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Self-Sabotage Is Not a Character Flaw. It’s a Protection Strategy

September 3, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

You can want a thing with your whole chest and still starve it.
You set the goal. You mean it. Then you stall, pick a fight, miss the easy follow-up, stay up too late, or research one more week. From the outside it looks like laziness. From the inside it feels like weather. You watch yourself do it and still cannot name why.
That is self-sabotage. Not a mysterious curse. Not proof you are unserious. It is when your behavior stops matching the life you say you want, usually to protect you from a feeling you have not agreed to face.
You probably even ask yourself sometimes: “Why do I self sabotage?“.. I know I have before.
Carl Jung put the whole problem in one line: until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.

What self-sabotage actually is
Psychology writers have defined it as destroying your own best intentions. Useful, but incomplete.
The more accurate version for a high performer is this:
You want the outcome.

You also want to avoid what the outcome might cost you.

Those two wants run at the same time. The second one usually wins, because humans work harder not to lose something than to gain something.
The cost is rarely the work itself. It is visibility. Responsibility. Being judged. Being left. Being found average. Being the person who finally has no excuse.
So you create a story that lets you fail on your terms.
You stay out instead of preparing, then say the timing was wrong.

You pick a fight when the relationship gets close, then say it was never going to work.

You delay the offer, the launch, the conversation, then call it strategy.
That is not random. That is control. Sinking the ship yourself hurts less than watching someone else do it.
The loop that nets you out to zero
Most people do not sabotage in one dramatic collapse. They do it in a loop that returns them to zero.
Trigger. A deadline. A win. A compliment. Silence from someone you care about. Success getting close enough to feel real.
Escape. Scroll. Plan instead of ship. Train for the wrong thing. Drink. Clean the house. Start a new system. Pick the fight.
Relief. It works. That is why you keep it. The discomfort drops for an hour.
Shame. You know who you are capable of being. You just were not that person. The gap becomes the next trigger.
This is why a good week can vanish in one night. Diet, money, marriage, content, pipeline — same math. Green progress, red undo, back to even. If you only fight the escape, you miss the trigger. If you only fight the shame, you miss that shame is now fueling the next round.
High performers get a special version of the trigger: things going well. A new client. A relationship that is actually kind. A body of work that might get seen. The nervous system reads “more exposure” as danger, even when your mouth is asking for it.
Why smart people do this
You do not need a new personality. You need a better diagnosis.
Your actions are matching an old belief.
If the playlist in your head is “I don’t finish things” or “I don’t deserve this,” your behavior will try to prove the playlist right. Consistency feels safer than being wrong about yourself.
You would rather control the loss.
Procrastination and over-control often sit on the same fear. If I never really try, failure is incomplete. Incomplete failure is easier to live with than a clean attempt that still falls short.
You do not trust yourself with the next level.
Not “I can’t do the work.” More like “I can’t handle what the work will ask of me.” More eyes. More decisions. More people depending on you. The goal is attractive. The identity required by the goal is not.
You want two things that cannot both stay.

A business and total anonymity.
A relationship and total freedom.
Money and zero rejection.

Growth and zero discomfort.
That is a competing commitment. One foot on the gas, one on the brake. You will call it a discipline problem because discipline is less humiliating to admit than fear.

The familiar feels like safety.

Under stress the brain overvalues what it already knows. Old habits are not chosen because they work. They are chosen because they are known. That is why you go back to the same stall when the pressure rises.
An old survival strategy is still on the clock.
Some of this started as intelligence. People-pleasing kept the peace. Silence kept you from being shamed. Quitting first kept you from being left. The child who learned that was not stupid. The adult still running that program will sabotage a raise, a boundary, a breakup, a launch — because risk once meant harm.
You do not have to use “inner child” language if it makes you roll your eyes. Call it the part of you that still thinks the present is the past. Same problem.
Stop hunting for a forever fix
Anybody who promises to “eliminate self-sabotage forever in 30 minutes” is selling relief. The pattern can lose its grip. It does not vanish because you understood it once.
You interrupt it the same way you build anything else that lasts: see it, tell the truth about what it is protecting, then keep small promises until your system believes you.
1. Name the win you keep undoing
Be specific. Not “I sabotage my life.”

I do not publish.
I pick fights when things get good.
I spend the margin I just made.
I over-research and under-ship.
I say yes when I mean no.

Write the last three times it happened. What was going well right before? What feeling showed up in the body first — tightness, heat, fog, urgency? The feeling is the trigger. The behavior is the painkiller.

2. Write the competing commitment
Two columns.
I want: the goal.
I also don’t want to lose: safety, image, privacy, the excuse, the identity of the hungry underdog, the right to disappear.
Stay there until the second column gets honest. “I’m afraid I’ll be seen and found average” is more useful than “I need a better planner.”
The brake is usually in column two.

3. Ask what success would cost you
This is the question people skip because it sounds ungrateful.
If this works, what gets heavier?
Who might judge you?
What would you have to sustain?
What version of you would have to die?
A lot of sabotage is not fear of failure. It is fear of a life you do not yet trust yourself to hold.
You do not beat that by chanting that the next level will be easy. You beat it by deciding you can be a beginner in public, visible without being finished, responsible without being flawless.

4. Keep your word on something small enough to be undeniable
Self-trust is the quiet engine under all of this.
If you do not keep the small agreements, you will not believe the large ones. Then every goal feels like a performance you are going to blow, so you blow it early.
Pick three avoided actions that actually serve the goal. Do them today. Not ten. Three. Then repeat tomorrow.
Forgive the old betrayals without making them a personality. You were working with the awareness you had. That sentence is not an excuse to keep the pattern. It is how you stop using yesterday as evidence that you cannot be trusted today.

5. Change the room before you lecture the man in the mirror
Some of this is psychology. Some of it is the fridge, the phone, the job, the group chat.
If the sugar is in the house, you will meet it at 11 p.m.
If the app is on the home screen, you will meet it when the work gets sharp.
If the room you work in rewards the old identity, the old identity will keep clocking in.
Inner work matters. So does removing the easy door.

6. Do it before you feel ready
Waiting to feel confident is one of the cleanest disguises sabotage wears.
You do not need to feel like a closer to make the call. You do not need to feel inspired to ship the draft. Feeling ready is often the prize you get after the reps, not the ticket in.
Do it scared. Do it tired. Do it without the speech. The work is the proof. The proof is what lowers the shame. Lower shame means fewer triggers. That is how the loop starts to starve.

What this is not
This is not a claim that every stall is trauma. Sometimes you are tired. Sometimes the goal is wrong. Sometimes you need sleep, a better offer, or a different environment.
It is also not a moral verdict. Shame is already in the loop. Adding more does not make you disciplined. It makes you due for another escape.
And it is not something you outgrow by becoming more intense. Intensity without honesty just gives the pattern better tools.

The turn
You are not being punished. You are being shown a split.
One part of you wants the life.
One part of you wants to stay unexposed.
Both think they are helping.
The work is to stop calling the second part fate. Look at it. Decide what it is allowed to protect and what it is no longer allowed to run. Then take the next honest action while it is still talking.
That is how self-sabotage loses the steering wheel. Not in a speech. In a man who can want the thing and still walk toward it when the old protection strategy starts to panic.
I also recorded a video for you on how to stop being indecisive as this leads you to self sabotage and stop you from making money:

The post Self-Sabotage Is Not a Character Flaw. It’s a Protection Strategy appeared first on Addicted 2 Success.

Selling Your Business Without Losing Your Identity

September 3, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

Selling your business will change how you see yourself. There’s no way around that. To preserve your identity, make sure change happens with some intention behind it.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Gives Oracle Right To Buy $205 Million In Stock At Slashed Rate

September 3, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

The shares will be issued at a slashed rate as part of an artificial intelligence partnership.

Boeing’s safety reckoning cost it just $3.1 million

September 3, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

Corporate fines are supposed to do two jobs: punish the company and change how it behaves.

The second job is the harder one. A penalty deters only when the company feels it, and a company the size of Boeing (BA) feels very little.

For most of this year, Boeing has been a comeback story. The planemaker delivered 600 commercial aircraft in 2025, its best annual total since 2018, and closed the year with a backlog of $682 billion, according to Boeing. That backlog grew to a record $695 billion by the end of the first quarter.

Regulators eased off, too. The Federal Aviation Administration lifted its monthly production cap in October 2025, and in July it restored Boeing’s authority to issue its own airworthiness certificates for 737 MAX and 787 aircraft.

Investors watched the operational recovery take hold while the legal wreckage from January 2024 slowly cleared.

On Wednesday, Sept. 2, the last piece of that wreckage surfaced. Boeing had paid the FAA $3.1 million, and it did so eight months ago without telling anyone.

How a missing set of bolts rewrote Boeing’s safety record

On Jan. 5, 2024, a paneled-over exit door known as a door plug separated from an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon. All 171 passengers and six crew members survived. Investigators later found four bolts had been missing from the aircraft. 

The fallout was structural. The MAX 9 was grounded. The FAA capped 737 output at 38 aircraft per month. Agency auditors then went through Boeing’s Renton, Washington, factory and the Wichita, Kansas, fuselage plant of then-subcontractor Spirit AeroSystems and found hundreds of quality system violations spanning from September 2023 to February 2024, according to the FAA.

Related: New Boeing deal gives Archer something rivals don’t have

The audit findings were not limited to assembly errors. The FAA also cited Boeing for interfering with the independence of safety officials working inside its plants, and said the planemaker presented two aircraft for agency approval that were not airworthy, according to Reuters.

