Has anyone heard of an extended warranty called Portfolio Protection

It is a private company warranty not affliated with Toyota. Buyer beware.

The Prius is a very reliable car. All. That is needed is regular service for a long time. The hybrid system has a 10 year 100,000 mile warranty 150,000 miles in Califonia.

Good Article saying don't do it

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/business/yourmoney/02shortcuts.html?pagewanted=all

 

You can see the repair costs are very low the first 5 years

 

Its called "Portfolio Protection" because it protects the dealer's investment portfolio.

 

Extended warranties are excellent profit producers for the dealer. Occasionally they are a benefit to the buyer, depending on the reliability of the car. The Prius is among the most reliable. I wouldn't buy the EW on a new Prius but I probably wouldn't buy a new car either.

 

Well, I may have to rethink my blanket position on buying used over new, considering the current 0% financing and the excellent value retention of the Prius. But I don't think an EW has much value in this scenario.

 

eidling,

One last negative aspect to 3rd party extended warranties is that some/many of them are only honored at the original selling dealer, whereas if you were to buy the Toyota Financial Services official extended warranty (the one you can purchase on this site at quite a discount), it must be honored at all Toyota dealers (a clear advantage if you were to break down on one of your many trips far from home).

I believe that the official one also still includes a free rental car for up to 5 days per each breakdown. And you have up to the end of the 3yrs/36,0000 miles (whichever comes first) to make up your mind if you still think the extended warranty would be a wise investment. On many of the 3rd party warranties you must buy them at the time of the car purchase or the price will increase for every day/mile of use.

Don't forget that you have 5 yrs/60,000 miles of drive train protection on the original factory standard warranty, and 5 yrs/unlimited miles on rust-through, and in most states 8 yrs/100,000 miles on the hybrid components [but in the CARB states that's extended to 10 yrs/150,000 miles & in California I think some aspect of that (pollution control equipment?) it's 15 years/150,000 miles.

I myself did buy one (the 7 yr/100,000 mile one) from Troy (the guy on this site) for my 2005 Prius back in 2006 mainly because back then there were a lot of Priuses with the MFD (Multi-Function Display) screen crapping out & word that the PSD [Power Split Device (transmission) was unserviceable---only replaced at the price of about $9,000]. That said, I did buy the official one although I never needed to use it, so it was really a waste of my money. But I only paid $990 for it from Troy/Warranty shack when the list price at Toyota dealers is $1,600+ and many dealers were charging $2,000 to $3,000 for the same official Toyota Financial Services extended warranty.

Troy tried to save me about $100 to $125 by pointing out how fast my mileage was accumulating & trying to talk me into the cheaper one with the same 100,000 miles but only 6 years (instead of 7), but I was stubborn & thought my annual mileage would start lessening once the newness of driving the Prius wore off. It didn't & my warranty had run out by miles at only 5 1/2 years of ownership. I didn't consider it lost money because I didn't pay all that much for it (a lot less than many others did) and I felt fully confident to drive this new technology (back then) anywhere I wanted to without any fears whatsoever. Since then Toyota's engineering & reliability has proved itself & I don't think I would buy another extended warranty again (at least NOT for a Toyota).

Ken (in Bolton,Ct)

 

The finance guy is the one responsible for improving the profitability of each deal. Oftentimes, his selling of interest rate, months, back-end additions like extended warranties, most anything you are paying for that you didn't originally bargain for, is more profitable than the actual car sale. That is his contribution to the dealership bottom line. He is not your friend and he is not just to get signatures. He/she is usually charming, as with any successful salesperson, and they are not necessarily bad guys, just doing their job. But their job is to part you from your money. Part of the job of the buyer is to know what the job of the sales people are, including the finance guy. Not that you don't know this. Just got me to thinking about his job. Just saying.

 

If you want an extended warranty, insist on a factory one. DO NOT get a 3rd party one. If they won't sell you a factory one, buy one online or from another dealer later. As long as you are under the original factory warranty, you can still get a factory extended warranty.

Take it from an ex F&I guy...

 

Finance and insurance.

 

Not a mistake. You did good to check his math

 

Good catch. These guys generally only make mistakes in their favor. Now that you've survived the stealership minefield, ENJOY the car!