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PIP reliability? Is buying complete coverage warranty on a used 2013 PIP worthile?

Discussion in 'Gen 1 Prius Plug-in 2012-2015' started by gordonrands, Jun 23, 2015.

  1. gordonrands

    gordonrands Junior Member

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    We just bought a 2013 PIP with 28,750 miles on it for $19,500. Its Toyota Certified, so has a 100K powertrain warranty, but only 36K on other things. We are trying to figure out whether we want to buy the complete coverage warranty to take everything up to 100K as well. It would cost around $2300.

    We have a 2005 Gen II Prius with over 320K miles on it that had very few warranty issues in the first 100K, but I know this is a more complex vehicle.

    What has your experience been during the first 100K? Is this worth it or a waste of money?
     
  2. SageBrush

    SageBrush Senior Member

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    The provided warranties are more extensive than you write. Read the booklet.

    As for your question: waste

    Great price by the way. I'm jealous
     
  3. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    Your coverage is $2300 for 64k miles of coverage. Seeing that nothing is needed, except oil changes and filter changes, on the car until 100k miles. It would be safe to say, it's a waste of money.
     
  4. SageBrush

    SageBrush Senior Member

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    Warranty, not maintenance.
     
  5. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    Yes warranty. $2300 pays for a lot of repairs.........if you happen to even need one in 64k miles.

    Anything that would require immediate attention, would be done before 36k miles.
     
  6. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    I'd skip it, what state are you in by the way?
     
  7. gordonrands

    gordonrands Junior Member

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    I'm in Illinois. I was in NJ for a family reunion and decided to do an internet search for used PIPs and was amazed to discover one in the Chicago area (I live 4 hours away). So we came back via Chicago, drove a plug in C Max, Fusion, and Volt just to be sure the PIP was what we wanted, and took the plunge. Now to see if the dealership back home lives up to their promise to get their mechanic trained on the PIP if we managed to find one.

    The car is originally from MD, and the dealership here bought it at auction.
     
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  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    great price, congrats! i'd skip the warranty, but i only have 30,000 myself.
     
  9. PRPrius

    PRPrius Active Member

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  10. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    exactly.
     
  11. Eug

    Eug Swollen Member

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    Which model PiP?

    BTW, a couple of months ago, I bought a Canadian Toyota Certified 2012 PiP with Technology Package (which is almost identical to the US Advanced plus Technology Package) with about 18000 miles for CAD$29000, which works out to about US$23500. So if you got closer to a base model, it sounds like our pricing is roughly in the same ballpark.

    I have a few months to decide if I want to get an extended warranty, but at this point I'm thinking I won't bother unless I can find a dealer willing to give me a DEEP discount on the warranty cost.
     
  12. gordonrands

    gordonrands Junior Member

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    Base model
     
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  13. Eug

    Eug Swollen Member

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    OK, so I paid US$4000 more for a one year older model than yours, but with a higher option package and roughly 10000 less miles.

    So, yeah it does seem like our pricing is more or less similar, give or take. That isn't hugely surprising in retrospect though. Since these PiPs are rare here, I did all my comparison pricing based on used US PiP ads, and made my offers based on that comparative pricing.
     
  14. JimN

    JimN Let the games begin!

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    Why do you believe "everything else" is more complex than your Gen2's? It always comes back to "if the extended warranty is a good deal for the buyer then the seller wouldn't be selling it". The PiP is a Gen3 with a different battery pack. I wouldn't expect it to be any more or less reliable.
     
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  15. Eug

    Eug Swollen Member

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    Are people still getting those 40% discounts on extended warranties? I'm told up here in Canada it's become very tough to get those types of discounts, but I don't know about the US.

    If I'm offered say just a 10-15% discount off Canadian list price for extended warranty, then I'm totally uninterested in an extended warranty for my PiP.
     
  16. mmmodem

    mmmodem Senior Taste Tester

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    Probably only 1 person on here has managed to get their PiP to 100k. Keep in mind, the oldest PiP just turned 3. I'm at 73k currently. My opinion is any car that you feel it necessary to buy extended warranties is not worth buying. This car, thus far, is no more reliable than any car I've owned, (Civic, WRX, Corolla, Sonata). In other words, no issues whatsoever.
     
  17. Eug

    Eug Swollen Member

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    FWIW, my Prius Gen 2 was way more reliable that my el crappo '89 Ford Escort, but that's not saying much. And one of the big ticket things that broke on the Gen 2 wasn't even covered by the extended warranty.

    That thing was the multi-function display. That should not be a big ticket item, but for the Prius it effectively was, as my dealer wanted CAD$3000 to fix it! Even with a refurb unit it was $1200. So I sent it to AutoBeYours in the US and got it fixed for US$300, doing the uninstall and install myself. Despite the fact you needed it to control things like the AC, for the sake of the warranty, it was classified as part of the stereo system, and hence was not covered. The CD changer also died twice. The first time it was covered by the bumper-to-bumper warranty, but the second time I just left it because it wasn't cheap to fix and wasn't covered by the extended warranty either.

    The one thing that scares me about my Technology Package PiP is the DVD mechanism that moves the screen out of the way. (On my PiP, the CD/DVD slot is behind the screen.) But that wouldn't be covered by an extended warranty. I think the telescoping headlamp washers would be, but I never use them anyway.
     
    #17 Eug, Jun 23, 2015
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2015
  18. rxlawdude

    rxlawdude Active Member

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    Except that battery pack is a technology which Toyota specifically disclaims warranty responsibility for degrading (short of total failure).
     
  19. SageBrush

    SageBrush Senior Member

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    My thought exactly.
     
  20. SageBrush

    SageBrush Senior Member

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    If you say so, but so what ?

    The car is not an EV that causes range anxiety if 20% of traction battery capacity is lost. In the PiP you will go 12 miles rather than 14 before hybrid mode kicks in.