Hi, First post so please excuse me if this topic has been discussed. I am about to buy and 06 or 07 H3 (depending on the wheelin' and dealin') from private owners. I can save quite a few $$ over going thru a dealer. My question is this: Is the 100k mile warrenty on a "Certified Vehicle" from the dealer really worth the difference in price of a private sale vs. a dealer purchase? The price difference is $3500.00 cheaper on the private sale for virtually the same vehicle, an H3 Lux. Are there that many known issues with an H3 that the warrenty would pay to have? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

Good question!
I bought my 06 H3 Lux. almost a month ago now. I did a lot a research ahead of time, just like it sounds like you have. First, I wanted a low mileage unit. Second, I wanted as much warranty left as possible. Third, I wanted a late 06, not an early, or and 07 or 08. We looked at several different models at used dealers, and even one at a Cadillac dealer(former Hummer dealer). Believe it or not, the Cadillac dealers unit was an 08 Lux., that had been a rental in Hawaii! According to the CarFax...no thanks!
What I did was buy from a used dealer. Got an 06 Luxury(they didn't know enough about it to know it was the Luxury package!) with 11k miles on it, that's still under factory(4/50k) warranty until June 2010. Paid $21900 for it. It was the lowest mileage late 06 model within a 250 mile radius. We drove 2 hours to test drive it and bought it.
Now, I don't know what you're going to pay, but these are the factors I used, and I feel that I did pretty good. Plus it's under warranty if something does go wrong.
Shop, shop, shop. Nobody's buying, and dealers and private owners alike are willing to deal.
Good Luck! Oh and, keep us posted.

 

Thanks for the reply, sounds like you did well! Unfortunately, the ones I am looking at through both a private owner and a dealer are out of standard warranty and the dealer is offering an extended warranty up to 100,000 miles claiming a value of approximately $3,000 and therefore raising the price that much too. I can buy from a private owner for a tad over $16,000 for virtually the same vehicle with the same options and similar mileage. So as I said in my previous post I'm really curious as to whether there $3,000 worth of value in this extra warranty? Thanks again for your reply.

 

My opinion is the extended warranty is worth it. What you should do though, is try to negotiate a lower price for the extended warranty. Or, ask about other types of warranties. I bought a 100k bumper-to-bumper for about $1600 with a $200 deductable that kicks in after the original 50k. Might be able to get a better price for that too.

 

The extended warranty sounds like a good way to go.

 

Make sure you know what "Extended warranty" you are getting. A lot of them come from a third party and are really an insurance policy for repair. That may be OK, but it's not the same as GM extending the warranty. Just read all the fine print very carefully.

 

My 06 had 22k miles on it and was practicly new when I got it from the dealer. I only paid an extra $1500 (the dealer's cost to file the paper work) to get the certified 100k bumper to bumper warrany. With the 06's there is the cylinder head thing that could cause you probs... not sure how much that would be to fix out of warranty but I had mine replaced a few months ago (though I'm still under original factory warranty). I'd knock the dealer down to the $1500.

 

07s have a much better factory warranty than 06s. You do not have to buy it from a GM dealer to transfer the left over factory warranty for an 07.

 

With huge rebates on Hummers why don't you consider buying new?
I keep seeing quotes in the low 20's by posters....people are getting new ones in the mid 20's after rebates and other discounts....just my 2 cents

 

I'm still shopping around, I made an offer to a dealer and I must have insulted him because I haven't heard back. Oh well good things come to those who wait.....as for new, we just bought the wife a new Taurus a couple of weeks ago and I'm not worthy of new if you know what I mean AND this will be a third vehicle for a 2 car garage. It's really more of a toy for me at this point. Thanks for all the advice, this is a great forum and I have learned a lot about H3's that I never knew.