The Justice Department piled on separately. Boeing’s May 2025 non-prosecution agreement required it to pay or invest more than $1.1 billion, including a $487.2 million criminal fine, $444.5 million for a crash victims fund, and $445 million on compliance and safety programs, CNBC reported.

Boeing quietly paid a $3.1 million FAA penalty in January over 737 MAX quality violations.gk-6mt / Getty Images

What Boeing actually paid for the FAA safety violations

The FAA proposed $3,139,319 in civil penalties in September 2025. Boeing paid the full amount in January, and the payment was not previously disclosed publicly, the agency told Reuters. Boeing confirmed it.

I ran the number against Boeing’s own income statement, and the scale is difficult to overstate.

Boeing generated $89.5 billion in revenue in 2025, according to the company. At that run rate, the fine equals roughly 18 minutes of company revenue.

Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg took home about $9.4 million in 2025, Reuters noted. The fine is about a third of one executive’s pay.

The Justice Department settlement carried more than $1.1 billion in payments and investments, according to CNBC. The FAA penalty is less than three-tenths of one percent of that.

Boeing’s backlog hit a record $695 billion at the end of the first quarter, the company shared.

Boeing has maintained throughout that it implemented a safety and quality plan under FAA oversight and has been executing against it.

The quiet part is also the mundane one. At $3.1 million, the payment sat far below any threshold that would have forced a separate disclosure, so it moved through the books alongside eight months of ordinary operating expense.

Nothing was hidden. Nothing had to be announced, either, and that is exactly the gap critics keep pointing at.

Why the FAA fine was capped before it was ever written

Here is where the story turns, and it has almost nothing to do with the FAA going soft.

The agency “utilized its maximum statutory civil penalty authority consistent with law,” according to the FAA. That is not a defensive line. It is a description of a ceiling Congress built.

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What struck me when I went through the penalty schedule is the timing. For violations by a large company occurring in the window Boeing’s conduct fell into, the maximum penalty per violation ran in the low $40,000 range.

The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 raised that per-violation maximum to $75,000, but only for violations occurring on or after May 16, 2024, according to a Department of Transportation notice.

Boeing’s door plug violations ended in February 2024. They landed on the cheap side of the line by roughly three months.

Not everyone accepts that framing. “For Boeing, such fines are easily absorbed as the cost of doing business, not a meaningful deterrent to dangerous behavior,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), according to Reuters. Blumenthal chaired the subcommittee that investigated the Alaska incident and has argued that the enforcement regime itself is inadequate.

The counterargument is that the FAA never treated the checkbook as its main lever, and the record supports that.

What the small Boeing fine actually means for investors

The $3.1 million was never the punishment. The production cap was.

Holding 737 output at 38 aircraft per month for nearly two years cost Boeing far more than any civil penalty the FAA is authorized to levy. Deliveries are how Boeing collects cash, and a regulator that can slow the line controls the cash flow statement directly.

That is the real pressure point, and it does not appear on any fine schedule.

It’s why the Sept. 2 disclosure matters less as an accountability story and more as a signal about what to watch. The FAA has already returned certificate authority and cleared the path toward 47 aircraft per month. Wall Street’s rebuilt price targets rest on that ramp holding and on the 737-7 and 737-10 winning certification.

If you own Boeing stock, the risk was never a fine you could fund with 18 minutes of revenue. The risk is that next time, an agency decides the safest thing it can do is tell Boeing to build fewer airplanes.

There is a version of this story where the number climbs. Any violation Boeing commits from May 2024 forward carries a per-violation ceiling nearly double the old one, and the company is now building at a faster rate across more lines than at any point since the door plug came off.

The math that made this penalty small does not apply to the next one. That’s the number that would actually show up in your portfolio.

Related: Boeing lands $131 billion deal, but Americans should read the fine print

Wall Street is betting on Fed Chair Kevin Warsh to keep a manic bond market from unraveling

September 3, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

The market “needs stability and trust” as a deluge of corporate bond supply is expected in the coming months.

Walmart lands exclusive 7 Brew drinks Target, Kroger can’t get

September 3, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

When a new coffee chain opens near our home, I try it at least once.

For many chains, like Cali Coffee and Dutch Bros., after a few visits, I knew that neither chain offered me a compelling enough product to drive farther than the closest Starbucks for anything they sold. A local chain, Carmella, passed that test, but its higher prices and longer distance from my home made it a weekend treat, not a regular part of my daily coffee rotation.

When 7 Brew opened near our West Palm Beach condo, however, something was different. I enjoyed the chain’s indulgent “Sweet & Salty,” a salted caramel and white chocolate breve on its “7 Originals” menu, and enjoyed its lower-calorie 7 Fizz Sodas on more responsible days.

Going to 7 Brew, however, still came with two challenges. First, it was a longer ride, and second, it often had a much longer line than Starbucks.

Now, the wait and the drive, at least for a selection of the chain’s beverages, won’t matter because you can buy a selection of ready-to-drink 7 Brew beverages in cans at Walmart.

Walmart adds exclusive 7 Brew beverages

Walmart added canned 7 Brew Coffee in approximately 4,400 Walmart stores nationwide and five unique 7 Brew Energy beverages in over 1,100 locations beginning in August. In total, the coffee chain has three canned coffees and five energy drinks that are only being sold at Walmart.

In fact, three of the energy drink flavors are so exclusive that they’re only sold by the retailer and can’t be purchased at 7 Brew locations.

The coffee flavors include:

Blondie Chilled Espresso Breve Beverage: (Caramel + Vanilla)The iconic Blondie iced espresso breve – a smooth, creamy blend with buttery caramel and rich vanilla notes. Made with 100 percent Arabica coffee, natural flavors, real cream, and 7g of protein.

Brunette Brownie Chilled Espresso Mocha Beverage: (Chocolate) An indulgent chocolate-forward espresso beverage with a rich mocha profile. Made with 100 percent Arabica coffee, natural flavors, real cream, and 8g of protein.

Banana Bread Chilled Espresso Breve Beverage – (Banana + Hazelnut) the buzzy Banana Bread iced espresso breve – a comforting combination of ripe banana and roasted hazelnut with bold coffee flavor.Source: 7 Brew

7 Brew is also introducing a new line of 12 oz. 7 Brew Energy drinks in five flavors, including:

7 Brew Energy Original: Refreshing boost of caffeine with a crisp, clean, lightly sweet finish.

7 Brew Energy Original Sugar-Free: Same great taste experience as Original, but with 0g of sugar and only five calories.

7 Brew Energy Ocean Breeze Sugar-Free: (Blue Raspberry plus Coconut)Blue, beachy, and iconic for a reason.

7 Brew Energy Nightshade Sugar-Free: Lavender plus Pomegranate plus Blue Raspberry)Bold, mysterious fruit flavor with a smooth floral edge and after-dark energy.

7 Brew Energy Pink Mermaid Sugar-Free: (Watermelon + Coconut + Strawberry) Swimming with refreshing, fruity flavors.Source: 7 Brew

Original, it should be noted, has a flavor profile similar to Red Bull, while the three flavored cans are all Walmart exclusives not sold at 7 Brew locations, although if you know the recipe, the chain will make you anything it has the ingredients for.

A win for Walmart and 7 Brew

Offering a popular, well-known brand on an exclusive basis gives Walmart an edge over rivals like Target and Kroger. It’s simply another factor along with price and convenience that consumers will weigh when deciding where to spend their money.

“At Walmart, we continue to evolve our food and beverage assortment to reflect what our customers are looking for,” said Vice President of Beverages Brian Salmon. “We’re excited to bring 7 Brew’s fan favorite coffee and energy drinks to our shelves, giving customers more choice and another convenient way to enjoy the beverages they love.”

RTM Nexus CEO Dominick Miserandino sees this move as a way for 7 Brew to accelerate its growth.

“7 Brew is opening drive-thru stands like crazy, but physical real estate takes time to build out. Partnering with Walmart instantly puts their brand in front of millions of shoppers in markets where they don’t even have a drive-thru lane yet. It’s an aggressive brand-awareness play paid for by grocery shelf space,” he told TheStreet.

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He sees Walmart as having different motivation for the move.

“For Walmart, this is pure defense against Dutch Bros, Starbucks, and canned energy giants like Celsius. Securing exclusive three-dollar cans of viral drive-thru coffee keeps younger, drive-thru-obsessed consumers from walking into Target or convenience stores for their quick morning caffeine fix,” he added.

7 Brew will not sell any canned beverages at its coffee stands, according to its website.

RTD coffee growing faster than overall category

It makes sense for 7 Brew to enter the RTD business because that market has been growing, according to a report from Euromonitor.

“RTDs in the U.S. in 2025 demonstrated a notable divergence between value and volume, with total volume declining by 3% but value increasing by 6% in current terms to $25.1 billion. This reflected a decisive shift towards premiumization and resilience in pricing,” according to the report.

Room for growth remains.

“The market is attractive for brands that can adapt to rapidly changing consumer preferences, as spirit-based RTDs posted double-digit total volume growth of 13% in 2025 and non alcoholic RTDs saw total volume expand by 23%,” it added.

RTD coffee beverages have also been on a growth trajectory.

“The ready-to-drink coffee market in the U.S. is expected to reach a projected revenue of USD 10,469.6 million by 2033. A compound annual growth rate of 4.96% is expected for the United States ready-to-drink coffee market from 2026 to 2033,” according to Grand View Horizon.

ALSO READ: McDonald’s cuts a fall favorite for the first time in a decade

SpaceX is back in the $2 trillion club after nearly two months

September 3, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

Elon Musk’s company has won praise from analysts and benefited from a general bounce in the tech sector.

Bank of America sees 41% upside in surging AI stock

September 3, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

Dell Technologies (DELL) just delivered the kind of AI numbers that would have sounded improbable a year ago.

