs and mechanical breakdowns.
With Cars Protection Plus, you can get coverage for vehicles with up to 200,000 miles on the odometer. Covered repairs can be performed at any repair facility in the continental U.S.
We also like the fact that Cars has been in business since 1998. This fact, combined with the company’s A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB), means you can trust Cars Protection Plus as a reputable warranty provider.
We didn’t like that Cars Protection Plus requires you to buy a plan through a dealership. The company also doesn’t provide free online quotes like many other top extended car warranty providers do.
That makes shopping for warranty coverage through the company much less convenient. Once you invest time to drive to a dealership and are sitting in a salesperson’s office, you’re more likely to agree to less-than-satisfactory warranty terms to justify your commitment thus far.
Here’s a quick look at how Cars Protection Plus compares to some of our top-ranked extended auto warranty providers:
Cars Protection Plus stands out from the competition with its impressive array of coverage levels. The company offers 11 extended car warranty plans in total, each catering to a different use case. Cars offers the following seven warranty plans:
Cars also offers four levels of its Flex Protect plan. The “flex” in these vehicle protection plan options refers to the flexible amount of labor cost coverage. You can pay an additional fee for coverage of up to $160 per hour in labor costs if you select Flex Protect Level 2, 3 or 4.
Cars Protection Plus warranty plans cover shop labor up to a certain amount, and that amount varies by plan. Generally, the more protection the plan offers, the higher its covered labor cost is. However, labor rates can go well beyond these coverage amounts depending on the repair shop, complexity of repair and vehicle model.
Most Cars Protection Plus vehicle service contracts come with perks such as towing assistance and rental car reimbursement. Some plans come with 24-hour roadside assistance, including jump-starts, flat tire changes, fuel delivery and lockout services. Read your contract carefully to make sure your warranty comes with the benefits you want.
You’ll find different amounts for these benefits depending on the coverage option you choose. For example, some plans feature rental car coverage of $25 per day with a maximum of $300, while others provide $35 per day with a maximum of $250. As with any other warranty provider, it’s essential to read the fine print on any Cars vehicle protection plan.
There are some different exclusions between Cars plans, but you’ll generally find that the company’s warranties don’t cover these components:
Cars Protection Plus warranties are only sold through dealerships, so the terms and conditions of your plan will depend on a range of factors. The company offers flexible coverage for vehicles with up to 200,000 miles. This makes Cars a good extended warranty option for cars with over 100,000 miles.
Because of its dealership-only structure, we were unable to get a cost estimate from Cars Protection Plus. However, we gathered quotes from top providers in the industry to give you an idea of how much an extended warranty costs. According to our data, the average cost for an extended warranty is $848 per year and $2,845 in total.
The following factors will determine how much you pay for a Cars extended warranty:
Customer reviews are mixed for Cars Protection Plus on sites such as BBB and Trustpilot. I read and analyzed dozens of customer reviews and found that customer service is at the heart of many negative Cars reviews.
Although it has an A+ rating from BBB, Cars doesn’t fare as well when it comes to customer reviews. Cars has a rating of 1.9 out of 5 stars based on over 80 reviews. Its Trustpilot rating is worse — 1.1 out of 5 stars with more than 450 customer reviews.
Customer service is at the heart of many of these negative Cars Protection Plus reviews. Another common complaint is Cars requiring repair shops to use the cheapest replacement parts and underpaying for the work. A March 2024 review from DezeRay calls out Cars for using low-quality replacement parts and expresses frustration at how difficult it is to contact them to start or approve a claim.
As you’ll find with most car warranty providers, there are a fair amount of complaints regarding repairs that weren’t covered. This is why it’s so important to read the fine print in your vehicle service contract and make sure you understand the coverage you’ve purchased.
There’s a lot to like about Cars Protection Plus, including the impressive variety of coverage options the company offers. However, plans are only available through dealerships, which makes shopping for a Cars extended warranty more difficult than with most of its competitors. Not having the option to get a free quote online is another issue we took with the company’s transparency.
Cars Protection Plus may be worth a look if you want a lot of options when it comes to coverage, but it’s not among our top 20 recommendations for long-term vehicle protection. Whether shopping Cars or another extended warranty provider, we recommend getting quotes from multiple companies. Start with the providers below.
We analyze, rate and rank top vehicle service contract providers to help you discover the right one for your needs. The best auto service contract companies offer transparency, affordability and expansive coverage options, among other qualities.
We rate companies using our objective scoring methodology. We assess brands on factors that are important to consumers like you — including cost, coverage, market standing, trustworthiness and customer experience. After scoring companies on a 100-point scale, we simplify final scores into the 5-star ratings you see in our content.
BBB and Trustpilot scores are accurate as of March 2024.
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