After doing some research online, talking to a couple of dealers locally, I decided to pass up the OEM Polaris extended warranty. Looking at all the exclusionary language in the contract, there is a significant chance that any given repair can be rejected. I like to turn the wrench myself, and plan to handle all fluid changes myself – something that is actually risky under the extended warranty, as I am learning. I know that you hear more of the bad news on the internet than the good, but it seems to me to be too great of a risk in laying out all that money if you cannot produce some Pure Polaris oil or diff fluid receipts from every service interval, or your aftermarket winch can be or will be blamed for any electrical issue, etc.. The common wisdom that your warranty is only as good as your dealer is willing to be scares the hell out of me, since I do not maintain a relationship with any of them, not buying a lot of product or service from them. So they have no vested interest in keeping this customer happy, and I fear that this will be an easy excuse to not go to bat for me in certain circumstances.

With that said, any of you who are considering the extended plan should look up the supporting sponsor on here who currently is offering 35% off the price page values for these warranties. My local dealers could only come close, and then must add tax to that. So the FixMyToys pricing is truly a good value, based on what I learned last week. It seems to be a price that can’t be easily beaten.

I decided instead on a self funded insurance policy. I am going to open up a dedicated account at my credit union, deposit the $700 (rounded up) that I would have spent, and will contribute $20 per month to the account so that if I ever need to spend big on repairs, hopefully my account will cover that. I should have over $1500 in there within four years… If the ATV is well built and I can keep it shiny side up that could be down payment for a new model or just keep on saving.

Sure there is some risk, but I am hoping that the odds are in my favor. Has anyone else considered this or done this approach to repairs? Seems to be a heck of an idea if you can swing that initial outlay (savings) and then be disciplined enough to squirrel away the monthly nut.