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Toyota Extra Care Platinum or Gold

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by cossie1600, Dec 31, 2010.

  1. Judgeless

    Judgeless Senior Member

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    Andreuccio you summarized insurance very well here.

    That is why I pay $400 a year for home insurance and $700 a year for car insurance. Both the car and the house are paid in full. I cannot understand why people would waste $1 or $1,000 on a extended warranty for a Toyota.
     
  2. DumbMike

    DumbMike Active Member

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    I was with you all the way until this statement. You mean to tell me that you wouldn't get the extended warranty for 3-4 years, or whatever amount of time it is, for $1? I buy it in a second for $1.

    I hope I'm not mis-stating your position.

    And by the way, I'll also buy a lottery ticket every once in awhile, so my odds on that aren't very good, either.

    Mike
     
  3. DumbMike

    DumbMike Active Member

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    It was a joke.

    Mike
     
  4. Andreuccio

    Andreuccio Junior Member

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    Sorry, Mike. Missed it. I guess I'm the dumb one. :)
     
  5. Andreuccio

    Andreuccio Junior Member

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    Thank you. :)

    I'm with Mike here. There's some $ amount at which the extended warranty is definitely a good value. Toyota's not likely to tell us what that is. My guess throughout this thread has been about $500. At $1, or even $400, I personally wouldn't think twice about it. It would already be bought.

    At $1000, I have to factor in all those things on that list: is it worth $500 extra to me to always have factory parts, always have factory trained technicians, know that I won't be (further) ripped off because any repair suggested to me will be paid for, know that I won't have any unexpected repair bills, etc. It might be, it might not be. Fortunately, I still have 35,000 miles to go before I need to decide.

    Congrats on paying everything off. That's impressive.
     
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  6. Judgeless

    Judgeless Senior Member

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    On my last car if I paid $1 for the extended warranty it would have been $1 wasted. Nothing broke that would be covered until I was over 180,000 miles and 5 years.

    http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...a-extra-care-platinum-gold-7.html#post1260745

    On my current 2010 Prius I have over 50,000 miles and nothing has broke. In less than 18 months I will have over 100,000 miles and predict zero issues. If I spent $1 on the Prius it would be a $1 wasted.

    The lottery is a perfect example of a service that makes a huge profit with pre determined odds. A lot of people waste money on the lottery with big hopes.
     
  7. mjv

    mjv Junior Member

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    One thing that people have not mentioned with regards to warranty is the ability to have this as an option when you sell your vehicle. I put about 15,000 miles on the car per year, so a 125,000 mile warranty would cover me and then would give some added "piece of mind" to the person I might sell it to, assuming it transfers with the car and does not have to stay with the original owner.
     
  8. unkprius

    unkprius Member

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    So the outcome of purchasing the extended warranty is a guaranteed predictable outcome! :rockon:

    ( But juuuuust in case it isn't, well, then all those examples cited are obviously all the same. With varying odds due to amount of research(buy Toyota Honda, look at his/her family, watch the Weather Channel), application of influences that might affect outcome(maintain your body and car well, treat him/her right put in the work).

    The 'smart choice' may or not be the wisest choice because it is only in hindsight that we find out if it was.

    If one doesn't get hit for a $$$ repair in years 4 - 6/7/8 then not buying the warranty was absolutely positively the smart choice!

    BUT, if one does get bit, then it obviously wasn't. And then what do we tell them? ....'Doh, bad break, sorry about that, had to happen to someone sooner or later, the odds had to catch up sometimes, no car is perfect, probably not a wise choice,and you did have money set aside for this right, and hey look at all those owners who never had problems!')

    PS: I fully realize that the odds of me ever using my extended warranty are slim to none, low, virtually nil, etc. etc. But I don't like it being implied/inferred/even said that to purchase the warranty means one is (insert negative term here). It's pushing the 'you have a right to your opinion/decision unless it doesn't agree with ours then you're wrong' agenda. That irks me a bit. :)
     
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  9. Andreuccio

    Andreuccio Junior Member

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    Here I have to flat out disagree with you.