During its fiscal second quarter, Dell booked $60.9 billion of AI-server orders, recognized $16.4 billion of AI-server revenue, and finished the quarter with a staggering $95 billion backlog.

The backlog was $51.3 billion a quarter ago.

Thus, Dell supplied $16.4 billion in standard artificial intelligence (AI) systems in the quarter, yet saw its backlog grow by almost 85% sequentially as new orders poured in even quicker.

The figures led Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan to raise his Dell price target to $600 from $505, while maintaining a Buy rating.

The revised goal of $425, set Sept. 1 by Dell, implied around 41% upside.

But the most fascinating element of Mohan’s argument is not the $600 aim. That’s why he thinks Dell’s AI boom might extend beyond the tremendous server orders investors can now see.

BofA says AI is starting to pull through demand across servers, storage and PCs, while Dell also sits on a huge traditional server-replacement opportunity. Add those two dynamics together, and Dell begins to appear less like a firm riding one AI hardware cycle and more like one of the infrastructural bottlenecks through which numerous computing improvements must pass.

Dell’s $95 billion backlog is becoming difficult to comprehend

The tale is better told by the evolution than by the headline figure. BofA’s reconstruction of corporate filings found that Dell ended fiscal 2026 with an AI server backlog of around $43 billion.

That grew to $51.3 billion in the first quarter.

Then there was fiscal Q2. Dell booked $16.4 billion in AI server sales but took in $60.9 billion in new orders. Then the backlog ballooned to almost $95 billion.

Related: Nvidia stock flashes unusual signal for investors 

Dell said it has converted $131.7 billion of AI demand into orders over the past 12 months, while its remaining sales pipeline is still multiples of the existing backlog. Its AI customer count also jumped from about 5,000 to more than 6,500 in one quarter.

Dell replied by raising its fiscal 2027 AI server sales projection to $74 billion from $60 billion.

That was not even its biggest direction modification.

The business increased the midpoint of its full-year total sales outlook by $25 billion to $192 billion from $167 billion and upped non-GAAP EPS expectations to $25.50 from $17.90.

Bank of America sees something beyond the AI-server boom

This scenario is where BofA’s theory becomes more intriguing.

Mohan raised his fiscal 2027 revenue estimate to approximately $197 billion from $178 billion. His EPS estimate jumped even more dramatically: to $26.35 from $19.56.

That represents an increase of almost 35% to the analyst’s earnings forecast in a single research reset.

Compared with Dell’s fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS of $10.30, BofA is effectively forecasting EPS growth of roughly 156% this year.

For fiscal 2028, Mohan raised his EPS forecast to $30.41 from $24.67.

The $600 price target is based on about 20 times that $30.41 estimate.

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The valuation choice itself is interesting, since BofA concedes that 20 times earnings is beyond Dell’s historical price range since returning to public markets. Mohan says a premium is warranted given Dell’s exposure to AI across servers, storage, and PCs; a better storage mix and decreased financial leverage.

The analyst isn’t simply saying Dell should ship more Nvidia-powered servers. BofA believes agentic AI could spread demand through Dell’s entire hardware portfolio. That’s potentially a much larger thesis.

Dell has 1.2 million old servers waiting for replacement

An obscure number in BofA’s research deserves attention. Analysts estimate 1.2 million Dell servers are 14th generation or older. Eventually, those machines need upgrades.

That refresh cycle would exist even without the generative-AI boom.

AI could accelerate it.

Revenue from conventional servers and networking, meaning the business outside its headline-grabbing AI-optimized equipment, was a record $10.5 billion in Q2, up 122% year over year.

Dell said traditional-server revenue in the past two quarters has nearly matched its annual total.

It has also gained more than 10 percentage points of traditional-server market share over the last two quarters.

That’s important, since AI inference doesn’t always happen in massive GPU clusters.

As businesses push AI into daily applications, workloads may be pushed to traditional CPU servers, private data centers, and edge computing.

Dell said explicitly on its results call that on-premises and edge technology might provide favorable economics for certain AI workloads while enabling enterprises to retain greater control over sensitive data.

That makes for a second AI trade under Dell’s first.

The firm supplies the massive GPU systems for training and running frontier models.

It can also sell the conventional servers firms employ as AI creeps farther into everyday corporate computing.

Bank of America sees something much bigger than Dell’s $95 billion AI backlog.Bloomberg / Getty Images

Storage could make Dell’s AI boom more profitable

Next, there is storage.

Dell’s storage revenue jumped 26% to $4.9 billion during the quarter. Infrastructure Solutions Group operating income reached a record $4.8 billion, up 225% from a year earlier, while the segment’s operating margin reached 15%. BofA sees that as crucial.

AI servers are big moneymakers, but storage might be even more economically enticing, especially when Dell sells more of its own intellectual property.

Mohan explicitly pointed to increasing Dell-IP storage attachment as a potential margin driver. That might help answer one of the major questions hanging over the AI-server growth.

Selling a lot of hardware isn’t inherently enticing if a lot of the value goes through to Nvidia and other component suppliers.

The economic payoff for Dell comes when the first AI server sale also brings along storage, networking, services, and ultimately, PCs.

The latest quarter offers signs of precisely that. Infrastructure revenue rose 89%. Storage rose 26%. Client Solutions Group revenue rose 20%, with commercial PC revenue up 22%. Dell’s business is growing in places that don’t contain an Nvidia GPU.

Supply may now be Dell’s biggest problem and advantage

The strangest element of the story is that customers apparently want even more equipment than Dell can currently provide.

BofA expects demand to exceed available supply by about 30% in fiscal 2027, and the gap will widen further in fiscal 2028.

Related: Jim Cramer has strong message for Micron stock investors

Dell has pointed to memory as a significant limitation, while the entire industry remains under pressure regarding DRAM, NAND, CPUs, and other components.

Dell’s shares jumped about 11% on Sept. 2 on strong demand for AI, with its servers purchased by AI cloud providers such as Nscale and CoreWeave, according to Reuters. Dell was trading at roughly $461 throughout the day.

One risk is obviously supply shortages. Dell cannot recognize revenue on hardware it cannot obtain or ship. But scarcity can also help to support pricing and raise visibility by customers ordering further ahead. That seems to be part of what BofA expects to see.

Dell investors may be looking at the wrong number

The figure that jumps out is the $95 billion AI backlog.

It ought to. Dell’s AI backlog has risen from $11.7 billion six quarters ago to around $95 billion now, according to the BofA series.

But if you focus only on that number, you might miss what’s changing.

The company’s recent quarter saw record AI server sales, record conventional server revenue, significant storage growth, and the strongest PC growth in years. Dell’s PC business grew 20%, the quickest rate in five years, Reuters noted.

That’s the core reason BofA’s $600 objective warrants attention.

The thesis isn’t that one very successful server product just continues increasing forever. It’s because AI starts impacting everything Dell already offers.

The firm has thousands of AI clients, a massive installed base of servers that are ready for upgrades, a rising storage business, improved PC demand, and more AI orders than its supply chain can now fulfill.

BofA is forecasting $197 billion of revenue this fiscal year. Dell generated $113.5 billion last year. That would represent growth of roughly 74% in a single year.

And if Mohan is correct that agentic AI will migrate from massive cloud installations into corporations, private data centers, edge systems, and ultimately PCs, the most astonishing thing about Dell’s $95 billion backlog may not be how enormous it’s grown.

It may be that the backlog represents only the first piece of an AI infrastructure upgrade that is beginning to spread across Dell’s entire business.

Related: Dell Technologies Inc. Q2 2027 Earnings: Recap of $DELL Earnings Call, Forecast 

SpaceX stock has 85% upside, says top analyst

September 3, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

Wall Street is fairly bullish on SpaceX (SPCX) stock, and Oppenheimer’s latest price target raise is pushing that narrative further.

Oppenheimer analyst Timothy Horan increased his price target on SpaceX stock to $280 from $250, according to TipRanks. His price target implies about 85% upside, as SpaceX is trading near $151. The raise is a result of Horan’s growing confidence that SpaceX can become a real AI giant.

On the surface, MarketBeat’s data shows 27 of 42 analysts covering the stock rate SpaceX a buy, and this fresh take from Oppenheimer makes the stock look very attractive.

But does the thesis make sense?

Oppenheimer values SpaceX as a “unique vertically integrated AI platform”

The core valuation question is whether you believe that it can capture the market it said it aspires to capture in its S-1. SpaceX’s S-1 states that the company estimates its total addressable market (TAM) at $28.5 trillion, of which $26.5 trillion, or 92.98%, is expected to come from AI.

This means the long-term investment case depends almost exclusively on the success of SpaceX’s AI platform.

Horan believes that SpaceX’s AI play is progressing well and has increased his long-term revenue estimates for the company by about 10%.

He said that the acquisition of Cursor is “transformative” for the company and will help improve its AI platform, including Grok.

The key obstacle for growth is infrastructure capacity, and he believes it will require much higher capital expenditures (capex).

Investors who reviewed SpaceX’s second-quarter (Q2) earnings report likely raised their eyebrows reading that capex claim.

It is really simple: AI revenue in Q2 was $2.56 billion, but AI capex was $15.83 billion, and net loss was $541 million.

We can estimate that, despite the impressive revenue growth from AI, if the capex has to be much higher, as an Oppenheimer analyst said, the company will continue to report net loss instead of income for the foreseeable future.

Related: BofA names 2 SpaceX alternatives with massive upside

With an average price target of $221.2 for SpaceX, Oppenheimer is above consensus. However, this price target is nowhere near the most bullish one, Raymond James’s, at a whopping $800. Raymond James was one of the underwriters, and it certainly has an incentive to see the stock soar.

