Regret buying or not buying the Extended Warranty?

Howdy dancekat59

I did NOT buy the Extended Warranty from the selling Dealer... although the Finance Manager assured me that I MUST buy when I buy the car and pay their quoted $1,800. With a knowing smile, I declined. Just because I'm so 'nice,' I didn't call her an outright liar. Your post implies that you're about to run out of the 3/36K original warranty(?)

I have no regrets since I will consider buying before my bumper-to-bumper 3/36K warranty expires - and for somewhat less than the dealer wanted. Currently, you can buy the Extended Warranty from the PriusChat store for less than $1,000 (Same Warranty as the dealer's). The Extended Warranty is essentially an "Insurance Policy" which is based on historical and anticipated claims. That being the case, the current price may not be sustained if claims rise. Profit is the goal of the warranty issuer, so rates could change.

One thing you might want to do is go to the PriusChat store and read the provisions of the Extended Warranty, particularly to see what is *NOT* covered, might be a surprise or two there for you.

My conclusion... I probably will not buy an Extended Warranty.

 

If I have the car and plan on keeping it after the standard warranty expires I will undoubtedly buy it. There are many things that can go wrong in any car and you are bound to be overcharged with a Prius

 

I didn't get the extended warranty when I bought my car, even though the dealer said he was offering it at cost. I figured I could worry about it later. Then when I called my insurance company (Geico) to transfer the policy from my old car to the Prius, they said my coverage automatically included a 7-year extended warranty (with a deductible) because it was a new car. I mentioned that to the dealer when I went to pick up the Prius the next day, and he said it wasn't really the same thing. But then he was still hoping to sell me his warranty, so...

 

The car is already expensive so I didn't want to add to that price (although I understand and believe Toyota loses money producing the Prius.) Since buying I have had a chance to read the factory warranty and in CA states like you seem to be in, the warranty covers a lot of expensive components for 15 years or 150000 miles, and 8/100 federal. Plus the hybrid battery separate warranty. Plus the powertrain is 5/60. I am stilll deciding yes or no, but it seems to me if I place even $1000 in a CD for three years I will have about $1150 to spend on repairs, $1250 in five years, in ten years any extended warrany will be over anyway, still relying on the originall no cost 15/150. I would worry about things like the smart key system, so it is sort of like gambling. On the other hand, the reason we buy Toyota is for reliability so the chances are better not to have a claim at all.

 

we will be buying one soon (just hit 30k today) because even though DH could fix anything that went wrong, many parts are still expensive.

if you want the peace of mind, go for it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Charles Suitt @ May 25 2007, 10:48 AM) [snapback]449933[/snapback]</div>

No surprises:

 

I never buy warranties or extended warranties on any product simply because they are only an additional profit mode for the seller. For the dealer to make any money selling the warranty simple statistics and common sense tells us that it is more likely that you will spend more money purchasing the warranty than you will spend on repairs covered by the warranty.

I have a "car maintenance fund' that put $100 per month in until it reaches $500. This combined with my "general emergency fund" of $1000 will just about cover any major repair required.

 

Having sold my 04 (and now with an 06 ) I did buy the warranty for my 06 through PriusChat.
Why? Because when I sold my 04 I THINK I lost about $2k because it did not have the extended warranty. (87k miles)
I plan on selling my 06 in 08 so the $1k for the warranty makes sense.

 

I got an extended warranty for a camcorder and never needed it.

I got an extended warranty for a refrigerator, used it and got a new one.

I got an extended warranty on my last car, needed it and it was worthless. This was due to the fact it was a third-party (not from a dealer), and the salesman never sent in the form (but kept the money).

I did get the extended warranty through PriusChat. I waited until it was about 700 miles to go until 36K.

It's a cr*p shoot. You may never need it, or you may need it at 40K miles.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Charles Suitt @ May 25 2007, 12:48 PM) [snapback]449933[/snapback]</div>

Man Charles,

They were trying to let you off cheap! I was told that I could get the warranty 'at cost' for $2150. Since I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, I went ahead and got it.

Once I found Priuschat, I realized three things:

1. I could get the warranty a lot cheaper.
2. I plan on picking up the next generation Prius when it comes out.
3. I can get the warranty anytime before 3/36k.

Needless to say, I canceled it immediately.

 

I didn't buy the extended warranty yet. The dealer wanted to give me a special price of about $1800.00. I knew I could do better than that. They did say if you bought it now and never used it, they would refund the full cost.

