If something does break, I’m financially stable enough to pay the bill. A bit like gambling I suppose.
That is called self-insured. A warranty is re-insurance or catastrophic coverage. We pay all the low cost maintenance stuff but the warranty kicks in if something major happens.
The decision is, do you pay up front for catastrophic coverage, or do you save your money knowing if something happens later you are insuring the product yourself.
Most times, smaller purchases (ex, electronics, lawn mowers, etc) I choose to self insure because most warranties are money making scams for the retailer. They sell commoditized products at low margins and they make their money on the warranty. When it comes to large complex items with lots of moving parts and high replacement cost, I’m more curious about the insurance.
My tipping point is asking myself, how specialized is the product. Say it’s a truck with a typical piston engine that has been around for a hundred years, whatever warranty included may be fine. If it’s a new technology, like the first year of a small turbo diesel in a truck, I might question the longevity track record and weigh that against the price of the insurance, warranty.
So on an outboard, how specialized is that and does the upfront cost outweigh the longer term catastrophic coverage?
