Extended Warranty on New Gen III is BAD IDEA!

I've got a question on how the Toyota 7 year/100K warranty works. Is that 7 years added to the standard 3 year warranty for a total of 10 years or is the 7 years already ticking when I buy the car and the warranty? The latter would mean the warranty only adds 4 years.

Of course I presume the 100K limit is 100K and is not added to the 36K standard warranty which means it only extends the warranty by 64K. So are we looking at a an extended warranty that is only in effect for 4 years or 64K miles, which ever comes first?

I keep my cars for 10 years minimum. My clunker jeep was a '94 (bought in '93). I'd really like a warranty that kicks in at 10 years/100K miles. That's when you really need it.

 

The 7 years (or 8 supposedly on its way) includes the first 3 years and/or 36,000 miles (which I always hit before 3 years). None offered by MFG or outside companys have longer than this to my knowledge (used to be 5 years was max). There are pros and cons to waiting as noted in my earlier post. If I was financing at a mid to high interest rate, it might pay to wait and purchase shortly before the mfg warranty ends. However, no guaranty that the $1,055 price will be same down the road. This was less now, thanks to Priuschat price matching by the dealer, then I paid for an Avalon several years ago. So heads or tails

 

Folks,

My wife's car, prior to buying her 2010 Prius, was a 98 Subaru Forester with 20,000 miles at purchase. Dealer tried to beat her out of the extended warranty that went with the car. She fought back, got the extended warranty transferred to her car. Within two years the warranty paid for 6 wheel bearings and three (3) rear drive units.

FWIW

 

Healthy:

Thanks for being the foil on this topic and adding much intellectual value. I'm a Middle of the Road type of guy. Politically and for this topic as well. I did not bite at the EW when "offered" --- more like strong sell. Like others, I listened and replied No thanks. More talk - a lot of -what can go wrong, Prius is very complex, etc etc. Again like others - not comforting when picking up a brand new car. That said I knew I could pull the trigger at a later time, and paid cash for the car so low-rate financing of the EW was not a tool. Another factor, I'll probably drive only 20K miles by the third year.

Question for those Gen II owners. Do you recall if the EW increased in price after 3 years? More than inflation anyway.
One main factor I will use to determine if I will buy on the 35th month is the relative cost and reliability/failure input from PC.

This all said I didn't buy the EW on my 99 Lexus RX. We did incur over $3K in costs that would probably have been covered by a good EW. 2 wheel bearings, suspension, and a few expensive throttle body and emission control parts. All past the standard warranty - yes on a Lexus... Don't recall the EW cost back then, but may have been a break-even considering the 10 year timeframe.

And folks, let's play nice now.... no flameouts.

 

Hmm $22 a month seems like pretty cheap insurance to me and a lot of other folks. Oh and ya i have health insurance also...3 policys.

 

The disadvantage of this is you will loose the emergence road service, loaner car, towing and other things the extended plan has the standard 3 year 36 warranty does not have. You would give up about $150 worth of AAA like services.

I look at it this way I do not drive my Prius normally my wife does,
it worth the money to me for her to just have one number to call and all is taken car of no [FONT=&quot]hassles [/FONT], no charge.

 

Wouldn't impact me - all the above comes along with my car insurance. Sure understand how it would for some other folks as you...

 

Whatever the pros and cons, I think most will agree that the best time to make the decision on an extended warranty is not when the salesperson is applying pressure. My husband initially agreed to the EW, but I convinced him we should wait out the bulk of the initial warranty and then decide. As soon as we backpedaled, we were double-teamed by the salesman and someone from the back office. They grilled us for 20 full minutes on what a huge mistake we were making. The hard-sale method really turned us off and only succeeded in solidifying our decision to wait. If the dealership was that hard up to sell the EW, I suspected there was something big in it for them. Then again, perhaps they were truly concerned for our financial well-being (we paid cash) and were simply attempting to save us from ourselves...Nah.

They ought to just send you home with some brochures for the EW and what it covers and let you decide whether or not to sign up after doing your own research and budget calculations.

 

Great points. Any good dealer leaves the door open. I always research before purchasing; even a blender, so probably over prepare...but prior to seeing the Prius Chat offer of $1,055 for 7 years, I always just cut the dealer's initial cost in half. Usually that was overkill for any profit so had to come up a couple of hundred. As this site is always growing, hopefully lots of potential buyers will see this price and can say to their dealer, take it or leave it. Mine took it and matched, as most dealers would.

 

Longo in so. cal. had the most aggressive, below MSPR pricing on Prius I could find at this time, HOWEVER, in finance they offered me the extended warranty at 2900!, LOLOLOL I almost did a spit-take with my coffee.

I did not understand this extended warranty process or the fact it could be purchased later, within the 3/36 period until reading this forum. I am hugely grateful. Also, in CA, the warranty on hybrid drive train and battery is very long - going beyond the extended warranty I believe.

