Extended Warrany

Bingo. I’m comfortable taking the risk, others may not. It’s an individual decision base on risk tolerance.

 

It just seems to me that I have had to fight with the dealers to get repairs done even under factory warranty and not just Toyota. I have had bad experiences with aftermarket warranty companies and the factory warranties have gotten just about as bad. It is a personal choice, I have had them as a younger man. I see no value in them as an older man.

 

For what it’s worth I agree if you go with a warranty do not finance it. I was offering the savings idea as an alternative to paying interest on the warranty if you roll it into the loan. I still think it’s better to just save rather than get an extended warranty, especially with a Toyota. The sheer savings in the amount of interest you aren’t paying over the life of the loan is worth it IMO. Warranty companies aren’t losing money. They rarely get used and when you need them it is 50/50 if they will cover it at all as they will do their best to find that loop hole or exclusion, and if they do it is 50/50 if they will pay in full, and when they do it is 50/50 if they are going to just “repair” instead of replace whatever broke, and when they repair it or replace it is almost never going to be a quality part/unit and will be installed by the lowest bidder they went with or are partnered with. And they’ll try to keep “repairing” it until it is out of warranty. That’s been my experience with any kind of warranty be it car, home, electronic, etc.

 

Very good points, and if the principle you stand on is the fact that the warranty company/manufacturer is set to profit from it, you probably won’t be a good candidate for an extended warranty. Also, the fact that you suspect that the extended warranty doesn’t quite cover everything it says it does probably also discourages you from having one. 100% valid. In many cases in the past, extended warranties have more than paid for themselves when major components have broken. As long as it is a factory/manufacturer authentic Toyota Platinum warranty good at any Toyota dealership across the country I don’t believe there are many cases where they fight you… the covered and non covered components are clearly spelled out in the contract. For our Tacomas, one of the more common problems the 3rd gen’s have (no clue about the 4th gen’s) is the plastic coolant pipe. That is easily a $1500-$1800 repair and is apparently a very common mechanical breakdown component in the 3rd gen’s once they get up into higher mileage. In my case if this was the first issue I had, the extended warranty would cover it at $1360 (the price I paid for the extended warranty)… and every break down or failure after that would be $0, as long as it happens before 10 years/100k miles.

So the way my mind works, the math on a broken coolant pipe would be $1360 once out of pocket with the extended warranty… or without the warranty, $1500-$1800 out of pocket, then who knows how much more out of pocket if other things break down, especially electronics. To me that is peace of mind for a relatively cheap price. And if I luck out and nothing breaks down up to 10 years/100k miles, that $1360 provided great peace of mind during that time. For me it is worth it. I totally get the other side that is not worth it to them as well.

 

yep agreed. I would just say make damn sure you read the disclaimers, exclusions, timeframes, who will be doing the work, what their policy is on repair vs replace, their policy on how much they cover, their policy on recurrences, any additional fees per service, etc. And then after that’s in order speak to people that have used that warranty before and know they pay. And then cross your fingers and hope. The vast majority aren't used, are denied, only partially covered, and/or are cheaply repaired with cheap parts approved by the warranty company. They wouldn’t be in business if it wasn’t significantly profitable. There are good ones out there I have no doubt. I have yet to experience that. I must admit I’m probably just butt hurt from my anecdotal experience

 

The reality is you only actually getting a 7 year warranty or a 5-year warranty extension. And more than that, you have to get the mileage right and the year right. Cross the threshold on one, warranty is over.

The original warranty is three-year, 36K bumper-to-bumper.

Then you have the powertrain which is 5 yr up to 60 K. This is the expensive gizmo part. So your extended warranty buy up is only five years extra at the max

Now you have an information disadvantage with Toyota. They know exactly how long they built these trucks to last. Every part of that truck has an mtbf. Toyota knows what it is. They know exactly how long those parts are likely to survive. Testing data of thousands of parts put through some sort of ridiculous protocol and they could tell you exactly when those individual parts are likely to fail, when an assembly is likely to fail, and then the whole vehicle fails. But you don't get to know that.

