I bought an extended warranty on my pickup when I bought it, the equivalent of a couple of sizable repairs, and my warranty went for five years. I never used it, so in effect, I just paid $800 too much on my truck. I probably won't do that again.

I never buy extended warranties for anything else. The other group I find has backed down some but I used to face-off across the counter regularly were the extra insurance folks at the car rental agencies. They used to try to put the fear of god in you that if you wrecked their car you had to have this insurance, but you didn't. I remember one guy finally backing down at Alamo when I threatened to pick up my bags and go to another rental agency. Merciless. I think through legislation or litigation they've been forced to back down (it has been probably 10 years since the last time I really had to put up a consumer rights struggle in the face of their pressure.)

SRS