Toyota Extended Warranty is it worth it for a 2010?

shaky driver side rear view mirror | PriusChat

btw, merry christmas judgeless. edited last post. that wasnt so nice. i appologize.

 

Hi all,

Great info here. I purchased a 2010 certified pre-owned Prius w/40K miles and signed up for the extra care. I didn't really want to but dealership made me feel like I was a fool not to so I did. I finally got around to researching a bit and think it is not likely worth it to me.

Can I still cancel this? It was 2 weeks ago that I purchased the vehicle. I want to figure out if I can still cancel before contacting them. Thanks for the help

 

I hate scumbag dealers!!!! They lie, lie and lie a little more. Get out of it as fast as you can.

 

I thought you werent able to get extended warranty past 36k miles? should be no problem getting them to cancel it though?

 

For certified pre owned they offer it. For new cars you have to decide before 36k.

Still trying to confirm if I can cancel it still or not. If anyone has info on this it is appreciated.

 

Extended warranties are a personal decision... there's no "right" or "wrong" answer. On the one hand the Prius is on the whole a very reliable vehicle and Toyota wouldn't offer such long warranties if the cars weren't reliable. On the other hand the Prius is far more technically complex than most cars on the road with expensive components that don't even exist in the average car. In cases where something does go wrong repairs often won't be cheap.

On average they don't pay for themselves (the house has to win otherwise they lose money) but that doesn't account for the value of piece of mind which is, again, a personal factor.

 

The Prius is not more or less Hi-Tech then other cars. It does have battery and two motors to assist. They are both covered by a factory warranty for 100,000 miles or 8 years. You do not need an extended warranty for that.

Most dealers tell people that if they have to replace the battery it will cost them a lot of money. The battery is NOT covered by Toyotas extended warranty. Dealers lie.

List of Excluded Components

• Accessory Drive Belts
• Batteries
• Body Panels
• Brake Linings, Pads and Shoes
• Bumpers
• Carpet
• Chrome
• Clutch Friction Disk and Pressure Plate
• Dash Cover and Pad
• Door Trim, Handles and Fabric
• Filters
• Fluids
• Glass (including Windshield)
• Headliner
• Heating Hoses, Lines and Tubes
• Hinges
• Hybrid System Main Relays
• Hybrid Vehicle Battery
• Hybrid Vehicle Battery Module/Pack

 

Yes, one needs to understand what you're buying... but this isn't rocket science. It shouldn't come as a terrible surprise that a 7 year warranty isn't going to cover the 12V battery, or brake pads, or the radiator fluid etc. These are replaceable components on any vehicle and part of standard maintenance. This is afterall an extended "warranty" not an "extended maintenance plan" (although dealers offer those separately).

As for things like the hybrid battery if you live in CA or a state that has copied CA laws the battery already has a 10 year 150k warranty so covering it under different warranty is moot. The same law also cover other key "hybrid" and "emissions" components.

The extended warranty does cover things like the engine, the computers, the transmission, various pumps. Things that are unlikely to fail, but if they do are not cheap to repair. Like any insurance the average person pays in a lot more than they'll every get out of it but they do get piece of mind and that matters to a lot of people. I don't think it's really a question of "can they afford the repairs" for such buyers... the Prius is hardly a budget car to begin with.

 

Timing chain should last life of engine. Timing belt is different, usually 90,000 to 120,000 miles recommended.

 

The car has a 12 Volt battery like any other car, and it isn't warranted because 12 Volt batteries fail, and when they do, it costs about $100 to replace. No big deal, nothing to buy a $1,000-ish extended warranty for.

But Prius has a huge hybrid traction battery, which will cost over $3,000 to replace. (Aha, I got your attention). In California and the other CARB states, the hybrid system, including this battery, is warranted for ten years/150,000 miles. That is part of the new car warranty. It varies by state otherwise, but I think 8 yrs/100K miles is the minimum in the USA. So it's already warranted.

There are two other items in a Prius which are expensive to repair: The electrical voltage inverter, and the transmission. These are warranted to at least 60,000 miles. These units can fail; I've seen many reports of them failing; that doesn't mean they WILL fail within 100,000 miles, but they can. That's where the gamble is, a tranny ir inverter failure between 60,000 and 100,000 miles. The engine is expensive to replace, but engine failures are very rare. No other $1,000+ failure is likely from all I've read here.

Prius is very reliable and the odds of a warranty paying for itself are low... but of course it's possible.

 

Please explain how timing belt and a timing chain are different? They are the same thing.

The timing belt/chain connects the crankshaft to the camshaft(s), which in turn controls the opening and closing of the engine's valves.

One is made of metal and one is made of rubber. Some vendors use one some use the other. Some use gears. They are have a limited lifetime.

 

I have had my Gen II Prius since Oct 2009 and it now has 100,000 miles. I spend some time and read these threads every day over the last 3+ years. If there was something that was breaking that affected many people I would have read about it.

You post that you have seen many reports of the inverter and the transmission failing. I think you mean transaxle. The Prius does not have a transmission.

In these forums have never read of anyone with a Gen III Prius that has had a transaxle fail. Over that time period I have read about 2 people that had inverters fail. They were both covered by the factory warranty.

I challenge you to post examples of many people having broken transaxles and inverters. You claim there are many. It should not be hard for you to find examples using search. I personally cannot.

 

I'm not going to go into InternetArgumentLand with you. To someone unfamiliar with Prius, the term "Transmission" is easy to understand, and "Transaxle" adds to confusion. I prefer simplicity.

