Prepaid Maintenance Plans: To Buy or Not to Buy

It is not uncommon for your auto servicing agent to offer you a prepaid maintenance plan where you pay a fixed amount upfront and do not pay cash for a good number of years for your servicing requirements. Obviously, on paper, the deal is enticing. It might even seem necessary if are considering looking into the fleet of used cars for sale in Anderson.But as with most impressive deals, there is a catch here as well, and you need to thoroughly inspect all sides of this coin before signing anywhere.

Prepaid maintenance plans do not always include all maintenance

For instance, you may find a maintenance plan where you are offered unlimited oil changes. This only covers the cost of service and not the parts that you need to replace during the oil change. As evident, a plan where this particular feature is the highlight is definitely not worth investing any sum in. There are, similarly, plans that cover a lot of repair and maintenance routines that you might not need at all. On paper, the list might seem long but you will hardly need any of them. Again, good money can get wasted.

A few deals are worth your time and dollars

Prepaid maintenance plans allow you to hedge against inflation where cash loses its value over time. In other words, you pay the cost of maintenance at today’s value, which is less in comparison to the time in the future when you actually take the service. Also, if you have bought Anderson used cars of European brands like Audi or Mercedes, their manufacturer-provided prepaid maintenance plans are known to save customers almost $1,500 over the life of the car.These deals are worth buying.

How to filter the good from the bad then?

To buy the best prepaid maintenance plan and reject the unworthy, keep the following in mind:

• Read the fine print of everything that is on offer. Take time to compare the maintenance list with your owner’s manual and see if all you need are covered or not.
• Talk to the service manager. Try to negotiate a good price by calculating the difference between your current payments and the actual payments of maintenance and servicing.
• Also, take advice from the car dealership in Anderson, SC, from where you are buying your used car. If the car you are buying is of high quality, you might not need a plan at all.

To buy or not to buy a prepaid maintenance plan is a financial decision. And it cannot be taken in a jiffy. Do your research beforehand and avoid paying your money at the first sign of being impressed.Quality Anderson used cars already carries a history of good maintenance. And they do not require any extensive servicing in a matter of months. Understand your car and then prepay.