Obviously... the extended warranty only has value if you actually
experience a claim that they will cover.

I have never felt they are worth their  cost... and not just  because
the cars I've bought  are well enough made they just don't fail.  

As with gambling, the house always wins... and they are the house!
Take that 1500, save it in a decent account to use for the same
repairs the insurance would cover and I doubt you'll spend it all by
120,000 KM.  If you follow the same practice with every car you buy
then you will most definitely be well ahead, with a nice little
savings built up for when you retire.

If you do choose to get it... be very careful to follow their
recommended maintenance schedule.  Just one missed item can void it
when you need it.  At least, with some plans, they help defray at
least a portion of the cost of periodic oil changes and such.

BuddyWh

Given all the little expensive things that go wrong with the 2002 models,
I'd buy the plan. Make sure it covers the Stereo and AC and stuff like that,
I believe they sometimes call these the High-Tech items.

The Bose stereo has problems, people report problems with coils and
injectors and I know replacing the injectors under the intake manifold is
expensive. You don't know if the previous owner was nice to the
transmission.

The car is an SE and the previous owner probably drove it hard, cause that's
what people do with an SE.

I vote to get the extended warranty, if you plan to keep the car for 4 years
or more.

Around 3 years of ownership, by your reckoning, you will have 114,000 KM on
the car, the car will be 5 years old and needing some expensive maintenance.

It really depends on the warranty and the company behind it. I've seen too
many weasle out of claims with fine print that says they don't cover seals
and gaskets (which rules out any leaks or auto transmission problems) or
that they don't cover oil consumption or loss of compression in the engine
etc.