Mitsubishi extended warranty: cost, coverage and plans

Mitsubishi extended warranty coverage

Mitsubishi calls its official extended warranties (also known as vehicle service contracts) Mitsubishi Diamond Care Protection Plans.

These plans are designed to functionally extend your already-lengthy Mitsubishi factory warranty, which includes five years/60,000 miles of Limited (also called bumper-to-bumper) protection and 10 years/100,000 miles of powertrain protection. Mitsubishi Diamond Care Protection Plans offer terms of up to eight years/120,000 miles (that’s three years/60,000 miles beyond the factory Limited warranty) and must be purchased from a Mitsubishi dealership.

Many automakers count their extended warranties’ terms from when the vehicle was new, so your factory warranty and extended warranty terms can overlap.

You can purchase a Diamond Care Protection plan as long as your Mitsubishi is still within the five-year/60,000-mile Limited factory warranty period. If your Mitsubishi is over 10 years old or has driven over 100,000 miles, Mitsubishi recommends a High-Mileage Plan offered by QualityGuard+Plus.

Curiously, Mitsubishi doesn’t offer or recommend any sort of plan for vehicles with between 60,000 and 100,000 miles on their odometers. However, if you purchase a Certified Pre-Owned Mitsubishi with over 60,000 miles, you have the option of upgrading your CPO Limited Powertrain Warranty (which covers 600 parts) to a CPO Wrap warranty (which covers 2,000 parts).

» LEARN: What does a car warranty cover?

Mitsubishi extended warranty plans

Mitsubishi offers three coverage options for its official extended warranties:

• Supreme is an exclusionary coverage option that includes 2,000+ parts.
• Deluxe covers many of the same component groups as Supreme, but its coverage is limited to 1,300 parts.
• Powertrain covers just 600 parts in your vehicle’s engine, transmission and drivetrain.

You can see a visual breakdown of what each component groups each option covers below. (You may need to scroll to see the whole list.)

Mitsubishi extended warranty benefits

In addition to paying for covered repairs, Mitsubishi Diamond Care Protection Plans include the following benefits:

• 24/7 roadside assistance, including battery jump-starts, lockout assistance, fuel delivery and tire service
• Towing reimbursements of up to $100 per mechanical breakdown covered by your plan
• Trip interruption protection to help cover the cost of transportation, meals and lodging if you experience a covered breakdown 100+ miles from home
• Car rental assistance of up to $35 per day for up to five days while your Mitsubishi is in the shop for a covered repair

Overall, these are average benefits for a manufacturer-backed extended auto warranty plan.

» READ: Where can you use an extended auto warranty?

Mitsubishi extended warranty cost

You’ll have to call a Mitsubishi dealership and speak directly to a finance manager just to get a quote on a Mitsubishi Diamond Care Protection Plan. However, if your luck is anything like ours, that’s when you’ll learn that the dealership doesn’t sell these plans at all.

Case in point, we called 12 Mitsubishi dealers in 10 states, including three of the largest Mitsubishi dealers in the U.S., and not a single one of them sold Mitsubishi Diamond Care Protection Plans. They had all partnered up with third-party warranty companies instead.

It’s not uncommon for some dealerships to choose a third-party warranty vendor instead of the automaker’s official option, but in our experience, large-volume dealers will typically sell both. That wasn’t the case with the Mitsubishi dealers we contacted, though.

For context, the average extended auto warranty costs around $1,000 per year of coverage, so keep that in mind if you are able to get a quote for a Diamond Care Protection Plan from your Mitsubishi dealer.

» MORE: How much does an extended car warranty cost?

Is a Mitsubishi extended warranty worth it?

A Diamond Care Protection Plan could be worth it, but we can’t say for sure because, as of publishing, we still don’t know what they cost. Assuming you can find a dealership that’s willing to sell you one, we’ll break down some of the factors to help you decide whether an official Mitsubishi warranty is worth it.

