Should I purchase the extended warranty?

I just bought a 2011 sr5 4 cyl. 5 spd. Its just about to top 60 000 km and I've been thinking about purchasing the extended warranty. I drive 100 000 km/yr on lots of gravel. Basically I bounce it down washboard roads at 60 mph for hours a day.

The package will get me another 100 000 or 140 000 for $2500+ (Canada money). Is this a no-brainer? Am I going to wear out the suspension, steering, etc before another hundred thou?

Also, any opinions on the gold or platinum package?

 

The road you drive on with no upgrades to your truck buying the warrenty might be smart money spent. Just my opinion.

 

I bought a dealer truck with 20k on the odo and went with the extended warranty. My thoughts were that it was not that much money and while I do most maintenance myself, its nice to have the piece of mind that if something major goes wrong you are covered.

 

What coverage does that get $2500 get you? 100%?

Usually these warranties have a "co-pay" and exclusions. I'd just as soon take that $2500 and keep it until something in the suspension breaks. Even some of the best off road suspension kits complete don't cost $2500.

 

I have to disagree with you on this. I have been at dealerships for years, and the extended warranties are usually a very good idea. The copay is minimal, usually around $100. Coverage is typically for powertrain components, suspension, steering, AC and major electrical. A single failed compressor, or engine/transmission failure and the contract will pay for itself and then some. You can't simply think just about your suspension. Look at other parts of the truck that can fail.

I always say that an extended warranty is just like auto insurance. You may not ever need it, but when you DO need it, you will be glad that you did have it. A single transmission failure could cost upwards of $4000 to replace. Engine? you are looking at $5000+ easily. What if during the next year you have multiple problems? You simply pay your $100 deductible, and you are on your way.

So yes, OP, you are right. It is pretty much a no brainer.

 

This is one of these kind of subjects that is going to be really up to you OP. If you talk about "Performance Chips" we can give you a definite "no" not to get them. Since that we can't see into the future of your vehicle, we don't know if you'll need it or not. Plus we don't know how the vehicle was treated before and how you're going to treat it. There are so many variables. Just for the fact that your truck has 20,000 km's more on the clock for it only being 2 years old, I'd get it. If it was brand new, I would say no.

Like the other poster said, "it's like insurance". It's good if you have it when something goes wrong. It sucks when nothing happens and you don't get any portion of your money back. Insurance coverage and regulations are going to probably be different from one country to another. You should look at the contract of the insurance and see what it covers, what it doesn't, your deductibles. We can tell you all these things about it, but unless we have a contract in front of us(that is Canadian based). We really can't say much.

 

Extended warranties are the biggest scam on earth. They wouldn't SELL it to you if they weren't making money from it.

They aren't offering it to you out of the kindness of their hearts, they're doing to take your money.

 

I am sorry, but you are wrong. One could claim that insurance companies are a "scam" if we were to use your logic, but time has proven that to HAVE insurance is the better option. I have paid thousands upon thousands of dollars over the years for my insurance, and have never needed it. Doesn't mean that it was a bad idea to have it. It is simple numbers. The CHANCE that you will have a major failure or malfunction is low. Therefore the extended warranty companies are playing a gamble, just like every insurance company does. They take a gamble that they will have a larger group of people that will never need to file a claim than they have that WILL file a claim. How is that a scam?

Obviously they make a profit off it. Just like your insurance company makes a profit as well. NO company does things out of the goodness of their heart. They do it to make a profit. Not a scam, just a means of making a profit like every other business. I have worked with extended warranty companies (Both as a repair facility, as well as a purchaser of the warranty on my own vehicles) for over 20 years. What is your experience based on? I will give you a perfect example.

I bought a 2005 Town and Country van for my family that had 65k miles on it. The factory warranty had expired. I paid $2500 for the extended warranty policy. We had a $100 deductible. 1 year after we bought it the passenger window regulator failed. replaced at dealership with brand new regulator and motor. Invoice cost of repair was $350. My cost? $100. So at this point I could TECHNICALLY say I was only out $2250 at this point. 6 months later the AC compressor failed. Invoice cost was $1400 due to metal in lines and other parts being replaced. My cost? $100. So now I have spent $2700 and have covered $1750 in repairs. About 2 and a half years after initial purchase the transmission fragmented. Invoice cost? $4500, my cost? $100. This was the last claim I had to make and we drove the van for an additional 6 years. So my total out of pocket expense was $2800. Total repairs on claim: $6250. Yeah, I really got scammed there huh?

