What Does A Powertrain Warranty Cover?

“Powertrain” is a word that refers to the engine, transmission, and drivetrain. Technically, most parts on a car are designed to make it move in one way or another, but “powertrain” encompasses the parts that are integral to a vehicle’s movement.

So, what does each part of the powertrain do? Well, the engine generates power, the transmission controls how much power is going to the wheels, and the drivetrain actually delivers that power to the wheels. The drivetrain contains subcomponents like the clutch and torque converter.

The main take is that the drivetrain is essential for the proper functioning of your vehicle, and it has a lot of moving parts – moving parts that, eventually, could just decide to stop working. That’s where a powertrain warranty would be useful.

The differences between a powertrain and bumper-to-bumper warranty are fairly straightforward. In a nutshell, a powertrain warranty covers the powertrain, and a bumper-to-bumper warranty covers almost every non-powertrain component from the front bumper to the rear bumper.

In reality, a bumper-to-bumper warranty can look different depending on your warranty provider. The best warranties will cover most components of the car, and the worst warranties will have a lot of fine print and exclusions. That being said, most bumper-to-bumper warranties have some exclusions like wear-and-tear items.

That’s why it’s important to find a reputable extended warranty provider if you decide to purchase an extended powertrain warranty.

Powertrain warranty term lengths vary widely by provider. If you purchase a new car with a powertrain warranty, some of the best manufacturers offer coverage for 10 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. Other automakers may only offer 4 years or 50,000 miles.

If you decide to purchase an extended warranty, you can generally get great powertrain coverage from a third-party company no matter what vehicle make you’re driving.

The award for best factory powertrain warranty goes to Hyundai, Kia, Genesis, and Mitsubishi. Each offers a term length of 10 years or 100,000 miles. Tesla isn’t far behind with a term length of 8 years (mileage limits vary by model), while Infinity, Lincoln, and Cadillac all come in at 6 years or 70,000 miles.

This is often the next question vehicle owners have after asking, what does a powertrain warranty cover? Many car owners think that a powertrain and a drivetrain are the same thing, but that’s not correct. The powertrain can be split into two parts: the engine and the drivetrain. That means the drivetrain includes the following components:

• Torque converter
• Propeller shaft
• U-joint
• Rear-axle
• Spool
• Differential

For many car owners, purchasing an extended warranty can provide peace of mind. Even if you have factory powertrain coverage, it’s only a matter of time until your warranty expires, leaving you responsible for any repair bills. When you consider that the average cost of replacing the transmission in a car is between $1,800 and $3,400, that peace of mind alone might be worth it.

If you want full coverage for your vehicle, an extended warranty that includes both bumper-to-bumper and powertrain coverage is your best bet. But if you’re just looking for protection for essential components like the engine, then you should consider an extended powertrain warranty.

Extended warranties can be purchased either directly from your automobile manufacturer or from a third-party provider like CARCHEX or CarShield.

Both options have their advantages and disadvantages. If you have a lot of brand loyalty and feel most comfortable signing a contract with your favorite car brand, then that’s probably the best choice for you. However, manufacturer warranties usually have stricter requirements on where you can service your vehicle – usually, it’s only in manufacturer service centers. You may also have to purchase your extended warranty at the time you purchase your vehicle.

Third-party warranty providers, on the other hand, generally let you service your vehicle at whatever in-network shop you like, giving you a lot more flexibility.

Let’s take a look at some of the top third-party extended warranty providers. When we recently reviewed the best extended car warranty companies in the industry, these were the four that performed best in categories like reputation, coverage, customer experience, and cost.

CARCHEX: Best Overall

CARCHEX is often considered the gold standard of extended warranty providers. With endorsements from brands like Kelley Blue Book, Carfax, and Edmunds.com, you know the company can be trusted.

CARCHEX doesn’t have a specific powertrain warranty. Instead, it has different levels of coverage from Platinum to Bronze. As you move lower down the line, your coverage decreases and fewer parts are covered until you’re left with just the powertrain. If you’re looking for just powertrain coverage, we would recommend the Silver or Bronze plan.

Here are the full coverage options for CARCHEX:

Endurance: Best Direct Provider

Endurance is a direct provider, which means there’s no middleman involved. If you choose to work with Endurance, you will deal with them every time including during the claims process. That means your claims experience may go by more quickly than with another company. Endurance offers five levels of extended car warranty coverage:

If you’re looking for powertrain coverage only, Select Premier is the best choice for you. Endurance’s term lengths are not available online, but in our “secret shopper” analysis, the longest quote we were able to get was for 8 years or 125,000 miles.

autopom!: Best Quotes And Claims Process

If you’re looking for peace of mind, autopom! might be the right choice for you. In fact, the “pom” stands precisely for “peace of mind.” The company offers quick quotes via email, so you can easily figure out whether coverage is worth it for you. Customer service is quite good, too. If any claim is taking longer than usual, an investigator from autopom! will look into it for you.

autopom! offers the following levels of coverage:

CarShield: Most Popular

Of all the extended car warranty providers we researched, CarShield was the most popular. The company has low deductibles and claims are paid directly to the repair shop, saving you some time and hassle.

CarShield offers six levels of coverage: