Warranties

I usually don't advocate purchasing extended warranties on things. It's like rebates - they should just offer the product for free or cheaper rather than make us jump through hoops. They bank on people not filling in rebate forms and sending them in. I get a whole $10 back on a camera lens because I met the submission deadline yesterday.

What good is a product if it does not hold up and has to be backed with an extended warranty beyond the standard warranty? (a la Tommy Boy and the fancy guarantee). I recently sent in a Targus laptop bag with a bad zipper. They replaced it with a new one free of charge under the Lifetime Warranty - gotta love that. I was convinced to buy an extended warranty on the Toyota pickup. So far I've had a cable related to the air bag go bad, the alarm had some issue that caused it not to arm and both horns (high & low pitch) shorted out and had to be replaced. I don't know if I want to get my money's worth on the purchase of the warranty or not but I'm well on my way.....

BTW, not having a horn takes all the fun out of road rage. Last night someone entered the freeway, drove alongside me and then decided to creep into my lane without signaling and seemed to not notice I was there. I hit the horn and remembered new ones were being sent overnight from L.A. I was forced to resort to giving a mean stare and swerving eradically to get the driver's attention. RRRRrrr!