I think most are worried about an expensive battery, inverter, or hybrid system fix - I rest well knowing these are very adequately warrantied.

 

While those things would be the larger ticket repairs, I would worry more about A/C, switches, power accessories and all the little parts that can and do break. 70K miles, not a worry. 125K miles good chance of something breaking. If not, then yes, perhaps money wasted. Could be you break even; could be you saved a lot in the long run by buying the warranty. Certainly you have added value for selling it to someone by having a transferrable warranty.

If everybody "needed" the insurance (that is they paid out to everyone) then the cost would be a lot higher. For everone that has a repair there has to be someone that does not inorder for the insurerer to make a profit. Sorta like the lottery. Everyone pays in but not all collect.

 

Agree, extended warranty on anything, especially a new car has always been a bad idea. This has been a "one sided" debate for some time with just about all of the consumer trades voting against it. The one exception had been Rear Projection big screen TVs. That might not even be the case anymore.

 

We bought the EW on my wifes 2002 Odyssey. $1700. Paid for a $350 AC repair, $300 door motor, $4500 transmission that died at 77000 miles.

I bought one on my 2000 Trans Am and never used it. To date it's the most reliable car I have owned.

We bought the Toyota EW on my wifes Prius but only paid $1100 for it.

 

I had a second gen Prius (2005, Package III) with 81,542 miles on it. I say had. On Aug.4 (yes, 10 days ago), I had dropped a friend off at the dentist and was on my way home when the red warning triangle appeared on the dash. Then the asb, vsc, trac, brake, and check engine icons came on. Then, the MFD displayed the word problem. The warning chimes started ringing. I immediately stopped my Prius and called Triple AAA to have it towed to the nearest dealership. The service advisor called me at home after 4 1/2 hours to tell me the power inverter water pump blew and took a slew of systems with it. It was going to be $ 4,700! I was stunned. The Toyota branded Platinum Warranty when I had bought the car in 2005 would have been $ 1,100 and covered everything at no charge.

On August 5, I went and bought my brand new 2010 Prius IV, silver with dark gray leather and nav. I also paid $ 950 for the Toyota Platinum 7 year/ 150,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty and $ 750 for all scheduled maintenance (LOF, tire rot & bal, spark plugs, cabin filters, etc) through 60,000 miles. I even get a free loaner Prius whenever I bring my car in, albeit warranty issues or an oil change. Yes I did get this in writing.

And before anyone goes spouting off about these kind of things just don't happen, please take this into consideration -

1. My mother, my father, my wife, and myself have owned nothing but Toyota's since 1986! 5 Camry's, 3 trucks (1 1/2 ton and 2 Tundras), 2 Highlanders, a Tercel, an Avalon and 2 Prius' now. My wife currently drives a 2007 Highlander Hybrid...

2. The average mileage per year is between 15,000 and 20,000 miles.

3. My first Toyota (an 1986 1/2 Pickup) was traded in 1993 with 497,000 + miles on it. The transmission was starting to slip and my father did not want to put money into the truck. We paid $6,500 for the truck in 86 and I got $5,400 for it on trade in 93.

4. I took exceptional care of my Prius. All maintenance done on time and on schedule and at the dealership. The car looked new, even with 81,542 miles on it.

5. The service managers at the dealership where my car was towed and at the dealership where I bought my new Prius both said that this was an increasingly more common problem with the G2 Prius' in Arizona.

So, for the money I have spent now (and should have spent then) would have more than paid for the repairs on my old Prius.

However, I am really glad I didn't. Because then the shiny new 2010 Prius IV would not be sitting in my driveway and I would not be the envy of the nieghborhood.

I would normally say the extended warranty (especially 3rd party warranties) are a waste of time and money. But this is the Toyota Warranty and I am very happy with every Toyota I have ever owned. Which is why my family and I are still buying them 23 years after we bought our first one..

 

Glad it all worked out. If I may ask, what did you do with the 06? Did the dealer take it as is on a trade or...?

Also, question about 150,000 miles - soon after I purchased mine, I had heard more warranty options were coming out, such as an 8 year warranty so just went and looked at Toyotas web page and see 125,000 maxes for the 7 and 8 now posted?

Not that I would not be happy with paying $950 for 100,000 or 125,000, and I sleep well at night having paid $1,055 for my 7/100,000. Even if I never use it, I know selling it privately will recoup most if not all cost (always sell with a few months remaining on EWs).

 

I was looking at what is covered by the platimnum EW on Toyat's website and everything they list is covered. Does anyone know what is not covered? Surely they don't cover everything?

I know normal wear and tear isn't covered, nor maintenance. Are there any surprises for the holder of the EW?

 

1++.

CPS argues that dealer repairs are expensive. To that I say, be a smart consumer and use an independent shop if the dealer is a rip-off. If it is your money, it is your choice.

Already mentioned by another poster too, but worth repeating: a lot of the high cost repairs that might occur in a Prius during the EW period are covered by the hybrid warranty.