 

I agree with BamaToy. I bought a new Ford Ranger 4x4 in 2001 (won't make that mistake again!) and purchased the extended warranty to go from 3 years 36k miles to 5 years 100k miles. It was the best money I ever spent! By the time I reached 100k miles I had warranty repair receipts of over $8000.00!!! Transmission, rear brakes x2, entire power steering system, driveshaft, radio, front wheel bearings and rear leaf springs. I traded it for a new Tacoma that has had no problems for 70k miles (except the spiral cable recall that Toyota paid for) So with your truck being a used vehicle and the type of driving you do an extended warranty has the potential to pay for itself several times over

 

Extended warranty

BMW- yes
Dodge- yes
Toyota- No

Toyota cars and trucks are very reliable. I was just thinking how this forum is pretty tame compared to the bmw sites I used to frequent. No tranny, VCG, cooling system, water pump, CCV threads for miles around.

 

Buy a vehicle known for its reliability and you won't need an extended warranty.

They are a scam.

And yes, insurance is a scam too.

 

Op! All this is thread is going to be is a pissing(as you can tell from above) contest saying "yes" or "no". Some of us don't want you to go and get it because of the person here who can make the biggest "for" and "against". You should be able to make the decision on your own devices, not what we here tell you or the dealership.

 

I agree with you on theory Bama, but the reality is often the warranty doesn't cover the problem. "Oh, you blew the motor, well it was the radiator that failed and then you kept driving and blew the motor, your fault."

I've never bought an extended warranty and never had a failure that would have been covered by the warranty, even with Chrysler products.

 

I purchased the extended for my truck in Northwestern Ontario and it was a waste of cash . Good luck getting the stealership to fix anything on your Toyota . They come up with every excuse in the book Not to fix your vehicle .Show them a TSB for a known issue that you have with your truck and they say they have never heard of it . The service is soooo crappy here , i have reverted to repairing my own truck .Dont waste your time in Thunder Bay , Kenora ,Timmins ,Sudbury to name a few . Better service in Manitoba with more Toyota dealerships and a little competition , but the tow bill is only good for a certain mileage . Stealerships up here left a very sour taste !! Just my 2 cents

 

Think of the wheel bearing failures.....lol.

Obviously no convincing you. Interesting how you can clam "Scam" yet provide no proof on your end, but I have provided proof on my end. Call the insurance companies a scam all you want, but I bet you still have the insurance! And if not, better hope the police don't find out.

I have to say that in the 20+ years I have dealt with these warranties, I have never in MY experience ran into the "Radiator went, so the engine is not covered" Bit. We have had radiators go and transmission cooler go, ruining engines and transmissions, and they were covered. As mentioned it does have to do with the company, and what they cover. I always have stuck with the big companies like GMPP, Easycare, and Fidelity. So my information is not based on theory, but fact. I have done this for over 20 years.

 

It's all that fine print that companies use when you buy extended warranties, no matter what you're buying. Obviously they're going to try to get you any way they can. But they are getting you on that "off" chance something major was going to go wrong. If major problems went on with every single thing in the world that has an extended warranty, companies would never sell it.

 

It is not up to Toyota on the extended warranty. They are just the facilitator. If you have a failure, contact the aftermarket warranty company. If the aftermarket warranty company IS Toyota, then I would call corporate.

 

I would never buy an extended warranty, especially on a newer vehicle that has one of the most reliable engine / drive train out there. Most auto information sources like Edmunds, Consumer Reports, and J.D. Power all say statistics show they are not worth it.

Here are the results of a survey done by Consumer Reports on them:

"Consumer Reports proved the dubiousness of this pitch by surveying 8,000 owners of five- and six-year-old vehicles that had been covered by extended service plans. Sixty-five percent of those surveyed said they spent significantly more for the contract than they got back in repair-cost savings. Respondents said their extended warranty cost them $1,000 on average while providing an average benefit of $700. That means the average loss was $300. A big reason: 42 percent of extended warranties in our survey were never used, in most cases because the vehicle didn't need repairs or the standard manufacturer's warranty sufficed."


Here is what J.D. Power has to say about them:

"When you buy an extended warranty, you are placing a bet. Your bet is that your car will ultimately require more repairs than the cost of the warranty. The warranty provider is also placing a bet. The warranty provider's bet is that your car will not require more repairs than the cost of the warranty. One of you will win the bet, and considering the number of extended warranty providers there are, it would appear that the odds are not in your favor. "

 

A few comments:

1. The ECPs are service contracts. The prices are calculated similar to insurance, which means on average you will lose money. (i.e. total cost of covered repairs over the next 140k will be less than $2500). The "what if" scenarios Bamatoy mentioned are all real, but statistically they are rare with the ECP coverage period. If they happened more often, the service contract would be a lot more than $2500.

2. American ECPs are about half the price of Canadian ECPs, so it makes more sense to buy one if you were in the US.

 

And as I mentioned, they are always a gamble. I never said they were perfect. The insurance world is the same way. I am willing to bet that if they did the same suveys for people who were insured over accidents, that they spent more money than they received in compensation. As mentioned I have spent thousands on insurance, yet haven't had to make a claim in a very long time. Does that mean I shouldn't carry insurance on my car? Enough said. I think I have proven my point.