Hello - I will be receiving my XC40 from overseas in a few months. My dealership has sent me a menu of service plan options and I'm looking for advice on how to choose which options to buy. I typically "run my cars into the ground" - in other words, I keep them until the maintenance costs basically get to the point of being more than the resale value of the car. For instance, my Volvo will be replacing my 2004 Toyota Sienna, which I bought new. I'm retired and typically put that many miles on my car. My Sienna has about 160K miles on it after all this time. Given these things, I'd like some input.

Thanks in advance!

 

think of the service plan as insurance. Do you assume your car is going to have some major repair event - and if so would that set you back financially? You've already noted you like to keep the car for the long term - so do you have them maintained accordingly (by following all factory service intervals and recommendations like flushing brake lines every 2 years and replacing coolant every 5 etc) or do you simply change the oil and fix what breaks once the warranty is over? Do you do mostly city driving (which is harder on brakes and suspension) or highway? My view is these plans are based on actuary tables then marked up to let Volvo make a profit. If you maintain your car chances are you'll under spend on maintenance costs vs the "insurance" - but if you wind up with a major issue then that's where you'd be protected.