Extending a Powerguard warranty

[kiwi pom]

If you have warranty the dealer is surely obliged to provide a replacement

I wouldn't have thought so.
They may do to help you out and provide good service but i don't think they have to. You just have to hope they fix it quickly.

 

[Pingu]

I wouldn't have thought so.
They may do to help you out and provide good service but i don't think they have to. You just have to hope they fix it quickly.

A few of top end warranty packages include a stand in if going to be out for more then 24-48hours Deere and Fendt do on our machines it’s a clause in that warranty. On a mainline machine I wouldn’t be without it on ours just for this reason a lone the spud harvesting 724 is an issue but if that bad 6hrs wheels can be swapped and boxes transferred to keep us rolling.

 

[kiwi pom]

Can it be done? Of course I will ask my dealer, but I thought I'd seek experiences in here too.

JD 6215R Autopower approaching 5 years old with Powerguard for 5 years from new. It does grain hauling during harvest, some ploughing or power harrowing then pulls a sprayer from most of the spring. Roughly 1,000 hours/year. It has been reliable so far.

Do I;

1. Trade it in for a new one as I can't really have it breaking down. It's replacement will be sought with a longer Powerguard period from new.
2. Extend Powerguard to cover the bills and get some good will out of JD if it has a major breakdown that takes it into the workshop for weeks during a busy period e.g. a loan machine.
3. Keep it for a few more years and hope that I get the sweet spot of the cost of ownership where depreciation is lower but the repair costs don't go too high, say keep it until 7,500 hours?
4. Sell it and get a 12 month hire to minimise risk, at a price? At my last job I hired the sprayer tractor for a 5 year period & 6,000 hours. £28k/year but supplied with a high spec, Greenstar & a set of rowcrops. The principle downside is no residual asset value, so effectively around £50k extra minus servicing costs, interest, tyres and the safety of no major downtime.

I think a lot depends on your attitude towards ownership, maintenance and down time and whether you have a good workshop with mechanically minded staff, or access to a non dealer mechanic that can sort the more minor problems.
If it's a buy new, thrash the nuts off it (is it mapped or chipped) do the minimum maintenance to keep the warranty and lose the plot at the first sign of downtime, type of place, get it gone.
Some people can handle running older stuff, some can't.

 

[Brisel]

Modern gear is so complex we would never be able to fix more than basic components. Forget the electronics, variable transmissions, emissions devices and deeper ECU functions. We lack the skills, workshop, time and labour to train such a person on our scale level.

 

[hintonroadhero]

JD would be the only one I wouldn't bother about warranty with. Just put your money in the bank just in case you need it we took out extended warranty with one and never needed it so the last tractor was bought without and it had an issue which JD helped with anyway.

Next tractor is not JD and has warranty till 5000 hrs but if it had been green we wouldn't have bothered. Also the 200 quid excess or whatever they call it is pretty steep you'd end up piling up jobs to save money

If its got a 200 quid excess ..surely its not a factory warranty as such... just a mechanical breakdown insurance policy?

 

[Martyn]

Cost us about £1.30 a hour for 8 years total cover on our fendt, non brainer. No excess payments.

 

[KennyO]

If its got a 200 quid excess ..surely its not a factory warranty as such... just a mechanical breakdown insurance policy?

New Holland is one year factory warranty then insurance backed. Our dealer wouldn't sell anything but the top level with no excess. They were supposed to charge excess on every item, on lower level schemes, so was a waste of time for small jobs (or that is what I was told by branch manager). New Holland supplied mine with the extended warranty not sure if I would have bought it separately.

 

[ollie989898]

I would hope that, warranty or no warranty, the local JD dealer would be able to help you out with a replacement/loan machine to keep you going if there was a major breakdown that resulted in serious downtime. Yes there may be a charge for this, etc, but the feel I get from the OP's post is: he is an existing and serious JD customer who has bought their machines, relied on their repair services and warranty products in the past: there is an existing (and friendly) relationship based on cooperation there.

A warranty won't stop a machine breaking down but equally even very new machines, leased or purchased, can breakdown- it may be a case of: 'better the devil you know' and that the existing tractor is more reliable than any potential replacement. The OP is asking people to evaluate the options he listed. It is true that a modern machine like this (which the OP relies upon heavily) can have some pretty horrendous repair bills if there is a serious mechanical failure- engine or gearbox or electronics have all been described on this forum a million times. So far the machine has proved trouble free, for what that is worth.

I suspect Brisel already knows what to do and may have already started the process. Notably, get a quote for a new machine of similar spec from his JD dealer(A) (and from the nearest Fendt dealer(B) whilst he is at it) and get the existing machine valued(C) at the same time. He can also ask the dealer for an estimated value for the machine once it has done the extra hours mentioned(D), and what, if any warranty option there may be and the anticipated cost(E)

Until you know the figures that A, B, C, D and E represent it's a guessing game. I think we can safely say that the machine in question is heavily relied upon and that Brisel is hoping to avoid any big repair bills. That being the case, a warranty will be advisable for the life of the machine regardless of which option is actually taken.