I have read many accounts of Prius transaxle and inverter failures, but I did not intend to imply that they are common. The Prius is extremely reliable; much more than my BMW, which both failed often and cost a lot to repair. In one of these extended warranty threads, an owner who had an extended warranty criticized them and said his Prius had 90,000 trouble-free miles. The next week, his inverter failed at what would have cost over $2,000 (maybe $3,000) to repair. So it turned out his extended warranty was worth it. So I don't buy Prius extended warranties and I don't recommend them, but I don't go so far as to criticize them, as long as you pay a fair price.

 

I am very active in all the Extended warranty threads including this one. I read every post and I have never read of anyone with a Gen III Prius that has had to replace the transaxle. I have read about 2 inverter failures that were covered by the factory warranty.

Please post this example were someone had 90,000 miles and their inverter failed. I have never read that. Was this from many years ago? Please give me one example of a transaxle failure. I just searched the forums and they are zero. Why would you make this stuff up?

 

The Gen III hasn't been out very long; there aren't a lot of 80-120Kmile Gen III's yet, so we have to look at previous models.

All I said was that the transaxle and inverter •could• fail. You're apparently arguing that they cannot. If you buy an extended warranty, all you're really covering are possible inverter or tranny failures. Other failures aren't likely to exceed the cost of the extended warranty.

 

It has been out for 3 1/2 years. There is a thread here on all the people that are over 100,000 miles. I am one of them.

You are correct. It is possible for either to fail. Before paying all the money for an extended warranty you should do some research and find out how often they have failed in the past. One resource is Consumer Reports. They send a survey to every person that subscribes and they post the results. Here are their results since 2012 (9 years).



Look under Transmission Major and Minor. It shows a perfect score that means there are an extremely low number of failures. Electrical was average to below average from 2003 to 2009. It looks like the 3 ½ years the Gen III has been out there have been very few issues.

 

Once again - Judgeless shows how he is unable to comprehend even that of which he is aware...

Rubber and metal both have very different properties and, accordingly, different service lives.

All of his bloated ignorance aside - as has been said many, many times, the answer about an extended warranty is very simple: On average - the purchaser will lose. However, there are going to be examples where purchasers win. To suggest that every prius owner reports their results here on PriusChat is naive at best, stupid at worst. He believes that because he has 100,000 trouble free miles, everyone will. He is very active on all extended warranty threads - that's for sure - it's his pet project.

Take a look at another one where he flexes his ignorance with regard to financial instruments - (IRAs) - and claims that they are all fixed-interest vehicles. (Which is the case for one (CD's) of the thousands of different investments that can be part of an IRA).

Moderators - there really are too many threads on Extended Warranties - and the same points are covered over and over again... Is there a way to block any new threads and force posters to refer to the old ones? (I doubt that any new information or data relative to this topic can be provided...)

Again - if you want the Peace of mind of knowing that (if) your timing *chain* fails it will be covered beyond 60 months or 60,000 miles - you can purchase an extended warranty. The odds are against it happening, let's be clear. It's *probably* a waste of money - but that's a personal choice. And, just because the odds are against something does not mean it will not happen. Any good statistician, engineer, lawyer, doctor, or halfway observant person will quickly explain what Judgeless shows -in all of his posts in these threads- that he can not comprehend.

Full disclosure: I have a 2010 GenIII with 58,000 miles and do NOT have the extended warranty.

 

They serve the same purpose. One is made of metal and one is made of rubber. Their purpose is connecting the crankshaft to the camshaft(s), which in turn controls the opening and closing of the engine's valves.

I have never suggested that every owner reports their results here. I suggested that people should read the forums and Consumer report to get feel for how reliable or unreliable the Gen III Prius is.

According to Consumer report from 2003 to 2012 the Prius got the highest rating in Engine problems Major and Minor. I would predict a failed timing chain would fall in Major. Based on stats chances are very good it will never happen. Why are you so against statistics to determine the value of an extended warranty?

 

With just about any insurance product, the vast majority of people get less back than they put in. This is the whole basis of the insurance industry. You're paying for risk mitigation not services. As such, using the argument that there are folks who buy an extended warranty and don't need repairs is, on it's own, a really poor and rather pedestrian argument against buying such policies.

As with any insurance product one needs to balance their risk tolerance against the cost of the policy. With things like warranties there's also the convenience factor (ie a minor annoyance one would 'live with' vs just taking it in for repair if the car is covered). If someone decides they don't want to buy the policy that's fine... and if someone buys the policy that's fine too. There is no "right" or "wrong" answer.

 

OK - so why are you so against statistics? Ever hear of a bell curve? A normal distribution? A standard deviation?

Again - the difference between a timing belt and timing chain are their materials. Yes they both provide means to produce the same outcome i.e. the same function - but the difference is that one is rubber and one is metal. Most reasonable, intelligent people understand the difference between rubber and metal - that they have very different properties - which can result in different service lives. I guess your inability to discern (or acknowledge) this difference is a clear indication of how reasonable and intelligent you are, eh?

What exactly do you do for a living? You claim to know about financial instruments, and then demonstrate you clearly don't. You discuss statistics, but clearly demonstrate that you don't understand them. You try to discuss engineering properties, but fail. I'm curious to try to understand about what you really *do* know. Maybe you can teach me or the other readers about that (whatever it may be) that you do everyday - but for engineering, financial instruments, or statistics - you'd do us all a favor to remain silent.