Toyota's Vehicle Service Agreement (VSA)

Don't!

The reason you asked the question in this forum is that your lizard brain is trying to warn you that you're being fleeced.
If you think you're going to have thousands of dollars worth of repairs in your first 120,000 of ownership miles then it's time to consider a more reliable car brand.
Besides, that coverage has a few exclusions and exemptions that the huckster that sold it to you (on commission!) might not have explained to you as thoroughly.

BTW.....third party coverage is WORSE.

Good Luck!

 

I don’t believe there were any insults.
You may not like his delivery, but don’t ignore the facts he provided.

Extended warranties are almost always a rip-off.
Here are the things I would check out via a different source than the sales critter.

What is the cost of making the repair he mentioned, and is it expected to be that costly in a year?
Is he selling the extended warranty on commission (I’d bet yes)?
What is the total cost of the extended warranty, including financing? Compare that to reasonable out of warranty costs.

FYI, as far as I know, the term “lizard brain” refers to the ancient part of our brain that controls our base instincts. Things such as fight or flight, fear of the unknown, etc. Everyone has a ‘lizard brain’ deep down.

 

The term "lizard brain" is a metaphor for the amygdala portion of our brain. Not intended as an insult.

 

4700$ seems indeed expensive. When I ordered the car (in europe) I was asking already for an extended warranty as we only get 3 years. They said its not relally needed as we have always the "toyota relax" warranty that renews after every service done on time up to 10 years and similar miles as in your case. Whether this is any good or not, we will see but it shows that they have quite the confidence that everything should be fine for a while.

 

I certainly did not mean to offend, and I offer sincere non-fake apologies for any non-fake offense.

One of my many personal faults is sometimes not being able to accurately convey my thoughts with the appropriate filtering.
Extended warranties are like (f)leases.
There are a very very few persons who are able to take advantage of them without getting (more deeply) shanked by the dealer, and most of those people tend to be one-percenters who need not concern themselves about getting advice from some nameless internet chucklehead.
The others tend to be people who drive less than 12,000 miles per year, and even THEN you're always better off putting the $1,000+ that the extended warranty costs into a money market account or even in a mattress against any future repairs - which should almost NEVER be done at the dealership to begin with. My response to the person offering the warranty would be that the $4700 scare-quote should be enough to warn you against buying the car in the first place.

...streaming service type software system?
I'll refrain from commenting on that or else I might REALLY hurt somebody's feelings!


Good Luck with the Hy-Rav!
Savor those first new car miles!

 

FWIW: Oxford Dictionary
lizard brain
noun

• 1.the part of the brain to which primitive, nonrational, or self-interested behavior is attributed:"your lizard brain thinks the world is ending while your more rational side can see that you're in no real danger"

 

I didn't go to Oxford, and I do not speak the King's English.
I speak a Mid-Western dialect of the US English language, moderately tinged with a South-Eastern accent.
Even today, we're celebrating the 247th anniversary of announcing our intentions of throwing off the yoke of oppressive government from the empire that founded Oxford.
As this is an international forum, we are sometimes reminded of the oft-misquoted quote from George Bernard Shaw who said, "England and America are two countries separated by the same language."
That quote was more famously repeated by another unfiltered American....

We're besties these days, so no hard feelings, although I sometimes think that the Brits did not do a thorough enough job of remodeling our nation's capitol in August,1814.

In MOST parts of the U.S. the "Lizard Brain" refers to that part of the brain that senses danger, where instincts and gut feelings originate. It's a vestigial portion of our intellect from of a long ago time when we were not exactly the apex predators that (some people seem to think) we eventually evolved into.
Example:
An alarm is going off inside my lizard brain. I need to get the heck away from this stealership, NOW!

 

Yes! What is the cost of the extended warranty? If it's $100, then why not? If it's $10,000, then forget it.

Yipes!!! I think personally this just tells me to never buy a car with a touchscreen ever again. My 2013 Avalon's touchscreen is freaking out and won't do a lot of things it's supposed to, and it has already been repaired once, like you said, for some $900 at a dealership.

 

To paraphrase Mr. Shakespeare: “methinks thou dost protest too much”.

 

I think the simpler explanation is the sales critter is lying.

 

I remember when we bought our ‘22 and the guy was pushing these things like crazy as we were signing the papers. The dealership sold GM, Chrysler, and Nissan products along with the Toyota’s. I looked at the guy finally and said “You do realize that we’re buying a Toyota, right?” The look on his face was priceless and it put an end to the hard sell! 5 minutes later we were walking out the door!

 

No. For a modern vehicle, that's about right. You're not just replacing the touchscreen, you're replacing the entire infotainment computer as a unit. That's basically a rugged laptop. Think Panasonic Toughbook. $3k-$5k is pretty in-line for a rugged, low-volume computer.

Now, what are the odds of a Toyota infotainment computer completely up and dying? That's a different question altogether.

 

Easy!
100-percent.
You're just betting that you won't still own the car when it happens.

Mostly, it's the 99$ touch-screen interface that goes T.U. and not the rest of the 'not-really-a-PC.'

They put touchscreens in submarines, fighter aircraft, and other machines requiring ruggedized touch-to-play.
A $4700 part that fails often enough to be featured in a ad for an extended warranty infomercial causes the Change-Brand light to illuminate for some buyers.

 

What I find interesting is that the only place that people seem to experience some of these failures is on PC. Consumer Reports (I know, I know) repeatedly sends out questionnaires to owners of all vehicles for as long as they own a vehicle and the owners that respond aren’t reporting these issues. Heck, in 2022 after we bought the Prius I still got a questionnaire concerning the ‘08 F250 we had traded in. So when I read statements on here like “Priuses are known for…….” Fill in your own description, I pretty much take them with a grain of salt.