Has anyone used the prepaid maintenance coupons for their service. Were all services covered? Did they try to charge you anything extra? Thanks very much, Pagile
I wish I could answer your question directly, however I can't answer your specific questions. But I can provide my opinion. Depending on the dealer, prepaid service can be a huge money maker for them. Or they could break even on it. Of course, with things like that, it is an issue of money up front for services yet to be provided, or a provision for extra profit for them. The quality of services or the depth of services you receive in a pre-paid plan vary from dealer to dealer. I'd start with the paper you might have describing pre-paid service package that your dealer is offering you. It should cover all of the basic items which Toyota recommends for the Prius. For the most part, that is oil changes every 5,000 mi and a lot of visual inspections of various parts and tire rotations. There are no services for transmission fluid for a very long time, if ever (it has been a while since I flipped through my maintenance schedule) and the plugs and coolant are supposed to last 100,000. If you haven't already, ask your dealer for a look at the Prius maintenance schedule. You'll find that the vehicle pretty much only needs oil changes. So, if the program your dealer wants to sell you includes a lot of other services which are not applicable to the Prius, I'd avoid it. And I'd also probably avoid pre-paid service regardless of what kind of vehicle you are getting. Pay for maintenance as it occurs. Which is much smarter than paying ahead anyway.
I have the pre-paid maintenance program. It covers the normal items the dealer does. I've used it twice already and am coming up on the 15k service. You get a account number so if you lose your coupons don't worry about it - they can look you up. I purchased the program through Troy Dietrich from Toyota of Greenfield. He was able to offer a much better price than my local dealer. There is now a link from this website to get the program at http://www.priuschat.com/forums/toyota-ser...ted-vt3130.html
The prepaid maintenance is convenient but the time limit means that it can expire before you get your money's worth. Toyota does not make sure that trusting their maintenance program is good value for the customer. Don't expect to save money. It's just another way for Toyota to profit from that manipulative financial guy who takes over once you're committed to the purchase.
