Driving Insights by CARFAX Canada

Why customers buy warranties (and why they don’t)

Written by CARFAX Canada | Wed, Nov 23, 2022

With customers saying they would be interested in buying warranties online, understanding why customers buy these products becomes even more important. If this process is online, it means you don’t have the opportunity to sit face-to-face with these customers and understand their individual needs. So why do customers choose to buy warranties, and what could help customers who didn’t buy a warranty buy one in the future?

For car buyers who bought a warranty, they told us their main reasons were the potential to save money if there was a major repair, not having to worry about unexpected breakdowns, or even that it just seemed like a good idea at the time.

For car buyers who decided not to purchase a warranty, it wasn’t because they weren’t worried about breakdowns, they decided against it because they just didn’t see the value in it, thought it was too expensive, or just believed the vehicle had enough warranty already.

Car buyers are looking for warranties to mitigate risk but may choose not to purchase a warranty if they don’t see the value. Selling an extended warranty is about finding the right mix between a customer’s concern about future problems and how much they’re willing to spend to alleviate that concern. So, when working with customers who are resistant to buying a warranty in the future, experiment with different offerings that might better suit the customers risk to value ratio than a complete warranty.