I just made a deal on leasing a Prius tonight, and since I was there for hours by the time we got in to the back room to do the paperwork it was after closing time so we were kind of rushing through things that probably should have been looked at more carefully. Two of the things they are selling, upon further consideration, seem like they are probably not worth it, but I wondered what the consensus was here. First is the prepaid maintenance plan, which costs $1000 for the three year lease. He was saying that I needed to bring it in to dealerships for every service since no one else could work on it and made it sound like I would automatically save 30% on the required maintenance by signing up for the plan. But what do I actually need to get done? Isn't it just an oil change every 10,000 and then some other services at 15,000 and 30,000? (my lease is for 3 years x 15k, so I probably won't need the 45,000 mile service unless I got over) That's going to cost a lot less than $1000 on average right? Also there was a $299 Anti-Theft thing on the bill, which they made it sound like it was built in to the car, but when I got the paperwork home it looks to be just some added coverage that they sell. It says that in the event my car is stolen and deemed a total loss during the five year term of the protection (my lease is three years, so that's my first clue) then they will give me $2500. As far as I know that's all the money is for, just a little bonus in case it gets stolen and can't be recovered. That can't be worth buying can it?
You would be paying $1000 for about six oil changes and one or two air filters; those things cost me about $250 at a dealer. The "anti-theft" payment is ridiculous; do you think there's a 1-in-10 chance that the car will be stolen? (You do have car insurance, right?) Cancel both of those things immediately, while you still can, and get refunds. The next time you buy a new car: when they're "doing the paperwork" for a few hours and some smooth-talking or cute or hard-boiled person comes in to sell you more stuff, just smile and say "no" until they go away.
LOL that is why toyota dealers beg you to get the prepaid adds and various other useless stuff like wax on the cars.
Well, I ended up getting the theft protection removed but stuck with the prepaid maintenance, because they threw it in for free... kind of. I went to pick up my car tonight but while getting it ready they found some deep scratches and other defects in it that required it to be completely repainted. To compensate me for this they let me swap it for another Prius with a couple more features and a $500 higher msrp (and a higher residual). They also added basic prepaid maintenance to my bill for $590, but reduced the cap cost by enough to make my payment the same as it was before. So the maintenance was still on my bill, but I ended up with a $25500 Prius for a $22500 cap and no money down, so I'll deal with that being on there.
I agree. These days they want to suck your money as much as they can. Even if you put a tracker in your car, they have ways to disable it now so as long as you have your own car insurance don't buy anything more.
I will likely cancel my pre-paid maintenance contract, and here's why - I paid $1,055 for a 3yr/40k miles contract. List price was $1,015, so I got hosed. The coupon book has 8 coupons, one for every 5k miles. I've only put 10k miles on the car in 1.5 yrs, and have used 3 coupons, not 4 (must come in every 6 months on mine). The first 2 services were 'express lube' invoices at $40 each, third service was $100, so $180 total, after 1.5 yrs. So, I'm on track for only getting $360 worth of service .... for $1,055 paid!!! It will be canceled soon for refund of the remaining 1.5 yrs.
I hate dealers. Every one of them is a scumbag for doing these things to their customers. Toyota changed the oil changer interval to 10,000 miles. You should have to replace the oil 4 times the life of the car. This will cost $100 at Wallmart for all 4. 95% of scheduled maintenance on any car is inspection. Go to this link and read about the scheduled maintenance on the 2010 Prius. Toyota Parts and Service The only thing required from 0 to 45,000 miles is an oil change, new oil filter and new air filter. Again total $100 over the 45,000 miles. Dealers are all scumbags. Most scumbag dealers give free oil changes with the purchase of a new car. Once they get you in the shop for the oil change they try to sell you all kinds of options with your oil change. Like radiator fluid flush, trans flush, new $20 wipers, Teflon wax job, nitrogen gas for your tires, ect…. The free oil changes are scam to get more money out of your pocket.
