Warranty Really Needed?????

Don't buy that warranty; it's a ripoff!. Do a search here for warranty info. If you want to purchase a warranty, you can get the same or better coverage for 1/3 of that price.

 

Prius chat sell the very same Toyota Platinum Extended Warranty, I believe 7yr/100,000 mile, for $990.

http://priuschat.com/forums/sponsor...rius-extended-warranty-service-contracts.html

 

Also, you don't have to buy it when you get your Prius. You can get it later, but before the regular warranty (36K miles) is up. That gives you time to see if you need it or not.

 

The finance guy is usually the best salesguy (shark) in the whole dealership. He/she will try to sell you the extended warranty, fabric protectant, undercoating, etc because the dealership makes a huge profit on those items. Almost pure profit.

If they push you on the extended warranty, you can respond "If the car is that unreliable, maybe I should reconsider buying it at all". This will make him back off because he/she will not want to lose the sale.

You can always buy the Toyota warranty anytime right up to the expiration of the basic 3yr/36k warranty.

 

By Hollywood, I assume you mean California, not Florida. If you are in California, I have two comments.

First, it depends on whether you are buying from Toyota of Hollywood or NoHo Toyota. When we sought quotes from multiple dealers (a very good idea right now with so many SoCal dealers and a decent supply of Prii), NoHo was one of the hardest dealers to work with. They still charged a premium (when many dealers were back down to MSRP) and were very inflexible about which package and color we could get. I don't know about Hollywood Toyota.

Second, California has a far longer warranty (even longer than most on many of the hybrid parts because most of them are integral to keeping emissions down and its PZEV classification. Most of those parts (including the battery and the power split device) extend out to 150000 miles. Either a) ask the warranty salesman for a copy of the warranty booklet or b) buy the car without the warranty, read the booklet, and make an educated decision about whether to buy it for insurance or peace of mind (but from a cheaper source).

 

And so is the steering wheel, the engine, the tires, etc. ;-). Your computer WILL NOT fail, and neither will the steering wheel, the engine, the tires, or most any other component (especially major components).

Automotive computers are extremely reliable. I cannot recall anyone of the thousands of members on this board even ever bringing the subject up. If you are worried about the computer failing within the first month, then no need to worry since Toyota will cover the first 36/36,000.

With regards to the extended warranty, yes it is a ripoff (ALL of them are). I subscribe by a "live and die by the numbers". Statistically you will lose money by quite a large margin purchasing an extended warranty for your automobile. You are purchasing a Toyota automobile which has been tested and refined for many years.

If you are still worried about some catastrophic failure, I suggest you put the $2,800 into an interest bearing account and use it only for automobile related failures. Chances are extremely good you still have that money to enjoy when you retire instead of wasting it on some silly extended warranty ($2,800 for 7/75!, Geez, I'm in the wrong business!!). It really is sad to see so many naive people buy into this crap.

Just purchase the car and enjoy.

Rick
#4 2006

 

DAMN! i wish i would have known you could buy a different warranty for it! I wouldnt had spend those thousand of dolalrs for it! AARRGH!

 

If you haven't used your warranty, you may be able to cancel and get back most (maybe all) of your money. This only applies to the Toyota warranty.

Look here under Prius - Extended Warranty Q & A

 

When you pick up the car tell them they will be rated negatively on the survey for telling you that the computer is such a POS that the extended warranty is a good deal for the buyer. Any time the stealership is resorting to scare tactics don't walk, RUN away.