Somewhere in the bowels of Toyota finance corporation there is some statistical process control office filled with actuaries and stats dorks and data scientist churning through the data to guarantee that the average warranty buyer is parted with their money.

Armed with this information, they slap a price on these warranties where on the whole they are guaranteed money. Toyota doesn't have to get it right at all. They could be wrong 10,000 times. But you have to get it right every single time or you've lost money on the warranty.

Now I don't really really care what people do. I understand why you would buy it. You're selling the risk back to Toyota. Generally speaking, it's bad finance to insure what you can afford to cover the loss on. For some people, having less uncertainty is worth a dollar amount. I respect that.

If you don't get the extended warranty, you are in effect financing your own extended warranty.

 

I've never been a fan of extended warranties, but I believe the quality coming out of factories today is suspect. New technologies, increased electronics and component supplier challenges led me to add a 10 yr./100k on my new Denali. I won't by a new refrigerator, washer or dryer without an extended warranty today. Just a comfort level I suppose. I never had a problem with my 14 years in a Tacoma, but I don't have the same confidence in trucks coming off the line today.

 

ESPECIALLY the electronics, which will pay off the cost of the extended warranty many times over should you have a truck from a bad batch of electronics. Which has happened a lot lately. All you need is more than one electronics break down and the $1360 you spent years ago suddenly seems like a bargain.

 

I would venture to guess that the expensive gizmo part is more the electronics than the powertrain. The powertrain reliability and odds of break down is probably what you were mostly referring to in your Toyota analysis above.. the years of test data. Electronics can be affected by the tiniest of gremlins that won’t show up with years of testing… and that’s where extended warranties will pay themselves off several times over. I’ve seen the prices for a screen replacement or backup camera… holy cow.

Completely agree on the part you mentioned where the extended warranty only covers an additional 5 years/40k miles. However in my past experiences with vehicles most of the problems creep up once you are in the high 70k/80k mile range.

 

Agreed. Just imagine having to replace the radio/head unit on these new units. Let alone a camera system, lane departure, etc.

 

I don't think that stuff is covered:

https://www.sc.toyotafinancial.com/web/tfs/pub/contents/vsa/TFS_VSA_Platinum_VSA_eBrochure.pdf

 

Shows “CD player, tape player, radio tuner” is covered.
Someone should proofread that, when did Toyota last offer a CD player yet alone tape player?

 

That's from 2015. I'd like to find something newer... anyone?

 

True that... It doesn't matter what kind of warranty it is, the markup on them is outrageous. Then for every dollar they charge the consumer they make something like 90 cents. There is much more profit in selling extended warranties than selling the car by the ratio of what they have invested. And is there a third party warranty that's not a scam? I've never heard of one paying out on a claim for anything except minor repairs.

 

I guess you would need to verify on whatever coverage you are considering. I’ve gone through my policies multiple times to make sure I understand what is and isn’t covered. The 10 yr./100k covers almost everything except for the standard wear items exclusions. The limited lifetime powetrain covers the entire powertrain assuming all maintenance records are kept. Big piece of mind for me especially with the history of lifter problems on the GM power plants.

 

Thanks.

 

Carchex………had it for my 2021 Sport
great experience, and they covered what they said they would……..you can get their coverage list before you sign up……did all work at Toyota dealer….
$89 month, no contract , cancel at any time…….$100 deductible per item
Only thing was a blackout period of first 30 days, to make sure you weren’t carrying pre existing items

 

I can help with TFS Platinum Zero Deductible Warranties at not outrageous prices, you can get ahold of me directly at 530-440-2960 or shoot me an email Spencer@orovilleautocenter.com, The only Requirement is your vehicle must be within its 3 year or 36,000 Factory Warranty, Im based out of California. Also if you have any questions I can do my best to help answer them for you.

 

My 2017 has a CD player, when I test drove it the “kid” salesman said “hey wow! They still put CD players in these!”, I said of course they do but then again I’m of an age where we installed 8 track players

 

Hello Tacowrench [OP],

I'm looking into purchasing an extended warranty from Richard and wanted to follow-up to see if you've had any issues with yours so far? It's an official Toyota warranty, correct?

Thanks!