Extended Warranty vs. Basic

Should you break down while traveling, your nearest Toyota dealership WILL NOT welcome you with open arms with your warrantee. While my daughter in law away at school, her so called very reliable Toyota Corola broke down. With warrantee in hand, the closest Toyota dealer would take her in a week. They must have a very busy service department to wait a week to get an appointment. I guess toyotas aren't as reliable as they have you believe or maybe it's just another poorly run Toyota service department. It seems that they all are...or at least every one I delt with.

 

Give some more info. What year was the car? How many miles? What was wrong?

Dealers are all scumbags.

 

Maybe it is because Toyota does not give them good (financial) support!

 

It is a 2010 Corolla with 30'000 miles. She is still under the 3/36 and she purchased a Toyota extended warrantee. While she was driving to school, the check engine light, vsc light and traction controll lights came on. They wouldn't even see her for a quick diagnosis. She has driven it home and will call the dealership that sold her the car on Monday.

 

Chinese parts work fine. I doubt any of you beat up your "sissy" Prius and much I beat to hell my Jeep 08 Wrangler rock crawling or desert racing. Warranties are a gamble. Never got one on my 97 Camry, skipped it on the Jeep. Anything I broke was my fault. SHOULD HAVE gotten one on my 04 CLK500. Your paying for peace of mind and prepaying for any issues that may happen later. It's your money spend it how you like. I tell family and friends to skip it.

EXCEPT for BMW and Mercedes. I don't like $4k repairs. GRRRRRR.

 

You can get $4K repairs on the Prius too! And Toyota is particularly good at making folks pay $500 for a $100 repair!

 

Unless you are very very unlucky with this particular car it is not worth it ... statistically is a big win for them (1:100 level)... but again I CAN not put a price to your peace of mind 3+year from now ...

Take your time to think it over ....

Cheers

 

Should read: Chinese parts rarely work fine.

 

Being in Los Angeles, home to one of the best independent hybrid repair shops, I think you'll be fine without the warranty. Keep in mind, your 3/36K warranty covers the entire car, but, several expensive components have a longer warranty. Some 8y/80K and others 10Y/150K.

 

How do you determine the gender of your car?

 

If it ain't puttin' out, it's female, like my girlfriend.

Mike

 

You just have to know which buttons to push Mike. It's labeled "PWR", and she'll purr when you press it.

 

EZ now.

 

These are all silly arguments. The original OP wants to know what if any benefit is gained by purchasing the agreement prior to the end of the standard warranty - So he finds out .. not much. Judgeless launches into his normal rant about the warranties .. and dealers ... and then makes accusations about posters. We are here to try to help .....

Judgeless -- I don't understand you. Maybe you have good luck ordering cheap parts and installing them yourself -- my experience is different. But as I said in my early post ... I used the word "proper" when I spoke of the alternator. And that refer to an OE or near quality OE part. Your costs are off even with the cheaper part when you factor in the core cost/return and shipping. But it all silly -- because it still needs to be installed ... so telling someone that you can fix an alternator for $100.00 is not correct. The vast majority of car owners don't have the ability to have ordered parts installed (most service shops will not install them) and especially for no cost? Plus -- Who determines correctly what is wrong with the car? ... a failed alternator often leaves you with a dead car and a tow truck .... so you have to get it fixed ....immediately!

The cheapest ownership costs are when you keep your current vehicle -- but many people still don't feel comfortable when cars get to 75- 80k and 5 years old ..... If purchasing an extended warranty allows them to feel comfortable keeping the present car past this point they will save way more than the cost of the warranty in trade costs. For many the $250.00 to $300.00 maximum yearly cost is well worth it ... and that amount is never using it and not gaining any benefit when selling it. My neighbor added one to his Toyota because he is going to give it to his daughter next year when she goes away to school - It is cheap peace of mine.

The problem with the warranties as it relates to the Toyota vehicles -- is how the dealers sell them and the profit they make off them. You can get them from our friendly dealer here for basically $50.00 over the Toyota cost.

Toyota vehicles are very reliable -- certainly at the top tier ...... Our 2000 ES300 vehicles being the most reliable cars we have ever had in the fleet .. all bought as CPO cars and some had very little work done well past 150k --- but the later cars ........the 05's and 07's have not been as trouble free. People have different experiences and base decisions accordingly -- we have more than 15 cars ....and my experience .....even with the Lexus vehicles has been that the warranties pay off across the make .......

I don't have the extended warranty on the first Prius -- We will see if we keep it ........ but If we decide to keep it the 125k/ 7 year policy would be the way we would go for our use if we did decide to add the warranty.

 

You can take a Lexus in to any local gas station garage and an experienced mechanic can diagnose the problem like an alternator very fast. You can buy an aftermarket alternator for cheap and they can install it for cheap.

Many people have a fear of doing things like this. They have views that because it is a Lexus, the alternator works different then other cars. This is not true at all. They spend more money at a dealer for their own piece of mind. Other spend even more money on an extended warranty for peace of mind. Spending money on piece of mind is a gamble that most people lose at.

On my last Toyota it went 305,000 miles and 10 years on the original alternator. I did have a starter go bad at 225,000 miles and picked one up at Autozone and put it on myself. It took 10 minutes (2 main bolts and one nut for the wire) same as cars 20 years ago. I have 91,000 miles on my Prius with zero repairs. This car will never need an alternator because it does not have one.

 

Judgeless: Most shops will not install parts that they did not purchase -- they make money on the parts and they warranty the part. I don't understand why you find it so hard to understand that many people do not have the skill or the desire to fix cars ... They don't want to do it ... they want to pay someone to do it. It's not a case of fear on my part or not understanding -- I would rather be playing golf than fixing my car ... Clearly a huge number of people think nothing of spending 2k on the warranties -- since they do it over and over again --- within the Toyota brand.

The point of this discussion should be to direct owners on how to get the best program at the best price - Since many have come asking how to do it.

 

I think you missed the point. He is asking if he should get it now or wait until he is closer to 36,000 miles or 3 years?

My advice was to wait until the very end. If the car had zero issues it will be a good sign of things to come.

I am over 90,000 miles with zero issues. That is my input to help him make up his mind.

 

I am at 20K on our 2011 Model 5 with TWO MAJOR PROBLEMS THAT TOYOTA WON'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT! What good is an extended warranty if Toyota is going to wiggle out of it??

 

What are the 2 major issues?

 

I have the same question as the original poster. I purchased my Prius 2012 Model 2 (Beautiful seaglass color) Saturday and we purchased the 8 year 100,000 warranty for 1495.00. Is that a good price? If I want to cancel this warranty and purchase (or not purchase) closer to the 3 year 36K point will I still be able to get the platinum warranty at the same price?