I own a 2001 Mustang GT and I just purchased the ESP Premium Care Extended Warranty from Ford. Ford offers it with 0% interest for 17 months. My GT will be paid off in exactly 18 months from now and the extended warranty will be paid off in June 2005, just 2 months BEFORE my car is paid off. The extended warranty is the way to go if you want to protect yourself from expensive engine and transmission repairs. I was talking about the extended warranty a few weeks ago in the forums and most people were arguing that it's not needed. They claim that it's too expensive and that even if you needed to do repairs on you Mustang without the extended warranty, it would cost less to do the repairs than having the warranty. This is FALSE. The BEST and the TOP OF THE LINE FORD EXTENDED WARRANTY costs $2,930. There is only a $50 deductible that you have to pay each time that your Mustang GT needs warranty repairs. If one expensive thing starts going wrong on the Mustang, I assure you that many other big ticket items will start breaking down as well. We all know that the Tremec transmissions on the Mustang GT's are problematic. Other things can go wrong as well like bearings, piston rods, heads, electronic computers, ABS brake systems, A/C systems, ect., ect.. A brand new transmission for a 2001 GT alone costs over $2,500 to $3,000. New Heads cost over $2,000. A brand new engine costs $6,000 to $7,000. Computer modules alone cost a minimum of $400 to $500 and that's without the labor costs. So, a $2,930 ESP Premium Care Ford Extended Warranty is cheap if you look at all the money that you would be spending to fix just a small handfull of the things which I listed above.
The Ford dealer in Connecticut sells the Ford ESP plan, but they charge the same price as does Ford Corporate. Do NOT buy the ESP Ford Extended Warranty Plan from the Ford dealer in Connecticut. I checked them out and they only offer a $400 discount on it only if you pay it off within 60 days. If you don't pay it off in 60 days they charge you BIG INTEREST on the balance thru a Ford Credit Card which they give you. If you want to purchase this same warranty it is better to call Ford direct. They will set you up with the 17 installment payments. You will only have to give them 10% down which is $293. Ford will then bill you monthly. And FORD does NOT charge any interest on the balance.
I just bought the 7 Year/100,000 Mile Premium Care Ford Bumper to Bumper Extended Warranty. I only have 1,279 ORIGINAL MILES on my 2001 Mustang GT, so I have another 98,721 miles to go and another 4 1/2 years before my warranty runs out on this car. It's well worth it for me. I will not have to worry if my engine or transmission breaks down or if anything else breaks down on my GT. If I were to recommend to you the Ford Extended Warranty, I would ONLY recommend the 7 Year/100,000 PREMIUM CARE EXTENDED WARRANTY. It's the top of the line and it has the longest coverage period, as well as, the highest mileage coverage than any of the rest of the current Ford Extended Warranties that are available. It costs $2,930, but it's cheap if you weigh in the astronomical costs of 2 or 3 major repairs that your car might need in the shortrun or longrun. If your engine breaks and you are going to need another brand new engine put into your 2001 GT, it will cost between $6,000 to $7,000. Just by having the Ford ESP Premium Care Extended Warranty , you ONLY have to pay a $50 deductible out of your own pocket for a $6,000-$7,000 brand new engine. So, even if you already paid $2,930 for the extended warranty, you have actually saved $3,070-$4,070 OUT OF YOUR POCKET (take the total cost that you paid for the warranty from the $6,000 engine repairs and from the $7,000 engine repairs----This does not include the $50 deductible that you just paid out of your pocket).
So, if you want to keep your 2001 GT until the end of 2007 or 2008 and put 100,000 worry-free miles on it, buy yourself the extended warranty. You will definitely need it sometime in the future when your Mustang GT breaks down and needs major big bucks repairs. You will sleep well with the extended warranty.
I hope that I have steered you in the right direction and made it a lot easier for you to decide what to do. I hope that everything goes well for you.