I’ve explored the problem SpaceX underwriters face, Bank of America more specifically, in my article Bank of America sets alarming SpaceX stock price target.

In short, for the stock to hit any of the price targets, almost everything the company is doing would need to go smoothly. The company needs to achieve many very difficult engineering feats, which are not guaranteed.

This is also what Morningstar equity analyst Nicolas Owens thinks. He is very bearish on SpaceX, and he values the stock at $63 per share.

The AI play is not going off without a hitch, despite Oppenheimer’s growing confidence that it is.

Oppenheimer values SpaceX as a “unique vertically integrated AI platform.”SpaceX-Imagery/Pixabay

SpaceX’s Cursor and infrastructure build-out face setbacks

On Aug. 28, OpenAI shared that it plans to wind down its contract providing OpenAI models to Cursor. The proposed end date was set to Nov. 12, 2026.

OpenAI’s reaction to Cursor being acquired by SpaceX was fairly easy to anticipate. What is a bit trickier is guessing whether Anthropic will do the same.

Anthropic following suit would be a major blow to SpaceX. The main problem for Anthropic is that it rents capacity from SpaceX, so cutting Cursor off may cause problems on that capacity front.

The company probably has the same limited period to respond to Cursor’s acquisition, so if it also wants to cut off Cursor’s access, it will have to announce it soon.

Nonetheless, Cursor’s loss of access to one of the two generally accepted best coding models is a setback.

SpaceX also hit a bit of a snag in AI data center build-out.

SpaceX has replaced several leaders of its data-center team with executives from its rocket and Starlink operations, according to The Information. This switch follows civil engineering problems and reliability issues at data center sites in Tennessee and Mississippi, as reported on Stocktwits.

The data center sites having issues should not be a surprise to anyone who has followed the work of what used to be xAI.

Hyping SpaceX’s superfast build-out as something good is a very superficial way of looking at it. Building things fast always comes with a cost you pay for later. Building more slowly but in a more reliable and efficient manner seems to be what competitors are doing.

xAI built its Colossus 1 by mixing H100, H200, and GB200 Nvidia GPUs, and this mix is a suboptimal choice for training.

As explained by Tom’s Hardware: “When the faster GB200 chips complete their work first, the entire cluster waits for the slower H100s to catch up — a well-known bottleneck known as the straggler effect. At 220,000 chips, this effect is exponential.”

This led to Colossus 1 being used only for inference, resulting in excess capacity that was rented to Anthropic.

Meanwhile, there hasn’t been any revelation that any hyperscaler has built a supercomputer unsuitable for training.

When analysts give high price targets for SpaceX, they are saying it will win the AI race. These elevated valuations assume SpaceX will capture market share from competitors, including Google, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

Usually, the same firms are also bullish on Microsoft, Google, and Meta. Investors need to evaluate whether these price targets reflect realistic market growth or double-counted market share across competing sell-side models.

Related: Morgan Stanley finds bigger story in SpaceX’s $100 billion bet

4 Best Extended Car Warranties of September 2026

September 3, 2026 MMN Editor Filed Under: Uncategorized

* Sample rates are subject to change. All information provided here is accurate as of Aug. 8, 2026.

With the cost of new and used vehicles rising, Americans are hanging onto their cars for longer. The average car on the road in 2025 was nearly 13 years old, government data shows, and nearly two-thirds of owners now keep their vehicles for at least five years or more, according to Cox Automotive.
But older vehicles require more repairs — and the cost of those has risen about 7% over the last year, according to the July inflation report. Extended car warranties may be an option to help with those rising costs. Formally called auto protection plans or vehicle service contracts (VSCs), these promise to pay for certain repairs after the manufacturer’s warranty expires (typically after three years or 36,000 miles).
Tread carefully, though: Many personal finance experts argue that extended warranties in general are not worth the money. The industry has a notoriously poor reputation, sales tactics can be aggressive and misleading, and the contracts are often loaded with confusing fine print and exclusions that drivers might only discover when a repair arises.
For these reasons, it’s important to be choosy about what extended warranty company you use. Read on to learn about the best extended car warranty companies of September 2026 and find out whether a vehicle service contract is right for you.

Key Takeaways

Endurance is our top pick for the extended car warranty with the best broad coverage. Toco Warranty is the best for user reviews and ratings. Olive is the best for quick coverage and CARCHEX is the best broker for a wide range of cover.
Extended car warranties are optional insurance policies that pay for certain repair costs not covered by auto insurance. They do not cover routine wear-and-tear, and certain components — such as the catalytic converter — are typically excluded.
The plans typically cost at least $1,000 a year in fees and include a deductible that requires you to pay the first $100 or more for all repairs. It’s impossible to know ahead of time if an extended car warranty will be worth the money — the answer depends on if your car winds up requiring an expensive repair, and if that repair is covered by the policy. Read the fine print carefully.
Several car warranty companies have stopped offering contracts in recent years. These include ForeverCar and Protect My Car.
Some states have strict laws surrounding vehicle service contracts and how they can be sold. In California, for example, you may need to get Mechanical Breakdown Insurance instead.
Methodology: We reviewed the types of service contracts offered, ease of getting price quotes and ratings and reviews from the Better Business Bureau, Trustpilot and other services. Most companies featured on our list offer added perks such as 24/7 roadside assistance, towing, tire replacement or repair, locked-out service and trip interruption coverage.

Our top picks for best extended car warranty companies

Endurance: Best for Broad Coverage
Toco Warranty: Best for User Reviews and Ratings
Olive: Best for Quick Coverage
CARCHEX: Best Broker for Wide Range of Coverage

Best extended car warranty reviews

Pros

Direct provider and claims servicer (not a broker)
Includes one year free of Elite Benefits with all plans
Covers cars with unlimited miles (if less than 20 years old)
Currently offers $300 off new plans

Customers can use any certified mechanic

Cons

$29 activation fee for Endurance Elite Benefits program
Expensive; plans start at $99 per month
Has a lower BBB rating than some warranty companies and a high number of customer complaints
30-day waiting period

Why we chose it: We selected Endurance Warranty as the best extended car warranty for broad coverage because it has no mileage limit with certain plans and all of its policies come with a free year of its Elite Benefits service.
Endurance stands out because it is the rare extended car warranty company that doesn’t list a strict vehicle mileage maximum for coverage, whereas other providers cover vehicles only up to 200,000 or 250,000 miles. Endurance does, however, have an age limit, only covering cars that are 20 years old or newer.
Endurance, which is a direct protection plan provider (not a broker) and has been around since 2006, offers three main coverage options highlighted on the company website. All of the plans come with one year free of Endurance Elite Benefits. This service includes repair or replacement of key fobs and up to four tires annually due to road hazards (not regular wear and tear). It also includes repair of windshield chips and cracks, as well as up to $500 towards repairs if your car is damaged in a collision. After the first year free, this service costs $29 per month, and there’s a $29 activation fee for the program, as well.
Endurance’s least expensive featured plan on its website, Secure Plus, comes with coverage for the usual core components in extended warranties such as the engine, transmission, air-conditioning, steering and brakes. The exclusions at this plan level include the vehicle’s cooling system, suspension, fuel system and gaskets.
To get coverage on all of these components, customers should go with Endurance’s most comprehensive (and most expensive) plan, Supreme. The middle tier is called Superior, and it covers the suspension and fuel system but not gaskets. All of these plans include roadside assistance such as lockout services, jumpstarts and tows, as well as rental car benefits (with some reimbursement if your vehicle needs repairs).
As with any extended car warranty plan, premium costs will depend on your vehicle make and mileage. You can get a price quote via phone or online, but not via email. The company advertises rates starting at $99 per month, and it’s known to promote special deals, such as $300 off a new contract or 10% off plans during holiday periods. There’s also a 30-day waiting period on most contracts. Endurance offers Mechanical Breakdown Insurance (MBI) for drivers in California, where third-party warranties are outlawed.
Endurance says “almost all licensed repair shops and ASE-Certified technicians accept Endurance auto protection plans.” The company says it works with RepairPal, an online auto repair marketplace, to give customers access to a nationwide network of over roughly 4,000 certified repair facilities. Chain stores like Pep Boys and Midas and major car dealerships accept Endurance protection plans too. But the company recommends that you call your preferred auto shop in advance to verify.
As for Endurance’s reputation, it’s mixed. The company has a 4.1-star customer review rating at Trustpilot. Although this is above average compared to other extended car warranties, 21% of its almost 15,000 reviews are only one star. Endurance is accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB), but its A rating is lower than some of our other top picks, and it has a rating of slightly over 3.7 stars (out of 5). It also draws a high level of complaints there — a total of roughly 1,200 were closed in the past year and over 3,600 in the last three years. Many of the complaints feature frustrations related to “getting the runaround” when customers file claims to get coverage, as well as gripes about constant sales pitches.
Endurance offers several different kinds of policies, including the following auto protection plan coverage tiers:

Secure Plus

Superior

Supreme

Coverage level

Most affordable, covers powertrain and other main parts of the car like brakes and steering

Mid-tier option, covers everything in Secure Plus as well as a few extras most affordable, covers powertrain and other main parts of the car like brakes and steering

Endurance’s most comprehensive plan

Coverage details

Includes roadside assistance and rental car benefits, excludes cooling system, suspension, fuel system, gaskets, transfer case

Covers cooling system, suspension, fuel system and transfer case but not gaskets

Covers everything mentioned for Superior, plus gaskets

See details on Endurance’s Secure Website >>

Pros

Good ratings on Trustpilot and BBB
Relatively simple plans, easy to tell what’s covered and not covered
Customers can use any certified mechanic for repairs
Plans include roadside assistance, rental car benefits and trip interruption coverage
Month-to-month payment, can cancel anytime

