I am new here but have had my Prius for almost 36,000. Love it but am debating on the purchase of an extended warranty. Any advice as to what the risks benefits are? In these times that is a sizable amount of cash for our household. Also the price I received from Troy (Factory Discount Warranty) is $1055 and not the special $990 for Prius Chat members. Any other quotes out there? Appreciate any help on this question.
If you purchase an extended warranty, be sure to buy it before you hit the 3 year / 36000 mark. Once you exceed the original warranty period, you cannot buy the extended warranty from Toyota. I never purchased the extended warranty for my 04 and never found that I needed it. However, I did purchase one for my 09 as it has more bells and whistles. The best price I found was from Troy at Warranty Shack (Welcome to WarrantyShack! | WarrantyShack). He was about 1/2 the price of my local dealer.
IMO take that grand and open an account at www.GMACbank.com at ~4 1/3%. The warranty issuer is betting you won't use it while you are betting that you will. If the warranty makes sense for the buyer then the car is a POS that shouldn't be bought in the first place.
If you had taken care of your car before the original factory warranty expires, then you may very well not buy the extended warranty and use the cash somewhere else. I've had a number of vehicles and never used my extended warranty. When my Prius' warranty expires, I do not intend to get an extended warranty. I am more concerned on the Hybrid system, which is warranted for 8 years/100,000 miles.
Normal warranty is here (in Europe) 3 years. I paid for 2 extra years warranty 430 euro ($550) and after 4.5 years I had my hood repainted (small bubbles) and driveshafts replaced (because of some little noices). Afterall a good deal.
Also remember that items that are considered wear and tear are not included in the extended warranty.
Extended warranties are a waste of money, especially for your Prius because most of the bugs were worked out by the time you bought it. Invest it somewhere or use it to buy something useful.
Most of the people that have posted here are anti-extended warranty. Their basic reasoning is sound: the average person will come out behind on the extended warranty. That is, the warranty will cost the average person more than the total cost of the repairs it will cover. Toyota wouldn't sell it at the price they do (even at Troy's discounted price) if they didn't make money on it. People (including myself) buy the extended warranty as a type of insurance. I understand that, on average, I'm going to come out behind, but there are also stories of the warranty covering (potentially) expensive repairs. I made the decision that, since we could afford the warranty at this point, it was worth it for the piece of mind.
Insurance only makes sense when you can't afford to cover a potential loss, or are unwilling to live with the risk. Just like casino gambling, the house always wins in the long run. Individuals may get lucky from time to time, but if they play long enough they end up behind. As for an extended warranty, it almost never makes sense from an economic standpoint. You may decide it's worth the cost just for the peace of mind. Tom
I really think that an extended warranty is a big money maker for car manufacturers. +1 for the peace of mind.
Our $1,000 bumper to bumper (zero deductable) extended warranty paid for itself over 150% already, and we have another 20,000 miles left on it. Like fire insurance on your home ... you can say "it's a waste" all day long ... until your house burns down. Then you'll count your lucky stars. That said, those of us who got the 2004's were the most suseptable to twitchy things in need of rework.
