This evening, my wife and I bought a Prius v three. My wife would like to get the Platinum 7yr/100,000 mile extended warranty. The dealer is quoting us a price of $2400. Does this sound right? Can this be negotiated or discounted? Thanks, Geary
Search the forum, Troy can get it to you for about $1K, for the same exact Toyota warranty. Some will say the warranty is not worth the cost. Personally I like the piece of mind, etc. -Harry
I just bought mine last week. Before I bought it my insurance agent told me to not get the extended warranty. She said there is a mechanical coverage through the insurance co for new cars up to 100k mile for $4 a month.
We'll check with our insurance agent. I just discovered that Putnam Toyota in San Francisco sells the exact same Platinum coverage online for $1050.
FYI you can buy the extended or any of the warranty packages anytime before your 36month 36000mile factory warranty expires. Hold on to your money until later. Your factory warranty covers everything until then.
Extended warranties make no economic sense. You will almost certainly never get back as much as half of what you spend on it, and most likely nothing at all. Why give the dealer or an aftermarket insurer a $1000 or $2400 Christmas present? Even buying diamond jewelry would be a better use of the money.
In the process of buying a 2011 package V Prius. Toyota's finance guy quoted us $2,400 for the 7 year/75k mile extended warranty. We told him we were not interested and he was willing to drop it in half to $1,205. That was the lowest he was willing to go. This is our third Prius (we've owned a gen I and a gen II) and we've never had a single issue w/ any of them. We purchased the extended warranties for the first two (prob. spent about $2k on each) and never used them. We're thinking about not paying for the extended warranty this time. Thoughts on this decision? Thanks in advance.
I have to agree on this. I am not a great proponent of extended warranties. Generally speaking, especially with tech loaded items, the problems, if any, will show up in the first year. If not, there is a three year warranty on this vehicle bumper to bumper. If something is going to happen, it is generally going to happen by then. Also, the Prius model has been reasonably reliable over the past decade. I cannot see paying for something to go wrong that is not likely to happen. It is not like I am buying life insurance. I am willing to take my chances. If something happens before then and I pay a large sum out of pocket, Toyota just lost a customer.
Save your money. If you insist on geting the extended warranty do not do so through the dealer!!! As others have pointed out, you can buy the coverage later on and more cheaply. Good Luck!
Interestingly, I called the Extra Care claims # and was told that struts, shock absorbers and lift gate struts are covered under the Platinum policy. However, I cannot find any confirmation of this on the printed material. As an insurance underwriter myself, I would prefer to see something like this in writing. I've gotten a quote for the exact same policy from a different seller for about $1100.
My 2008 with 50,000 miles on it has had the following maintenance issues -- CD changer died at 34,000 miles (Whew! replaced under warranty). Drivers side floormat tore through grommet, was sliding around. Mentioned to dealer that the floormats had been implicated in "throttle" issues, they too a bazillion photos and replaced free. Under-chin splash Guard coming loose. Remind me not to loan Prius to kids. Will replace at my expense, would not, I'm sure, have been covered under any warranty since damage is likely from parking lot curbstones. I just don't see paying for an extended warranty on these cars.
My own thinking is to insure only those things that I could not afford to replace (and that I could not live without) should they go south. For anything that I could afford I won't bet against the house. You know they're making money on the deal over the long term and many buyers, so on average it's a loosing deal for us consumers. So, there's the question - could I afford to replace a broken internal Prius whatnot widget? Those things can get pretty pricy. On the other hand, based on all the tidbits I can gather, it's not very likely I'll need to. On balance, I'll wing it. If I loose the bet I'll just have to pay up and put off a few dinners out.
Exactly. Insurance companies will make money overtime, or else they would go out of business. With that said, if you do not always have a large amount of cash on hand to pay for repairs (1-2k before 100k, 4-5k after 100k), then I think you may be better off getting an extended warranty. Truth is, nothing is cheap on these cars if you are reliant on a dealer.
I was convinced by my dealer to buy the extended warranty (6yr/100k) for my Prius (not a V) primarily because of the "money-back guarantee" (less $50 fee) if I don't use the warranty. I agree with the other posters who basically said the odds of the warranty being worth it are very low. I have never gotten an extended warranty on my other (carefully selected) vehicles, and have not regretted it. If this money-back thing weren't there, I would never have discussed it with the dealer. Aren't they clever? Regardless, I'm considering canceling it just due to the hoops one has to jump through to recover the money at the end of the service period. Admittedly it is sending paperwork in, but it must be timed correctly and also I need an odometer statement signed by a licensed vehicle dealer. What dealer will want to be bothered with that? (Maybe the one I bought it from, but that will likely not be convenient 100,000 miles from now.) Does anyone have experience recovering the value of one of these money-back guarantee deals when the warranty is unused at the end of the coverage period?
I would never buy one, unless you can find one to 150 or 200k. On modern cars 100k is just barely broken in, and any issues before then are likely to be covered under a recall. As mentioned, most stuff will break before the 36mo or after 125k miles. You are much better off saving the money, and just paying out of pocket if something does go wrong.
I do not know. I bought an extended warranty on my 2006 Prius, from Troy (thanks man!) for about $900 two years into our ownership. And honestly, I figured we might not use it. Then suddenly... This year we have had to replace the second water pump (not the one that was in the recall.) I had no idea we had two? Then, I had to replace most of the steering system. Who knows what happened, suddenly the car was clicking like mad and my steering was FUBAR'ed. Then the motor for the driver's side window went kaput and the rear wiper decided to only go half-way across the back window. Mind you, all of these happened between 88K-92K miles. So, still covered under the extended, but all these were absorbed by the ext. warr. and more than paid for the initial ~$900 I paid three years ago. It's a gamble, no doubt about it. You might need it. You might not. But, if you are like me and you keep cars until they die (Or you are in grad school and have no money, heh heh) then the peace of mind isn't so bad.
I would think it would be a fuzzy area at best since it is a wear item. I think you could make a case for at least partial coverage. For example (hypothetical since I don't have facts) let's say the 12 v battery is labeled a 48 month battery and yours died at 36. Generally things are prorated like this. Sometimes your dealership will step in and do the right thing and often not. My Honda dealership was great in this regard but we will see on the Toyota. They did give us an oil change at 5k miles on one car no charge since I made a case for it. (car is driven in cold snowy climates per the manual) W