Toco pays mechanics directly; no reimbursement required
Covers vehicles up to 20 years old

Cons

No price quotes or sales via phone (sales and enrollment is digital-only)
Little flexibility with options, plans based on vehicle mileage
Waiting period of 90 days and 1,000 miles

Why we chose it: In an industry plagued with complaints and low customer ratings, Toco Warranty stands out. It has the best reviews and ratings of the dozen extended car warranty companies whose plans were analyzed by Money. It generally receives good reviews on Trustpilot and Google, and it is accredited by the BBB, with an A+ rating from the organization.
Founded in 2012, Toco gets a 4.8-star rating from customer reviews on the BBB website, and a 4.2-star rating at Trustpilot (86% of the Trustpilot reviews are 5 stars). Those reviews are improving, too.
Toco’s coverage tiers are simple for customers to sift through, with four levels of service based strictly on vehicle mileage. The company used to be a broker of vehicle service contracts that worked with companies like Warrantech that actually handled claims, but since 2022, Toco has written and administered its own contracts. The company tells Money that it is “vertically integrated so we control the customer experience from beginning to end.”
Toco makes coverage options simple by offering plans based solely on vehicle mileage and doing a better job than most of spelling out what is and isn’t covered by plans. Colors are used as the names of the four levels of coverage:

Orange: up to 100,000 miles
Yellow: 100,000 to 150,000 miles
Blue: 150,000 to 200,000 miles
Green: 200,000 to 250,000 miles

In general, the plans for lower mileage vehicles cover more components and potential repairs. This is to be expected, as newer cars tend to need fewer repairs. All Toco plans include coverage for powertrain components like the engine, transmission and drive axle, plus roadside assistance, towing and coverage for costs related to rental cars and trip interruption, as needed. Yet whereas the (lower mileage) orange and yellow plan cover the cooling system, fuel system, electrical and modern tech features, these are excluded from the green plan.
Prices for Toco’s vehicle service contracts can vary widely. Beginning in January, Toco transitioned its enrollment process to be entirely digital. (However, consumers can still get customer service by phone, the company says.) A Toco spokesperson tells Money the company invested in an all-digital enrollment platform “in an effort to modernize how protection is delivered.”
The most affordable Toco plans tend to be for lower-mileage cars, with prices starting at around $66 per month, with a $100 deductible. Toco’s plans are “pay as you go,” with month-to-month subscriptions that can be canceled at any time. All plans currently include an Openbay+ subscription, which offers discounts on repairs, car washing, and more at various locations nationwide.
While Toco has generally good reviews on both BBB and Trustpilot, be aware that the number of reviews is limited (under 600 on Trustpilot 136 on BBB), and many of the company’s 5-star ratings appear to be from customers who have just purchased their plans and want to offer nice feedback about the sales process. In other words, these positive reviews are often from customers who haven’t actually tried to file a claim and get Toco to cover repair costs. Lower user reviews and BBB customer complaints, on the other hand, often mention claim denials and delays in the reimbursement process. There’s also a waiting period of 90 days and 1,000 miles (it’s slightly lower for Georgia residents).
Toco extended car warranty plans are determined by vehicle mileage:

Orange

Yellow

Blue

Green

Coverage level

For cars with up to 100,000 miles

Cars with 100,000 to 150,000 miles

Cars with 150,000 to 200,000 miles

Cars with 200,000 to 250,000 miles

Coverage details

Toco’s most extensive coverage, including powertrain, cooling system, fuel system, electrical and modern tech features

Essentially the same coverage as Orange, but for higher-mileage vehicles

Same coverage as Orange and Yellow, with a notable exclusion for modern tech features

Covers some of the components as other plans, but excludes modern tech features, cooling system, fuel system and electrical

See details on Toco’s Secure Website >>

Pros

Quick online price quotes
Easy to compare costs for different plans and deductibles
A+ rating from BBB
Plans include reimbursement for towing (up to $100) and rental car
Month-to-month payment, can cancel anytime

No waiting periods
Plans are transferable if you buy a new vehicle

Cons

Fairly new operation with fewer user reviews than competitors
Mileage limits are lower (140,000 miles) than many competitors

Why we chose it: Olive stands out for offering customers price quotes completely online, eliminating the need to make a phone call. Another distinction is that it offers coverage without a waiting period or a vehicle inspection — a rarity in the industry. Customers can also quickly view coverage inclusions of various plans and browse online how different levels of deductibles will affect the monthly cost, making Olive the easiest shopping experience overall.
Most extended car warranty providers have a required waiting period (30 days is typical) before your coverage kicks in. Some providers also require your vehicle to undergo inspection before your policy coverage begins. With Olive, your policy is active the day after you purchase it and you’re not required to get it inspected. (It’s worth noting, though, that the fine print does require that you be honest about the vehicle information you provide. Pre-existing conditions aren’t covered, and fibbing about something like the odometer reading is a good way to get your claim denied or your policy canceled.)
In addition to online price quotes, Olive allows you to customize your deductible ($100, $250, or $500) and see how each will affect the price. Generally speaking, the higher the deductible, the lower your monthly cost. As of an August 2026 price quote, the lowest-tier plan cost between $76 and $153 per month, depending on the deductible, while the highest-tier plan ranged from $102 to $204.
In a previous version of this guide, we recommended Olive in part because you could get a price quote without having to enter personal information and because they promised “no robocalling” ever. When we attempted to conduct searches more recently, though, we found that we were unable to get a quote without providing at least your name, ZIP code and an email address. Entering a phone number is optional, but if you do choose to provide one, the fine print beneath the button you click to get a quote reads, “I am providing my electronic signature expressly authorizing Olive to contact me by phone (including an automatic dialing system or artificial/prerecorded voice) at the number entered.”
Olive gets an A+ rating from the BBB, but it has a low customer rating there (2.42 stars out of 5), based on a small number of reviews (only 12, as of August 2026). There is no Trustpilot entry for Olive, and minimal other user reviews exist online for the company.
Olive’s plans cover vehicles up to 12 model-years old or 185,000 miles, but a vehicle can have a maximum of only 140,000 miles and be no more than 10 model years old when you start the plan. These policies are much more limited than many competitors, which often cover vehicles up to 20 years old and over 200,000 miles.
What’s more, costs were prohibitively expensive for older vehicles near the top end of Olive’s allowance — often $250 per month or higher, or upwards of $3,000-plus per year. At the low end, for newer cars with fewer miles, Olive’s costs were more reasonable, in the neighborhood of $50 to $75 a month if you selected the highest ($500) deductible. (But newer vehicles, of course, are less likely to break down and are far more likely to already have at least key components, such as the drivetrain, still covered by the factory warranty.)
Olive offers three tiers of coverage, with three different deductible options ($100, $250, $500). These plans are transferable if you purchase a replacement vehicle:

Olive Powertrain

Olive Powertrain Plus

Olive Complete Care

Coverage level

Most affordable (and least comprehensive) option

Mid-level plan that covers the vehicle’s powertrain and a few other areas

Olive’s most comprehensive (and expensive) plan

Coverage details

Covers engine, transmission, front- and wheel-rear drive, excludes most other components

The “Plus” covers extras like steering, front suspension, brake system, alternator, air-conditioning and electrical

Includes everything in Powertrain Plus, plus high-tech features

 
 
 

See details on Olive’s Secure Website >>

Pros

A+ rating from the BBB
Long history in business, founded in 1999
Works with any licensed auto shop
Plans include roadside assistance and trip interruption reimbursement
Many coverage plans to choose from

Cons

Not BBB accredited
Low customer ratings

No price quotes online or via email
Many complaints about delays and confusion in processing claims
Coverage actually provided by another company (Liberty STF)
Website is difficult to use and navigate

Why we chose it: CARCHEX is a longstanding player in extended car warranties, with over 20 years in the business. It offers a wide range of coverage, including plans available for electric cars, rideshare drivers and vehicles with up to 250,000 miles.
CARCHEX is one of the better-known extended car warranty operations, in business as a broker since 1999. But “car warranties” isn’t the correct term. Like other third-party vendors reviewed in this article, CARCHEX doesn’t actually sell warranties. Instead, as the company explains in its FAQs section, it offers “vehicle service contracts or Extended Vehicle Protection plans which are similar in nature to the manufacturer’s warranty in that they cover repair costs for specific components of the vehicle after the manufacturer’s warranty expires.”
Since CARCHEX is a car warranty broker, it doesn’t write and administer all of its plans. The company’s plans are through Liberty STF, a Florida-based company that is not BBB-accredited. (Liberty STF is unaffiliated with the similarly-named insurance company Liberty Mutual, though it does share the same physical address as American Auto Shield, and CarShield, other well-known warranty providers.) Regardless, CARCHEX says customers can choose any licensed auto repair facility when they have car trouble, and that it will pay claims directly to the repair shop — if and when the claim is approved, of course.
The company offers a wide variety of coverage options (six as of August 2026), for vehicles with up to 250,000 miles, and it states specifically that plans are available for electric cars and vehicles used for drivers working with rideshare brands like Lyft and Uber. Be aware, however, that there may be an added surcharge for a policy that covers rideshare vehicles, and that coverage for electric cars and hybrids may not include the battery. The fine print in one CARCHEX policy we viewed stated that the following are NOT included in coverage: “Electrical components related to any Hybrid of Electrically powered powertrain components/systems.”
CARCHEX offers the following four plans, in ascending order of increased inclusions (and, generally speaking, cost): Powertrain Coverage, Powertrain Plus Coverage, Platinum Coverage and Titanium Coverage. It also offers a special tier known as Extra Care Coverage, intended for components outside the powertrain such as the electrical, steering, suspension and braking systems. There’s also an Electric Vehicle Coverage plan.
Note that CARCHEX is not accredited by the BBB and has a 1.7-star rating from the organization, though that’s based on only 66 reviews. Likewise, its Trustpilot score is 2.8 out of 5 on over 1,500 reviews. (It is worth noting that its Trustpilot score has increased in recent months.) During Money’s most recent examination of CARCHEX’s offerings, an attempt to begin an online customer service query via the company’s website was unsuccessful.
Here’s more information about the service contracts offered by CARCHEX:

Powertrain Coverage

Powertrain Plus Coverage

Platinum Coverage

Titanium Coverage

Extra Care Coverage

Coverage level

Most basic plan that covers main components like engine and transmission

A minor step up from basic powertrain coverage

Broad coverage for variety of defects and malfunctions

CARCHEX’s most comprehensive, top-of-the-line plan

Selective specialty coverage for non-powertrain components

Coverage details

Lots of exclusions, including electrical systems and high-tech features

Includes coverage of electrical system in addition to powertrain

Includes coverage of powertrain and hundreds of components

As close to the original warranty as CARCHEX offers, with some stated exclusions

Includes coverage of electrical, steering, suspension and braking systems

See details on Carchex’s Secure Website >>

Other companies we considered
CarShield
Known for cable TV advertisements featuring celebrities like Ice T and Ric Flair, CarShield is perhaps the most popular extended car warranty company in the market.
Why it didn’t make our list: In July 2024, the Federal Trade Commission challenged CarShield’s ads as deceptive and proposed a $10 million settlement alleging that “the company made misleading claims about what the service contracts cover, deceptively represented that consumers could get repairs at the shop of their choice, used deceptive celebrity and consumer endorsements, and violated the Telemarketing Sales Rule.”
CarShield currently has an A+ rating from the BBB, but in the recent past it was a D. It also has a 3.29-star rating (out of 5) based on customer reviews at BBB. Thousands of users also routinely file complaints about CarShield to the BBB — almost 800 in the past 12 months — often about difficulties in canceling coverage, challenges finding a mechanic who will work with the company and confusion over what repairs are actually covered. It has a 4.1-star (out of 5) rating on Trustpilot. Approximately 16% of the nearly 3,800 reviews are only a single star, and echo many of the same complaints as the BBB.
See details on CarShield’s Secure Website >>
Chaiz
Founded in 2021, Chaiz is a marketplace for extended car warranties that promises immediate price quotes that you can buy entirely online. It has an A+ rating at BBB, although it only became accredited by the Bureau in 2025, and there are only 40 customer reviews on the organization’s platform (though those are largely positive). It also has a 4.9 out of 5 rating at Trustpilot. Many of the reviews are about the initial service contract purchase, meaning the reviewers hadn’t actually tried to use their warranties yet.
Why it didn’t make our list: Chaiz’s ratings are based on a very small pool of customers, and in our attempts to get price quotes for cars, it had limited offers when we ran a scenario seeking coverage for a vehicle with 100,000 miles. In another scenario, the offers that were displayed in search results on Chaiz included some from providers with very poor BBB ratings. (Though there are some good ones, too — including Toco, which we rated highly above).
See details on Chaiz’s Secure Website >>
Empire Auto Protect
Empire Auto Protect has been offering extended car warranty plans since 2006. While it did not offer plan price quotes instantaneously online in our queries, the company did respond with specific pricing details via email. This was rare compared to most companies, which only gave price quotes on the phone. The company is also currently running a 50% off sale, with plans starting at just $69 per month. Rim and tire protection starts at just $49 per month.
Why it didn’t make our list: Empire Auto Protect is not accredited by the BBB. It has a B- rating with the organization and a 1.65-star rating (out of 5) from customers. There are also a high number of consumer complaints on the BBB website. The company has a 3.4-star rating at Trustpilot, though many of the 5-star reviews are only a few words or very vague, making them feel inauthentic and, sometimes, even spammy.
See details on Empire Auto Protect’s Secure Website >>
ForeverCar
ForeverCar was a well-known extended car warranty company for about a dozen years, but apparently as of the summer of 2023 it stopped selling new plans and only provides service to existing customers.
Why it didn’t make our list: ForeverCar is not selling new extended car warranties. The company’s website has a log-in for current customers, but little else available to the public. On the BBB listing for ForeverCar, a company representative replied in September 2023 to one complaint, stating: “I’m sorry, but unfortunately, as of August 9th, we are no longer offering plans for sale. We are only servicing the current contracts that we have on our books. I apologize for the inconvenience.”
See details on ForeverCar’s Secure Website >>
Protect My Car
Founded in 2008, Protect My Car was an extended car warranty company, offering a special rewards program and free oil changes and tire rotations annually. As of a June 2026 check, it is no longer offering new plans.
Why it didn’t make our list: Similar to ForeverCar, Protect My Car is no longer selling new warranties either. While its website is still active, there is only a login for its existing customer portal. You cannot shop plans or get quotes.
See details on Protect My Car’s Secure Website >>
Best extended car warranty guide
If you’re looking for coverage on a car that goes beyond the auto manufacturer’s warranty, an aftermarket third-party extended warranty may provide protection against some breakdowns due to electrical or mechanical malfunctions. Extended warranties should not be confused with car insurance, which can help you pay for replacement costs (if the car is stolen or totaled) or repairs related to damage from an accident or other event. Instead, extended car warranties are vehicle service contracts that you pay for upfront in the hopes that the plan will cover qualifying repairs down the road.
To help you determine if an extended car warranty is right for you, this guide covers how this optional coverage works, what it covers, what’s excluded from coverage and what to watch out for when buying.
What is an extended car warranty?
An extended car warranty is technically not a warranty as defined by federal law. Instead, the products commonly referred to as extended car warranties are actually “optional contracts sold by vehicle manufacturers, dealers, or independent companies,” the FTC explains. “The contract seller agrees to perform (or pay for) certain repairs or services outlined in the contract.”
An auto service contract or “Vehicle Service Contract (VSC) is often referred to as an ‘auto warranty’ or ‘extended warranty,’ but it is not a warranty,” the fine print disclosure at Endurance Warranty Services’ website states. “A VCS does, however, provide coverage for your vehicle after the manufacturer’s car warranty expires.”
A VSC is essentially an optional insurance policy you can purchase to cover certain components and repair costs when a car is malfunctioning. The policy supplements or replaces the warranty coverage provided by the car’s manufacturer.
How does an extended car warranty work?
Extended car warranties cover some vehicle repairs and the replacement of certain components for a predetermined number of years or miles. Buyers should be warned that extended car warranty contracts “have a lot of detail that you need to sit down and read,” says Lauren Fix, founder of Car Coach Reports. “My standard line is what the big print gives, the small print takes away.”
As with factory (manufacturer) warranties, vehicle service contracts generally exclude “wear and tear” items such as tires, brake pads and wiper blades, and do not cover routine maintenance costs, such as oil changes. Most extended car warranty contracts also require vehicle owners to regularly schedule preventive maintenance according to the automaker’s guidelines and keep records of all work done on the car. If you fail to properly maintain the vehicle or can’t provide proof of upkeep, extended warranty providers may refuse to pay for claims.
These contracts generally come with a waiting period before you can file a claim. When you buy a plan, you must wait 30 days or more, and often must drive the vehicle 1,000 miles or more, before the warranty provider will consider a claim. If you file before reaching these marks, your claim will likely be denied. Most providers offer 30-day money back guarantees, but because of the waiting period, it’s impossible to use the policy to file a claim during this period.
Extended car warranties will also not cover preexisting conditions — meaning problems with the car that predate the owner’s purchase of the vehicle service contract.
Where you bring the vehicle for service may matter in the decision of whether a warranty provider covers or denies a claim. Some plans allow customers to bring the vehicle in for repairs to any licensed auto shop, while others specify that claims will be paid only if the work is done with a qualifying dealership or mechanic. With some plans, the provider will pay the repair shop directly when covering a claim, while others will ask customers to pay upfront and be reimbursed later.
The contracts for extended car warranties often state that customers must contact their policy provider before agreeing to work done on the vehicle in an auto repair facility. Failure to follow this step could result in the provider refusing to pay the claim. If you’re unsure about anything, ask questions and clarify what your warranty will cover and how claims will be paid before agreeing to service for your car.
Many extended car warranties have deductibles of $100 to $500 that car owners must pay, while the plan provider covers the rest of the bill. In some cases, vehicle owners must also pay out of pocket, without reimbursement, for a preliminary diagnostic service visit before the warranty company will consider a claim. There are many exclusions in vehicle service contracts, and owners should expect to pay for any components or parts of the repair process that aren’t specifically cited as being covered.
Be aware that delays can happen as auto mechanics and warranty companies relay information and questions between each other to see whether the repairs qualify for coverage. Among the most common customer complaints about extended car warranties revolve around confusion over what’s covered and frustrations about unresponsive customer service and claims being denied.
Extended car warranties may go into effect once the manufacturer’s warranty expires or overlap with that coverage. You should verify which is the case for any extended car warranty you are considering.
It’s important to read the fine print and confirm what your manufacturer’s warranty covers and for how long. Otherwise, you could end up buying coverage that you already have.
Are extended car warranties worth it?
Extended car warranties are worth the money if they provide peace of mind to vehicle owners who are worried about unexpected car repair bills, and if the money paid for the contract winds up being lower than the cost of covered repairs. Because of the uncertainty and guesswork involved, however, it’s impossible to know for sure ahead of time if an extended car warranty will ultimately be a purchase that pays off financially.
Customers who buy extended warranties that save them thousands of dollars in repairs are probably very satisfied with their purchasing decisions. But a large number of people who buy extended car warranties never actually file a claim. Others buy warranties and encounter difficulties trying to use them for coverage, with one or more claims denied and hassles and delays involved in the process — such as the possible need to pay for certain repairs or diagnostic work upfront, and wait for reimbursement from the warranty company.
The purchase obviously winds up not being worth the money if you never successfully file a claim that covers repair costs or get only an unexpectedly tiny portion of your car mechanic bill covered.
The value of an extended car warranty will depend on one’s individual circumstances, including the type of car you’re getting coverage for and whether it has lots of (covered or uncovered) problems, as well as your financial situation and the level of risk you’re comfortable with.
An extended car warranty may be worth it if:

