I'm picking up my Blizzard Pearl package V on Monday and I have a couple of questions: 1. Is there a list somewhere of the dealer programmable settings for the car AND the recommended settings? I've read that I should get this done when I pick-up the car because they charge to do it later. 2. The dealer is offering the 6-year 100 mile protection plan for $1,195. Is this a good price? Is it worth it? On the one hand, I'm buying a Toyota because of it's reputation for reliability. On the other hand, the hybrid components can't be cheap to fix out of warranty. Thanks in advance for the help.
The hybrid components are already warranted for 8 years 100,000 miles so the above warranty does not add anything for that. The power train is warranted for 5 years 60,000 miles and the rest of the car is warranted for 3 years 36,000 miles so the above will help out on those parts. See the warranty page at toyota.com. As for the worth ... it does depend on how you wish to gamble. How much of your car is likely to fall apart between 36 months and 72 months? A grand's worth?
The settings are listed in section 6-2 of the owner's manual, "Customizable features," pages 587-92. PM me if you want an extract of those pages. The only setting I had the dealer change was the reverse beep from "repeatedly" to "single." I changed some of the lock functions myself since they are user configurable. Also, there are a couple of settings that don't apply in the US since the Prius doesn't have fully automatic headlights. I seldom purchase extended warranties for anything. Consumer Reports lists the Prius as the 8th or 9th (can't remember which) most reliable car. I'll self insure. Enjoy your new car!!
I believe the standard warranty on the hybrid components is 100k. Because it's a Toyota, we did not buy an EW. There's a guy on here who put together a .PDF manual and it is available for download. It's a 33 MB file. Here's a link to the thread with instructions on how to get the download. Read the instructions and follow them exactly. http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...anual-available-pdf.html?highlight=manual.pdf The one thing you definitely want changed when you pick it up is reverse beep changed from constant to one beep. I went back about two weeks after we bought it and they changed the reverse beep for me and didn't charge me.
As mentioned buying an extended warranty is just like gambling. Just like in Vegas the house always wins. I would not waste your money. The Toyota family of cars is proven to be the most reliable vehicles on earth. (Sion, Lexas, and Toyota). I put about 33,000 miles a year on my vehicle. My 2000 Toyota 4Runner has 305,000 miles on it. This is the history of repairs 170,000 spent $300.00 a servo for the 4 wheel drive transfer case and $140.00 on new front brakes 220,000 spent $100.00 on new starter 240,000 spent $200.00 on new u-joints and $100 on muffler 280,000 spent $600.00 on new air conditions compressor 300,000 spent $600.00 on new radiator Over the last 10 years I spent $2,040 on repairs. If I spent money on an extended warranty to 125,000 miles I would have wasted 100% of the money. Nothing broke.
Here's a handy cheat sheet you can print and mark up to give to the dealer. (had to do a thumbnail - text was too grainy at 1024x768)
If you are still in California then the warranty period for the hybrid-related components is at least 10yr/150,000 miles. Unless they changed something on the 2010.
This is usually true but not always true. I normally do not buy EWs, but I had a mercury mistake (I mean mystique) that had a EW. It had a blown main gasket (most cars need one of those) and failed transmission during warranty period.
A Mercy does not have the great track record Toyota does. Here is an older chart of car reliability. If you’re going to buy a car left of the center maybe an extended warranty is right for you. You should also allocate 1 day a month from your schedule to visit the repair shop. That is why I only buy Toyota or Honda.
That was a Mercury, not a Toyota, there's a BIG difference. I bought an EW when we bought our Jeep Grand Cherokee back in 1994. One of the best investments I ever made. IIRC, it was around $800 at that time, paid for itself at least 4 times over. We did not buy EW's for our Lexus RX400h or Prius. I'm not worried.
I've never been a big warantee guy especially on smaller ticket items like TV's, computers, etc, and usually refuse them on those mainly because I take good care of everything I buy and would wind up not using the warantee. But for my model V Prius, I definitely got the extended warantee. There's too many expensive intricate and "high tech" parts in a modern hybrid car so it's better to be safe than very sorry later on this one. I know it's a gamble and that Toyota's are one of the most reliable cars you can get, but again, because it's a complex hybrid, I wouldn't gamble on this. If I were buying a standard Camry or Corolla, I wouldn't even consider doing a warantee on those. That's where it's not necessary in my opinion. I chose the 125k mile warantee based on driving 20k a year. That made the most sense for me. Hope that helps some.
Be aware that the hybrid system warranty is 8 years / 100K miles, and even longer since you're in CA (10 years / 150K miles as I recall).
You're exactly right, there's an included 8 year/100k warranty on "hybrid related components." My dealer gave me specific examples (and unfortunately I can't remember exactly what they are off the top of my head) of other expensive components that can go bad that are not covered under the 8 year/100k hybrid warranty. Sure they want to sell you a warranty, but they're also being real. I actually appreciate that. And believe me again, if it were any car at all other than a hybrid, I wouldn't even consider a warranty. Bottom line, it's a crap shoot and a gamble, and certainly to each his own, but I feel more comfortable having that full coverage warranty and know I'm not going to have any surprises at all for 125k miles. You're going to love your new Prius! It's such a nice car.
You really don't need to decide on the extended warranty now. You can buy the factory extended warranty anytime before the 3 year warranty expires. You can investigate alternatives and see what the reliability data for your car and others are before you make the decision. Don't be rushed into buying the extended warranty right now.