In general, an extended auto warranty is more likely to be worth it if either:

1. You drive an unreliable vehicle.
2. The cost of the extended warranty is less than the cost of the covered repairs you expect to need.
3. A surprise repair bill could be financially devastating.
4. You’re okay paying a few thousand dollars just for some peace of mind.

Since points three and four are personal, we’ll focus on points one and two.

For starters, modern Mitsubishi vehicles are generally expected to have above-average reliability. J.D. Power ranked the brand sixth out of 32 automakers for overall dependability in 2023, with just 167 problems per 100 vehicles within three years. (Compare that with the industry average of 186.)

“The reliability of Mitsubishi vehicles has been known to be a crapshoot,” Grant Lewis, the co-host of Everything Auto, told ConsumerAffairs in an email. “While I don't think it’s necessary to purchase an extended warranty, as most consumers will not hold onto the vehicle that long, it may be worth looking into a warranty to cover the gaps in the limited warranty.”

Looking at consumer reviews of Mitsubishi, owners generally seem satisfied with the value and dependability of their vehicles. Logan, a ConsumerAffairs reviewer from Tennessee, told us: “I like my new car. Easy on fuel. For an entry-level subcompact it's got plenty of interior room, especially in the backseat area. Well laid out inside and out. Handling is a little twitchy. Braking is responsive. Overall good value for the money.”

However, reviews of the customer service experience from dealerships and Mitsubishi corporate tend to be mixed. Khia, a ConsumerAffairs reviewer from Pennsylvania, wrote: “I took my car into interstate Mitsubishi on 4/2021 for the recall dealing with corrosion on crossmember, at that time they said it looked great, put a half ** coating on it and sent me on my way. I called a few times afterwards asking about holes I had seen but they swore it was not part of the recall. 2/15/23 driving at 25mph with my oldest child, my car came to a very abrupt stop. …

“I am a single mother of 2 children with many health issues. Lost my 9 year old to brain cancer so keeping my other kids healthy and making it to their appointments is very important. Mitsubishi corporate said I could pay $1500 to have my car fixed. Recall is active, no reason they should not fix my car just because it's age. Only has 100000 miles on it, very well taken care of, no reason not to fix.”

The good news is that when things go wrong on Mitsubishis — and you’re stuck with the bill like Khia was — data suggests that Mitsubishis tend to be less expensive than average to get back on the road. RepairPal data from 2019 claims that Mitsubishis cost just $535 per year in unexpected repairs and scheduled maintenance, which when adjusted for inflation is around $731. (Compare that to the industry average of $891 per year.)

(If you have significant savings, getting stuck with a massive repair bill might not be a huge worry, but if you don’t, it could be ruinous. A ConsumerAffairs investigation found that most drivers surveyed couldn’t afford to pay cash for a $1,000 repair bill, and 13% of respondents simply had no way to handle a bill that large — even with credit.)

For your extended warranty to be financially worth it, it needs to cost less than you would otherwise spend on repairs during the coverage period. We can’t say whether Mitsubishi Diamond Care Protection Plans pass this test because we couldn’t find anyone willing to sell us one, but let’s see if a third-party warranty company can offer a good enough deal to make coverage worth the cost.

» MORE: Pros and cons of extended auto warranties

Mitsubishi extended warranty alternatives

We reached out to Endurance and olive, two extended car warranty companies, to see how much they’d charge to cover various Mitsubishi vehicles. All plans were quoted using a $100 deductible (unless otherwise stated), and the prices below don’t include applicable tax.

Only olive’s quote for our Outlander Sport was close to equalling Mitsubishi’s expected yearly repair costs, but the variance in the quotes we received shows why it’s important to shop around if you’re considering extended warranty coverage. Prices can fluctuate dramatically between companies and between vehicles in an automaker’s lineup, so the smart route to see whether a warranty is worth it for you involves getting quotes from different warranty providers.

We recommend you shop around, research extended warranties and read reliability ratings for your vehicle to see whether a vehicle service contract is right for you.

» MORE: How to choose an extended car warranty