Your manufacturer’s warranty is expired (or about to) and you plan on keeping the car
Your car is very unreliable and you can’t afford a new one
Your car has a reputation for having expensive parts and repair needs
You purchased a used vehicle and worry about unexpected repair costs
You don’t have emergency savings available for car expenses and want to set a predictable repair budget
You’re good at sifting through fine print and maintaining your vehicle
You have a clear understanding of what is (and isn’t) covered in the warranty

Types of extended car warranties
Extended car warranties can come in two general categories: exclusionary or inclusionary.
As the name indicates, exclusionary car warranties list all the parts and repair jobs that are excluded — ie, aren’t covered — under your plan. Inclusionary warranties, on the other hand, only mention the specific parts or systems that are covered in the contract.
At first glance, there may not seem to be a huge difference between these different types of warranties. Yet since inclusionary plans only specify what’s included, they usually leave a much larger number of parts and potential repair needs out. This is why inclusionary plans can often be cheaper than their exclusionary counterparts, which tend to cover more repairs and only exclude what’s spelled out in the contract.
Be aware, however, that extended car warranty websites and salespeople rarely if ever state clearly that a plan is exclusionary and inclusionary. It’s up to you, the consumer, to look closely at how the plans (and their inclusions and exclusions) are presented, and to ask questions as needed. Extended car warranties — those sold by third-party vendors as opposed to manufacturers — often feature the following coverage tiers:

Powertrain. Powertrain warranties cover parts that generate and transmit power, including the engine, transmission and axles. This is often the least expensive coverage tier because these parts of the car generally last a long time and repairs are rarely needed (though they can be very expensive if repairs are required).
Powertrain Plus. This typically includes basic powertrain coverage, plus some added coverage or components that vary per company and plan.
Bumper-to-bumper. There is no true “bumper-to-bumper” plan because no warranty truly covers everything. But so-called bumper-to-bumper warranties offer the most comprehensive coverage, including the vehicle’s major electronic and mechanical systems. Even with this coverage, there will be exclusions for “wear items” such as brake pads and tires, as well as routine maintenance like oil changes, which you’ll have to pay for when the time comes for replacement. Many plans also include roadside assistance and will cover rental cars when your vehicle is being serviced.

Many plans also include roadside assistance and will cover rental cars when your vehicle is being serviced. Sometimes, these are also offered as add-on, à la carte coverages.
What does an extended car warranty cover?
As mentioned above, there are many types of extended car warranty that cover different components. It’s important to note that the components covered will depend on the specific terms of your coverage plan. The following is a list of both some of the more commonly covered parts and services, and those that are commonly excluded from coverage, though companies may offer add-on coverage options for one or more.

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Commonly Included Coverages

Common Exclusions

Powertrain components (engine, transmission, drive axles, seals, gaskets)
 
Electrical system
 
Air conditioning (compressor, condenser, evaporator, etc.)
 
Suspension
 
Roadside assistance

Preventative, routine or regularly scheduled maintenance
 
Pre-existing conditions
 
Damages resulting due to neglect or lack of regular maintenance
 
Damages due to environmental factors
 
Damage from an accident
 
Wiper blades
 
Lights and bulbs
 
Interior Upholstery
 
Brake pads and shoes

What is not covered by an extended car warranty?
Extended car warranties generally do not cover basic wear and tear. Car parts that wear down over time and need to periodically be replaced will usually not be covered. These parts include tires, brake pads, windshield wipers, spark plugs and more. Be aware that even if a company says it covers electric cars, it may not include coverage for the battery or other electric parts of the powertrain.
These service contracts generally stipulate that oil changes and other routine or preventive maintenance are not covered. Damage from accidents or failure to properly maintain your vehicle is not covered, and these policies won’t pay for claims if the repairs could be covered by any other insurance.
Preexisting conditions are not covered by extended car warranties. The policy provider will not pay for a claim if the need for repairs predated the purchase of the plan. New policy holders must typically wait 30 days and/or drive the vehicle for 1,000 miles after purchase before the plan provider will consider paying for a claim.
Extended car warranty providers may also not cover repairs if the work is not approved of in advance. This is why it’s essential to contact your provider before agreeing to repair work.
How much does an extended car warranty cost?
Because no two cars are the same, and because the terms and what’s covered in different extended car warranties vary widely, there’s a wide range of prices for these plans.
In Money’s experiences when shopping for extended car warranties, prices typically ranged between roughly $75 per month to $200, when paying monthly. Most plans, then, cost at least $1,000 per year. Prices can be higher for older vehicles.
As shoppers would expect, plans that cover more repairs, that last for a longer period of time, and that have low or no deductibles cost more to buy. Here are a number of factors that can affect how much an extended car warranty costs:

Existing coverage. An extended car warranty can be considerably cheaper if your car is fairly new and still covered by the original factory warranty when you request a quote.
Coverage type. More comprehensive coverage plans such as bumper-to-bumper and exclusionary plans will often cost more than basic powertrain protection plans.
Coverage length. Because cars tend to need more repairs as time goes on and their mileage goes up, a longer-lasting contract will cost more than a short-term one.
Vehicle type. Older cars and vehicles with high mileage are likely to need more repairs than a new vehicle. An extended car warranty for a vehicle that tends to need more frequent repairs will have a higher premium overall. Warranties for cars with expensive parts will also cost more.
Deductible. Your deductible is the amount of money you need to pay before your coverage kicks in. As a general rule, the lower your deductible is, the higher your monthly payment will be. The typical deductible is $100 or $250, but the options range from $0 to $500.
Provider. Different providers will charge different prices for similar products. Keep in mind that you get what you pay for and a cheaper product may have less favorable contract terms.
Waiting periods. Plans that come with no waiting period and immediate coverage may come with higher costs than other options.

