What coverage to purchase?

Welcome! From the sales brochure:

"Hybrid-Related Component Coverage: Hybrid-related components, including the HV battery, battery control module, hybrid control module and inverter with converter, are covered for 8 years/100,000 miles."

Plus, posts here indicate a high degree of reliability with the car. If I were worried about eventual expensive repairs ruining the budget in the future, I'd put the money I'd spend on an extended warranty in the bank as a rainy-day repair fund.

If you were buying a Volt, I'd agree that an extended warranty would likely pay for itself.

 

IIRC, hybrid-related components come with 10 year/150,000 miles in CA and NY. Someone correct me if I am wrong.

 

This is the warranty for all the CARB states. Decline everything the dealer is selling. If you expect the extended warranty to pay for itself then why are you buying the car?

The car is a scratch magnet. Find an installer for 3M or VentureShield film.

 

Say no to everything. Just buy the car for the best price you can negotiate.

 

Post deleted, redundant information.

 

About 50% of the price of the extended coverage is pure profit to the dealer. The salesman might get more commision on this part than on selling the car to you.

I say take your chances with out the extended warranty. I have 25k on my 2010 and 35k on my 2008 with zero problems.

 

So I bought a new Prius III today (love it, of course) and we got drawn into the TFS Plan which is the 100k/84 months Bumper to Bumper. Only cost $1800, so I figured that was a good deal?

 

If a factory extended warranty gives an owner peace-of-mind, especially if they've lived through a lemon nightmare in the past, it's worth the money. Hopefully, you'll keep the car through the duration of the warranty and feel wonderful that you never needed it.

IMO, it may make financial sense to purchase the extended warranty coverage if buying the V with the technology package as there is more expensive electronics that can go bad. I have adaptive cruise control on my LS430 and IIRC replacing the front sensor can run about $1500. That car also has folding mirrors and an auto retract steering column, both of which can go bad if constantly used for 100K miles. Replacing both mirrors and the steering column motors would also run about $1500.

 

Congratulations on the new Prius! You can get the Toyota Platinum extended warranty through Prius Chat for less: http://priuschat.com/forums/sponsor...-extended-warranty-service-contracts-140.html

If you are interested contact Troy Detrich and see what his price is for the warranty you bought. You should have 3 days to cancel if you want to save some money.

 

I agree, I bought one through Troy for my Prius V, for exactly the reasons you mentioned. If I had bought one of the other Prius versions, II through IV or a V without ATP, I would take my chances. But with the ATP a lot of things can break that would cost more than the car is worth to fix. Since the extended warranty costs exactly the same without regard to version or options I think in my case it isn't to bad a deal.

 

That just shows how grossly overpriced they are :_> You'll almost certainly never recoup even half of that, and most likely will never get back any of it. Anyone who just bought one, cancel it for a refund while you still can. $1800 buys a lot more "peace of mind" sitting in your bank than in the dealer's pocket.

 

Well, right now there's $1800 sitting in my bank right now (The $1800 is factored into my payments... Yes, I know... Paying interest on it...) If I buy online, then I'll only have $750 in there.

I know it's cheaper in the long run, but right now I can't afford to shell out a $1,000 when TFS can put it into my payments.

 

Just a suggestion, but why buy any extended warranty before the 36 month/36000 mile factory warranty expires? You may purchase the factory extended warranty any time until then. You have 3 years to save for the much less expensive online priced extended warranty. Also you will have ample time to evaluate the reliability of your particular car and then decide if you think you need the coverage. I wouldn't give it a thought until say 35000 miles or 35 months. You should be able to get a full refund on anything you've paid up to now.

 

For the dealer, you bet

(I think) you have 30 days to cancel the warranty and get your money back. If the warranty was rolled into a loan, the returned money will go to pay down your loan principal.

Follow DireStrait's advice. IIRC correctly, most car loans are set up as simple interest loans, meaning you can pay ahead, and then skip payments. If this is the case with your loan (check with TFS), then canceling the warranty will put you $1800 ahead in your payment schedule. Skip two payments a couple of months before your new car warranty is done, and use that money to buy online.


My '04 Prius is seven years old and has 133k miles. Total repair costs (warranty and non-warranty): ZERO

 

$1000 is, what, two payments? If you couldn't afford that (assuming that it would ever be necessary) you're living too close to the edge to be buying a new car. Financing a new car *and* buying an extended warranty is shooting yourself in both feet. Stop drinking their Kool-Aid.

 

Well, without getting too much into my personal situation, $1000 is too much to pay right now. It's not that I'm "drinking their Kool-Aid". I turned down everything else they offered and figured that in 3 years, I'll be glad I added on the 7 year warranty (even if I paid twice as much as I could have).

 

Minion, did you read my earlier post ? It shows you how to buy the online cheaper warranty with TFS financing.

 

Remember the 7 year warranty means 7 years total or four additional years past your new car 3 year warranty, whether you buy it now or 3 years from now. I'd hold on to my cash and not pay interest on the warranty cost for 3 years. At this point cancelling the extended warranty purchase is easily done.

 

It never makes sense for most of us to buy the extended warranty. Say I go out and buy a new Prius tomorrow and say no to $1,000 for the extended warranty. A couple of years go by, regular warranty is no longer in effect and something goes wrong that will cost $2,000. "Ah ha" the warranty supporters will say "should have paid $1,000 dollars and you would have saved yourself $1,000." Not really though.
1) most people will finance the warranty, so it didn't cost $1,000 dollars, it cost you $1,000 plus the interest you paid on that $1k. Even if you didn't finance it, you could have invested that money and had slightly more money by the time the general warranty expired.
2) Let's see, I have bought 5 new cars, I won't consider the used buys for this example nor the new motorcycles I have bought. I declined the extended warranty on all of them. None of the rest of them ever had a repair that would have been covered by the extended warranty. So roughly that is $5,000 I would have spent, not including interest paid if financed or lost if not financed. So the $5k would have paid for $2k repair. Not good math in my book.

Can things go bad, sure. But odds are against it. Most of us go over 150,000 miles or more without a single incident.

If it was really a good deal, then the warranty companies would go belly up or the manufacturer would stop offering it. That they still offer it should tell you that they are making money off it. They do that by charging far more than they pay out.