I'll revist my decision prior to turning 3/36K; depends on the problems (if any) I have until then.

 

I've always thought an extended warranty would increase the value of my '04 when I sell it since it will give the buyer some additional peace of mind.

Agree or disagree?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(redryder @ May 25 2007, 09:26 PM) [snapback]450152[/snapback]</div>

Disagree, I would never pay more for a car with an extended warranty. If I thought the car needed a warranty I wouldn't purchase the car. In fact a dealer tried to sell me a "Certified Used Prius" and I just laughed and said if you make a good car the extra warranty is worthless. The salesman was speechless!

Now if two identical cars were side by side for the same price and one had the warranty I would take it. But as a value adder no. At the most it could only add the price that you paid for the warranty to begin with so your not gaining anything.

 

Before I got my Prius I owned a Camry, so I've gotten to know the mechanics at the service department.

My friendly salesman STRONGLY recommended the extended warranty. He also STRONGLY recommended the over priced VIN etching, the over priced rust protection, the overpriced mud flaps, etc.

So I asked the mechanic, who basically said that they sell a lot of Prius', but rarely see any come in for anything but routine maintenance. He generally DOES NOT recommend the extended warranty for Toyota cars, and believes that the Prius as well built as most.

HOWEVER, the technology is different than most other cars, so if something does go wrong, you may be stuck going to the dealer, unless you have an excellent mechanic.

Ultimately, I decided against the exended warranty. YMMV

 

We did not get the warranty. Right now we have two 2007 vehicles - a Tacoma and a Prius. We owe $9K on each. By paying $1000/month, we will be paid off a year before the warranty is up. We'll just keep putting that amount into an account to use for repairs if necessary - or to keep for whenever we buy a new vehicle.

We had a Ford Ranger - piece of crap, broke frequently, the ESP would have been good, but there comes a time when no matter if you're paying for repairs or not, it's just too much of a PITA to take it in to the shop every month.

We had a Dodge Caravan - transmission went out at 60K. We traded it in and got a whopping $2000 trade-in value.

Then, we switched to Toyotas.

1994 Tercel - drove it 56K, never had ANY problems, sold it to my sister for $6000, she drove it to 160K and then sold it again.
2003 Corolla - loved it, never had ANY problems, traded it in on the Tacoma - traded it in for $11K
2004 Corolla - loved it, never had ANY problems, traded it in on a Sienna - got $11,500 trade
2004 Sienna - loved it, never had ANY problems, traded it in on the Prius, got $11.8K
Current vehicles - 2007 Tacoma, 2007 Prius - no problems yet, no problems anticipated!

Seriously, we've never taken any Toyota in for anything but maintenance. 13 years of owning these cars and not once have we needed to get service.

So what I've learned through the vehicles I've purchased is - if you're buying a non-Toyota, buy the ESP. You'll probably need it. But if you're buying a Toyota, you probably don't need an extended warranty. And warranty or not, Toyotas will hold their resale value more than any of the other vehicles we've experimented with.

BTW - when we bought the Dodge, the finance guy did his best to sell us the plan. He brought out all sorts of paperwork showing how expensive it is to repair. We told him - if your van is such a piece of junk that it will break expensively and regularly, why do we want to buy it in the first place? Didn't have a good response to that one, but it stopped him from trying to sell us more. Maybe if we had bought the plan we would have had the van repaired instead of trading it in on a Toyota. Whew, that was a close one!

 

it's kind of like hospital insurance, you have to have it even if you never need it. you might be lucky and enjoy perfect health and just drop dead.now, only if you would have invested in life insurance :lol: sort of like extended warrentys

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jhinton @ May 25 2007, 08:33 PM) [snapback]450160[/snapback]</div>

I bought the warranty and am glad I did. If any of the electronics go, I wouldn't want to know how much it would cost to fix them. I already used it on the little plastic things that delaminated around the bottom of the skirt area back bumper. It feels great to have the security. You take it in if the thing sneezes and they fix it with the platinum warranty.

 

I bought the extended warranty from Troy who offers if through this site at a great savings, and am glad to have done so.

 

What do you need to do to get a reply from the extended warranty offered from this pages? I filled out the information nearly 3 weeks ago, the site indicated I'd be contacted in 2 to 3 business days and I have yet to hear from anyone.