Warranties on used boats.......

[Aerobaticflyer]

Looking over the exclusions and fine print in a Legacy (Brunswick) warranty offered on a used Dancer I see an awful lot of exclusions and loopholes that would prvent covering service issues. Has anyone had any good or bad experiences with these? I like the idea of buying the warranty but these seem to be very limited when you read the details. At $13,000 for 3 years it isn't cheap. There is no coverage for damage from water intrusion, corrosion, lack of documented service records and nearly all repairs are done as reimbursement rather than straight up coverage. I can just see the time frame for reimbursements being long and every claim being fought over.

Any experiences welcomed. The boat in question is a 2005 390 Dancer with diesels and low hours.

 

[fwebster]

Perhaps not directly on point, but I was offered the Legacy warranty when we bought our boat several years ago. The cost then was $16,000 for the full plan. Based on the fact that we surveyed the boat and the hull, the engines and the generator all had 5 years of warranty coverage from their in-service date......the boat was 12 months old........we passed on the Legacy plan. I keep detailed service records and our true out of cost for repairs that would have been covered (you are correct ---lots of exclusions) during the next 4 years was $0.

We did have belts, oil changes, a valve/injector adjustment, and the usual maintenance things, but we would not have used the Legacy warranty one time.

So in making your decision, ask yourself these questions:

What is the fiberglass / gelcoat condition?
What is the condition of the vinyl, upholstry and canvas?
Will you do an engine survey?
Will you do an oil analysis?
Will you have a hull survey done?
Will you get the vessel's service records and owner's packet?
Is there any factory warranty remaining on the hull, generator or engines?

In your answers are affirmative, you are protecting yourself from buying a "pig in a poke", and the likely hood of there being $13,000 worth of covered repairs needed is low.

As far as a hassle with the warranty paperwork and approvals, Sea Ray dealers are masters at doing the warranty dance with warranty providers. You may get some dissapointments, in terms of what is approved or even in the definition of terms, but you won't be on your own to deal with the Legacy provider.

 

[Aerobaticflyer]

Thanks Frank.

I am having a boat / hull survey done as well as engines and generator survey with oil analysis. Probably won't have service records available. It is a Marine Max used boat (not brokered) so I get a limited drive train 30 day warranty. If the surveys go well I think I'll "roll the dice" and pass on the extended warranty.