Extended warranty YES or NO?

I'm a bit confused - I'm not sure what you mean by "after market warranty." The only extended warranty I'm familiar is the Platinum one offered by Toyota, which you already have.

If you're asking if you should get ANOTHER warranty on top of that, I'd say between that and insurance you're pretty well covered.

 

Yes, a few people have used their extended warranty. Very few people get more than half of their money back from it.

 

We have 2007 that we purchased 3 years ago tomorrow. We only have about 31000 miles on it. We have had to use the warranty once - just recently. Because of the computerized systems, we feel that we should get the extended warranty since we plan to keep the vechicle for several more years. In reading the prius chat posts, we learned of several dealers across the country that give good deals. We contacted them all & by far the best deal was with Jerry Johnson at Midwest Toyota in KS. We waited until the last minute to make a final decision because we could not decide between the 8 yr & 7 yr and the 100K miles or 75K miles. Based on current mileage we calculated that if we went with 8 year, we would need the 100K mi warranty & if we wanted to cut cost by getting the 75K mile warranty we should go with the 7 year because we would likely hit the 75K in the 7th year. The difference in the price of these two options was $495 (just under 1/2 the cost of the 8 yr/100Kmi option). So we finally decided that that extra year + 25K mi amounted to almost 1/2 the total cost of the 8 yr/100Kmi warranty. We decided to gamble & get the 7yr/75Kmi warranty for $654. Apparently, they figure that more stuff goes wrong in that 8th year or that last 25K miles - so maybe we won't keep the car past 7 years. But, if you are looking for a good deal on an extended warranty - call Jerry Johnson @ 800-530-5789.

 

I beg to differ. Extended warranties never make financial sense unless you are smarter than the warranty company. They make money by charging more than they spend - it's as simple as that.

Think of an extended warranty as a form of insurance. There are only three reasons to buy insurance:

1) The possible loss is more than you are willing to bear.

2) Peace of mind.

3) Required by law.

Cheaper is not one of the reasons. In the long run you will always be money ahead by not buying an extended warranty. However, there is no guarantee that you won't be unlucky and suffer a big hit first time around. If that bothers you too much, you may be willing to spend the extra money and pay for the warranty.

Tom