Regular Maintenance

I know I understand that, but basically the dealer is trying to guarantee high margin continuing maintenance services, probably based upon their maintenance schedule and not Toyota's, on the cars they sell. To do that they are putting in place a very thinly guaranteed and documented lifetime "warrantee" that is conditionally based upon them doing all the incidental maintenance work.

What is missing from my ability to really understand this situation is: 1. Are they requiring you to come in and do maintenance services according to an arbitrary schedule they have established or are they using the Prius service schedule generated by Toyota? 2. How competitive are they for oil and filter service or other basic items as compared to independent mechanics? Your average independent mechanic can do an oil change, including supplies, for $30 or less. But if your dealer is selling you an oil service for $40 or more they are making a huge profit. They "justify" it by including lots of inspections, but anybody can do inspections. In fact most car owners should do their own inspections on a periodic basis anyway. Why pay somebody to do it when you can do it yourself and learn something about your car at the same time.

And what about them insisting that you do 30k, 60k, 90k, and so on scheduled services? Most dealers have those services posted on their wall and about 2/3 of everything they normally do in those services doesn't apply to the Prius. Do they have a Prius discount because most of those services don't apply? Probably not. In fact I'd bet they will blow you lots of smoke about how Toyota doesn't know what they are doing, or that your service schedule book has been recently superseded by a TSB they got from Toyota a couple weeks back, or just about any other excuse you can imagine.

The point is that they hold all the cards on this warranty. And if you ever make a claim against it in the future I think you are going to have a fight on your hands. They will probably do everything in their power to not honor it by using excuses about your negligence in having services done or claiming that not all the services were done by them.

 

A dealer is NOT going to really warranty the vehicle for anything longer than he can get Toyota to cover the repairs. I am not sure what the Toyota flexibility is but for most manufacturers it is up to 60,000 miles with proper documentation. What the dealer really should be saying is if you do all of your maintenance with me, I can warranty your vehicle up to 60,000 miles barring customer abuse.

 

Wow, I usually drive my cars until the wheels fall off. If this is on the level <which I doubt> I'll never again buy a car anywhere else.
-Paul R. Haller-