Consumer Reports and extended warentees

[Geoff Bourquin]

In the CRT days I always advised people to skip the extended warranty. With the flat sets I'm not so sure about that. Look at what it costs for a mainboard, LCD panel, power supply, or inverters. Any of those will cost more than a couple extra years of coverage (if you can even get the parts!). OK, puked capacitors don't cost much to fix, so the customer might come out behind there. On the other side of the issue, these days people probably would prefer to replace a broken set if it is more than 4-5 years old. Gotta get that 3-D, wi-fi model that does the dishes and washes the car. And in 4 years THAT set will be viewed as obsolete too.