Do you need an extended car warranty?
Here’s what to consider to help you decide on whether to buy a plan.
Don’t buy if the manufacturer’s warranty is still in effect
One simple rule of thumb: If your vehicle’s manufacturer warranty still applies, even in part, chances are you don’t need an extended car warranty.
The recommendation applies even if the manufacturer’s bumper-to-bumper coverage period has elapsed and only the extended powertrain warranty remains in effect. After all, the most expensive and consequential car repairs covered under extended warranties tend to involve powertrain components, notably the engine and transmission.
Many common repairs cost less than annual plan premiums
Even if the factory warranty has expired, an extended car warranty may not always make sense. Many common car repairs cost less than $1,000 — which is on the low end of what you can expect to pay in annual premiums for an extended warranty. And remember: You’ll still probably have to pay a deductible for repairs before your coverage kicks in.
For context, replacing a damaged alternator (a very common repair) can cost you between $250 to $1,000 with parts and labor included. Depending on the specifics of your extended warranty plan, you could easily pay $1,000 or more in premiums throughout the year. Assuming the provider covers the claim, you’ll have to at least pay the deductible if your policy requires one.
Auto repair costs have increased significantly in recent years, and if your vehicle winds up needing several covered repairs, the policy can be worth the money. Yet you should factor in that most modern cars are very reliable and it’s rare for them to need multiple major repairs in the course of a year.
Keep your car’s age in mind.
If your car is on the older end, repairs are likely to become more and more common. And while a warranty could help cover the costs of those, remember that it won’t cover everything. At some point, it may simply become cost-prohibitive to keep repairing your car and paying for a warranty to cover it. (That money may be better spent toward a new vehicle, for example.)
Expensive repairs may or may not be covered or worth fixing
An extended warranty could save you a lot of money if a major component such as your transmission or engine fails. Replacing those could easily cost you between $3,000 and $10,000. However, both typically run for at least 150,000 miles, especially if your vehicle is well-maintained (which is a necessary condition anyway for the extended warranty to be in effect).
You should also note that not every major auto repair is covered by an extended warranty, especially for older vehicles, which may have more exclusions to coverage than newer ones. One common exclusion across extended warranties is the car’s catalytic converter, which can cost thousands of dollars to replace.
Our analysis of hundreds of online reviews for extended car warranties shows that it’s very common for customers to complain that plan providers refused to cover claims for surprising reasons. Sometimes this is the result of providers using “loopholes” and giving customers “the runaround,” reviewers say, while in other situations there appears to be genuine confusion over what is and isn’t covered in policies.
Beware of myths about the need for coverage
Be ready to resist a hard sell on an extended car warranty when you buy a vehicle from a dealer. In part, that’s because high profit margins on these plans mean the salesperson may make more on this add-on than they do on selling the car itself.
And as previously mentioned, an extended warranty could include coverage that might be offered by the manufacturer’s warranty that comes with your new car. The FTC warns: “While a service contract might sound like a good idea, it could duplicate coverage you have through your manufacturer’s warranty.”
Also be wary of spammy robocalls or misleading letters in the mail saying that your vehicle’s warranty is expiring and you need to replace coverage. In some cases, these messages could be coming from completely fraudulent companies. In other situations, they may come from actual extended warranty companies — but they’re probably companies you don’t want to do business with. It’s always best to be skeptical of any unsolicited phone call from a salesperson.
What’s your comfort level with risk, and ability to cover a big repair bill?
If you’re very worried about costly car problems, the peace of mind a plan provides may override its drawbacks. This is particularly true if it’s easier for you to pay a monthly premium instead of saving up for emergencies.
Keep in mind, though, that extended warranties don’t cover everything. You’ll still have to budget for such expenses as routine maintenance and car insurance and be able to pay the deductible as needed if and when you file a claim under a plan. (Also, as noted above, depending on the company, having an extended warranty does not necessarily guarantee you won’t have to pay upfront for a repair that’s approved under your plan and then await reimbursement.)
Rather than pay for an extended car warranty, many personal finance experts advise that you should instead put the money in an emergency fund specifically dedicated to car repair bills. “If you really want to have money set aside for a potential repair down the road, you could always put money away in a savings account every single month, and when you need it, the money will be there,” Fix says. “Then the money remains yours rather than some company that is making promises. This could be risky if you have a large repair. But it all depends on how you take care of your vehicle. This is where car maintenance is critical and can save you on repairs down the road.”
If you are going to stash money away in case of a car repair emergency, consider putting it in a high-yield savings account, so the funds can be gaining a good interest rate and will still be readily available when you need them. If you never need the money, that’s great too — it means you made the right choice to skip an extended car warranty.
How to choose an extended car warranty
Extended car warranties are sold both by dealerships or manufacturers and third-party vendors. The latter plans are the ones being reviewed here. Unfortunately, most extended car warranty providers do not give price quotes online or via email. So you’ll probably have to make multiple phone calls if you want to browse different options and compare prices and plans.
Here are some things you can do as you shop around for the best extended car warranty coverage:
Compare plans. Compare plans by not only their monthly costs but also the terms and exclusions of the warranty agreement. That includes noting whether you can bring the car in for repair to any certified mechanic or are limited to certain partner auto shops and dealerships. Also, compare potential deductibles and look at how lowering or increasing the deductible affects the premiums you pay, since a higher deductible tends to lower those costs.
Do a side-by-side coverage comparison. Review prospective plans side-by-side for the car components they cover — and don’t cover — and the extent of coverage. Note how the warranty companies stipulate you must maintain the car, and the paperwork required to prove that you’ve done so, since some plans may be stricter than others.
Read online reviews, ratings and complaints. To get a sense of what other consumers think of extended car warranty companies, browse reviews at multiple sites and sift through ratings and complaints posted at the Better Business Bureau and Trustpilot. Read beyond the simple star ratings and look for details that reveal what it’s like to file a claim with a company. In our analysis of online reviews for extended car warranty companies, many five-star ratings focus on the salesperson immediately after the initial purchase. Complaints, on the other hand, tend to arise over confusion and frustration involved in filing claims once the plan is in effect.
Negotiate how much it will cost. Extended car warranties are lucrative financial products that leave vendors with much leeway to adjust costs and still make a profit on the sale. You have little to lose (and potentially much to gain) by asking for a cheaper price and playing different warranty companies off each other.

Extended Car Warranties FAQs
Who has the best extended car warranty?
The best extended warranty for your vehicle will depend on several factors, including the terms and exclusions of the warranty agreement, the coverage amount, and the premium. For instance, most extended warranty companies offer negotiable plans that allow you to purchase add-ons and customize coverage to fit your needs. Our favorite warranty for 2026 is Endurance. Other top companies include Toco, Olive, and CARCHEX.
How much is an extended warranty on a used car?
Extended warranties from third-party companies start at under $1,000 per year and go much higher. Prices are higher for plans that cover more repairs or last for more years, and the age, make and model of the vehicle factor in as well. In our experiences in asking for price quotes, the typical cost of an extended warranty was around $100 a month, but the range of prices was huge — with monthly costs from under $50 to over $500.
Where can you buy an extended car warranty?
You can purchase an extended car warranty from a car dealership or third-party vendors, such as the ones reviewed here. To obtain a quote from any of these providers, you need to complete an online form or call in to speak with a representative. In our experience shopping for extended car warranties, many companies preferred to handle sales on the phone. Only a select few readily offered price quotes online or via email.
What’s the difference between an extended car warranty and a new car warranty?
When you purchase a new car, it comes with a manufacturer’s warranty that covers mechanical malfunctions and defects for a set period of time and miles driven. Most of these warranties last at least three years or 36,000 miles, though some are valid longer. An extended car warranty — which, technically, is not a warranty at all but instead a kind of insurance known as a vehicle service contract — covers certain repairs after the manufacturer warranty has expired or that the original warranty never covered. In most cases, neither a new car warranty nor an extended car warranty will cover maintenance costs or items that need to be repaired or replaced due to normal wear and tear.
Is it worth paying for an extended warranty on a car?
Whether or not an extended car warranty is worth the money comes down to individual circumstances. Car repairs can be costly, and an extended warranty is worth the money if your vehicle winds up needing expensive repairs that are covered by the plan. Yet many people purchase extended warranties and never file claims for repairs. Others try to file claims and encounter frustrations when they find out the repairs are not covered for one reason or another.
What is not covered under an extended car warranty?
In most cases, regular car maintenance and upkeep, as well as repairs needed due to normal wear and tear on items like tires and brake pads, are not covered by extended car warranties. Damage caused to a vehicle in a car accident is also not covered (that’s what car insurance is for). Pre-existing conditions — problems that were present before an extended car warranty was purchased — are not covered either.
Outside of these general rules, car owners should look closely at their extended warranty contract to see exactly what is and isn’t covered. If the contract doesn’t specifically state that some component is covered, you can probably assume that the plan does not cover it — but it’s always good to ask questions and clarify what protection you have.
Can I negotiate the price of an extended warranty?
In some cases, yes, you can negotiate the price of an extended warranty on a car. Extended warranties offered by dealerships on new cars are particularly apt to have high markups, so salespeople may be willing to drop the price if you ask. (Then again, most new cars are very reliable and owners rarely have a need for an extended warranty.) Prices for extended car warranties offered by third-party vendors may also be negotiable, though some companies proclaim upfront that they have “no haggling.” In any case, it never hurts to ask.
Can you get a warranty on a used car after purchase?
Yes, you most certainly can purchase an extended warranty after getting a used car. Be aware that most extended car warranty plans have maximum allowances for miles driven and the age of the vehicle, but even older cars are often eligible for these plans. There is also a waiting period before you can use the plan to file a claim — you often must wait 30 days and drive the car 1,000 after purchasing the extended warranty before the company will consider a claim to cover repair costs.
How can you avoid car warranty scams?
According to the FCC, the majority of auto warranty scams are robocallers posing as legitimate companies attempting to get your personal information. The best way to avoid these scams is to not answer any calls from unknown numbers. However, if the other person appears to have specific information about your car and personal details, try to question them to see if they really work for a legitimate company before providing them with any further information. Lastly, you can always report suspected scam phone calls to the FCC.
Can you get an extended car warranty in every state?
You can get something similar to an extended car warranty in every state. In California, though, there are strict laws regarding how vehicle service contracts can be sold and by whom. Mechanical breakdown insurance (MBI) — a type of insurance policy that offers similar protection, is also an option in California.

Latest news on extended car warranties
Americans are paying more than ever for their wheels. The average new car costs nearly $50,000 today, according to the latest Cox Automotive/Moody’s Analytics Vehicle Affordability Index, and manufacturer-suggested sticker prices are even higher. Even used cars now cost an average of over $27,000 — an increase of 6% over the year. With inflation and tariffs also pushing up the prices of car parts, repairs are getting more expensive, as well. Car repair costs jumped 6.6% between July 2025 and July 2026, according to Consumer Price Index data.
Gas prices are also rising amid the conflict in Iran. According to AAA, they jumped about 27% as of the end of July compared to a year ago, and the average price per gallon now sits just over $4 (though there are ways to save money on gas).
Despite the industry’s checkered reputation, the market for extended vehicle service contracts has continued to grow. Market research firm IBISWorld estimates that the U.S. auto extended warranty provider industry reached $32.7 billion in revenue in 2025 and expects the market to grow further over the next five years.
How we found the best extended car warranties
To find the best extended warranty companies, Money looked into the types of service contracts offered, ease of getting price quotes and ratings and reviews from the Better Business Bureau, Trustpilot and other services.

Plans and service contracts. When researching extended car warranty providers, we looked for companies that offered sample contracts and details on what each plan covers. Most companies featured on our list offer added perks such as 24/7 roadside assistance, towing, tire replacement or repair, locked-out service and trip interruption coverage. We included companies that offer comprehensive coverage options and provide customers flexibility when selecting a certified repair shop.
Customer service and ease of price quotes. We looked for companies that made it easy to gather price quotes and browse different plan options — ideally, online or via email, rather than just on the phone. We also looked for extended warranty companies that spelled out clearly what is and isn’t covered in plans, and that made it easy to find quick answers in accessible FAQ sections.
Customer satisfaction, user ratings and complaints. To compile our list of the best extended car warranties, we looked at publicly available ratings and customer reviews on the Better Business Bureau (BBB), as well as multiple customer review sites. Money examined hundreds of customer complaints and analyzed reviews to see whether users were rating the sales staff or other processes like filing claims and attempting to cancel contracts.

Summary of Money’s Best Extended Car Warranty Companies

Endurance: Best for Broad Coverage
Toco Warranty: Best for User Reviews and Ratings
Olive: Best for Quick Coverage
CARCHEX: Best Broker for a Wide Range of Coverage

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