That’s all there is to say. Always buy AppleCare.
If you buy an Apple product, buy their extended warranty.
It pays for itself.
On my MacBook Pro, I’ve had a keyboard die and it was replaced. I’ve had a battery swell up, it was replaced. In fact, I just had a second battery swell up and it too is being replaced. I swear there was something else too, and all taken care of.
I think the AppleCare cost me $169? Something like that. Certainly got my money’s worth.
Of course, one could argue that it’d be better if the stuff worked solidly from the factory. I agree. I think Apple’s hardware was much more robust years ago, but as Apple changed to different standards (e.g. to IDE from SCSI, their own video to VGA and such) well… they had to lower costs, be more competitive, and that seems to also have affected quality to some degree. I still think Apple’s quality overall is good, just that well… shit happens.
I learned that with this latest battery swelling, they’re taking care of it but… my AppleCare runs out in just a matter of days. Gosh. I’m going to miss that, but am glad I got this one fixed under the wire.
Meantime yes. Buy AppleCare. Always. It pays off.
Stuff From Hsoi 
Extended Warranties are generally pronounced “Additional Profit” internally. How many of these incidents happened under the regular warranty? How many of them would have been fixed for free even outside of warranty?
Extended warranties are a joke and a bad bet. You might have won the extended warranty lottery on this one, but more people are losers than winners with them.
Just my 2¢
Oh I totally agree. I generally avoid extended warranties because they’re a crock. Furthermore, any “extended protection” tends to come automatically by the credit card I purchase it with.
But AppleCare has ALWAYS panned out for me. I’ve bought it on every Apple product I’ve owned and it has always worked out.
So either it’s been a good buy, or there’s something about Apple’s quality. 😉