Service Plans and Warranties...pushed onto us at time of sale.

No and no. In the US you can get the first warranty for under $1000 from a Toyota dealer who is on this forum. The second is nonsense. Why would you pre-pay for service, especially why would you pre-pay for over two years ahead of said service?!

Both these are pure profit deals -for the dealer-.

You can get the first warranty extension any time during the standard warranty. So you have lots of time to think about it, see if the car is reliable, etc. (it's a Toyota for gods sake - of course it's reliable).

 

Extended warranties and prepaid maintenance plans are a complete waste of your money. Smile at them and say "no" until they go away.

If you absolutely must have "peace of mind" the Toyota extended warranties are available on this site from a dealer (Troy) for less than $1000. You can buy the warranty any time in the first 36 months/36k miles.

 

I don't know that I'll agree with Richard's opinion on this. If you sit down and look at the numbers (after finding out the REAL cost of maintenance and regular service and knowing what is necessary to maintain the factory warranty), and you find there is value, then go for it. For some people, there is value if the dollars are the same because they assure themselves the work will be done.

In the interest of disclosure: I had one extended warranty pay of big (on a VW) and one that I cashed in one week after purchase (a Toyota). I had a third (Nissan) that ended early when I sold the car and I received a pro rata return (that was an unnecessary purchase from the get-go, even though it was on a used car).

I've had one pre-paid service plan, and it turned out to be pretty good. The only reason it turned out to be pretty good is that the dealer's rep finally came down to a price I was willing to pay. That only happened because I had been prepped, and I didn't make the decision in the finance guy's office.

Full disclosure: Now that I have the first of the new breed (2010) I may consider purchasing an extended warranty. This is only a "May" for now.

HERE is the sparkling piece of advice! This is absolutely the right course, in my book. You can always go back and purchase one of these plans. If they tell you that it is available only at the moment of purchase or you'll lose some valuable extra or service if you buy it later, then please understand the goal of that policy is not to benefit you, but to benefit the provider and the agent (the finance guy/dealership). If it is something of value to both sides, then you should be able to strike a bargain at any time. Just be certain you know what you're dealing with before you decide. AND, as Richard has so eloquently stated it: Smile and say "No." You may have to apply and repeat as necessary.

Also, very true. There are plenty of threads on the subject, so please run a search and read to your heart's content.

 

I'm not a believer in extended warranties or pre-paid maintenance. They are essentially insurance policies (which the issuing company makes a profit on), and I prefer to self-insure and keep the profit myself.

 

Absolutely! Do some DD and you will see it is a winning deal for the dealer.

 

IMO

(1) Never buy the prepaid maintenance, and

(2) Wait until 35 months/35,000 miles to decide whether to buy the Toyota extended warranty.

 

Regarding the Toyota Auto Care Premium package thru PC ($875 - 4 yrs./55,000mi), it would really help to know what dealers are charging for the routine 5,000 service and the 15,000 'special' service. I was recently charged around $60 for a routine lube/oil/tire rotation for my '06 HiHy.

 

I sprang for the extended warranty. I gave my dealer finance guy an opportunity to match the price seen on here. He did, so I told him it was a go. I did however let him talk me into one extra, that I am actually quite glad I did. He talked me into a simoniz protection system. It seems to work GREAT. I drove it home, and the front was covered with bugs. We had storms that night, and in the morning the bugs were gone. They had literally fallen off and been washed off by the storm. That hardly ever happens.

I also tested the carpets and leather with some water, and it beaded up and would not penetrate. So, I am quite happy with the initial results. I have done some research into what consumers are saying about the products and it seems to be pretty good.

I talked to Troy on here via email and he quoted me an excellent price for their maintenance plan. However, even with the best price I could find, I averaged it out to $70 per maintenance visit, and if I were to calculate the lost interest and investment opportunity of the 2 years I could have invested the money... Let's just say my local dealers charge between $25-30. If I have to I can rotate the darned tires, and the filters they change can be found dirt cheap on amazon. I did another analysis and found that even taking it in to the dealer and just paying is cheaper, even if the price goes up a little bit over the next few years. If I do just filters at home, I can save about half. (Anyone can change these filters, they are so easy.)

 

Any paint sealant the dealer could have put on the paint, you could have got somewhere else or done yourself for a fraction of the price.
Pure profit to the dealer to make up for some of the lower margin they took on the extended warranty.

 

Yeah I looked into the product and (sorta) what it goes for. Though they don't sell this particular one privately, I do know that there was a crap ton of profit. I was basically just paying for the luxury of not having to do it myself. They do it for roughly half where I got my windows tinted. I think I will wait a year or maybe two and then get it reapplied there, because they claim to clay and polish out as much of the abrasions as they can. So, once again I'll be paying for labor.

I was really happy with the way this dealership treated me, and they weren't too aggressive with their tactics. I was just highly interested in this stuff going in, and willing to spend a little bit to protect the huge investment I just made.

Edit: I also want to make sure they have plenty of money to keep those plush leather seats, and the plasma television, the food lobby and shiny dealership.

 

At the dealer's yesterday, I again questioned the service manager about routine service costs; he again said ~$60 for 5k services and as much as $500 for the 60k service (to include alignment, complete fluid change, etc) for the '06 HiHy. For those of you with Gen II Prii, what has been your experiences regarding routine maintenance charges - 5k multiples and 15k multiples (ie 60k)?

 

Some of the things they do in a packaged service are not required for the warranty. For example, with my TCH I had "tires for life" but I had to go with their service. Paid off in the long run as they supplied 2 sets of tires. However in my HH, the tread is wearing evenly and I have no issues so far with the feel of the suspension or pulling so I don't think having an alignment at a specific milage is necessary. It's not required by Toyota.

The approx $60 for the services have included the tire rotation as well as the oil change. It's a little more than what I'd pay at a JiffyLube but they also wash my car. I can't complain. However I'd look at the items included on the 50,000 mile and possibly rule out some of them.