    If 100 prius owners had bought the warranty for $1, and one of them had had a repair for $101, then all of you would have had a positive expectation even if 99 of you lost your dollar. I'd be shocked if out of 100 random Prius owners there wasn't at least $101 worth of warranty repairs.

    That brings up a good question that this is a great place to ask:

    Are there any Prius owners out there who had repairs covered under the extended warranty (or that would have been covered had they bought it)?

    That might help us have a more informed discussion. Maybe we should start a thread.

    Finally, Judgeless, if you're really confident that the warranty isn't even worth $1, I have a proposition for you: Warranty my car. I'll even give you better odds. I'll put up $50. And you don't have to warranty the whole value of the car. Put up, say, $10,000. We'll find an escrow company to hold the money. I'll pay escrow fees. I'll agree to maintain my car as per manufacturer specs. Any repairs that would be covered under warranty, we'll take out of the account. At the end of the warranty period, (7 years or 100K miles, IIRC), you get to keep whatever's in the account.

    What do you say?
     
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  10. bretaz

    bretaz Member

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    I'm in. I would do it. I guarantee he would lose money on me.

    You don't have to look far to find people that would have made out with the warranty.

    http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...4-prius-transmission-dealer-wants-5693-a.html

    The most expensive repair I have ever had in my life and approximately 30 new cars was my 2003 Prius. At two years and 74k miles the inverter was replaced under warranty, but did not fix my problem. Then they said it was the transaxle, which was not under warrant and would be $7,000.00. Thankfully, Toyota good willed it and fixed it for free. With all the tow bills, rental cars, inverter, and transaxle, it would have been around $14,000.00. While waiting for their decision as to whether they would cover it or not, I had decided it was pretty much totalled. I would have let Toyota Financial have it back.
     
  11. Judgeless

    Judgeless Senior Member

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    It is a free country. You have the right to buy or decline the extended warranty all you want. I personal have not (insert negative term here) called a person a name for buying the warranty. All I have done repeated myself 500 times in this thread. I claim over and over and over the odds are against you when you buy and extended warranty. Can we all agree on that.
     
  12. Judgeless

    Judgeless Senior Member

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    I am not in the business of providing car warranties. My point was if I paid $1 for my last Toyota it would have been a waste of a $1. If I paid $1 for my current Prius it would have been a waste so far. This also applies if I paid $1,000 or $2,000 like many people pay when the scumbag dealer puts the pressure on at the end of the sale.
     
  13. macmaster05

    macmaster05 Senor Member

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    Ahhh Judgeless is a man of such strong conviction! I usually never wish anyone ill, but I really hope he gets hit with a 4-digit repair bill sometime in the future. Just for LOLs! :D
     
  14. Judgeless

    Judgeless Senior Member

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    I do not understand this post. You had a 7 year old Prius that had a modified engine kit and and the transaxle broke. It needed $14,000 in repairs?

    It sounds like Toyota took care of you but it never should have been covered by a standard or extended warranty.
     
  15. Judgeless

    Judgeless Senior Member

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    I am a very resourceful person. If I have a something expensive that needs replaced I have no problem getting parts from a junkyard to save a boat load of money.
     
  16. macmaster05

    macmaster05 Senor Member

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    Damn. :rolleyes:
     
  17. Andreuccio

    Andreuccio Junior Member

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    Absolutely not!

    I maintain it depends on the price you pay compared to the expected payout. At $1000 I agree with you: the odds are against you. At $1, the odds are strongly in your favor. At some point in between, it is a fair bet: the odds are neither for you nor against you.
     
  18. bretaz

    bretaz Member

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    That link was not my my car. Just an example. My car was the 03 that was 2 years old.
     
  19. Judgeless

    Judgeless Senior Member

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    You can not buy it for less than $1,000.

    I claim over and over and over the odds are against you when you buy and extended warranty for $1,000. Can we all agree on that.
     
  20. Judgeless

    Judgeless Senior Member

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    That was a horrible example.

    If your car was less than 2 years old why was it not covered by the Toyota warranty? How many miles were on it? I think anyone that pressed the issue on $14,000 in repairs on a 2 year old car would get it covered. It sounds like you did.