2012 Prius Platinum Extended Warranty Question

Link?

A more important parameter is reliability, not the number of recalls/TSBs.

 

Toyota, most recalled auto manufacturer in:

2009: Toyota Tops Number of Recalled Vehicles in 2009 - U.S. News Rankings and Reviews

2010: 2010 Likely Busiest Year for Auto Recalls in Seven Years - DailyFinance

2011: Total Recall: Automakers Issue Fewer Safety Fixes In 2011

And so far in 2012: Toyota's Brand Risks With New Recall - Forbes

 

With statements like "No matter what brand of vehicle you have, chances are it is—or will be—affected by some sort of recall," it's not a real justification for getting the extended warranty. You want to look at predicted reliability for this. Recalls cover design flaws and have no bearing as to whether other components are likely to break (which is what you'd purchase the extended warranty for). Moreover, all vehicles affected by such recalls are eligible for repairs of affected components whether or not they're under warranty, and some of them are even politically motivated like the silly front mat interfering with the pedal recall on the RX350, which I haven't even bothered to get to. Oh, by the way, zero repairs on my 2007 RX350 too

 

I'll start by saying I'm not a fan of extended warranties, and in general believe in self-insuring (having very high deductibles on auto insurance, for example).

One problem with extended warranties is the fine print regarding exclusions, so be sure to read an actual copy of the contract before deciding if it's right for you.

Also, I believe (you should confirm) you can buy the Toyota extended warranty any time before the factory warranty expires, so there's no reason to buy it now.

Last, as other have mentioned, if you decide it's right for you, there's somebody on this site who sells them for apparently much less than the dealers.

 

Recalls are a very great way to gauge a products reliability. It's simple logic really. For years Toyota has sold its relatively fuel efficient vehicles while the big 3 were focusing on selling trucks/suvs. Now that fuel prices have surged so has the demand for more fuel efficient vehicles. Toyota has been unable to keep up with demand and still keep up their quality. They are rushing their product to market too fast and they are having problems. If you look at JD Power initial quality ratings you will find that Toyota is getting beat there too by cars such as Lincoln and Jaguar. Now if you take the 100 or so problem's over 1000 cars like in the JD Power rating and spread out that statistic over all of the cars Toyota makes, it makes Toyota about the worst car manufacturer in initial quality based on the number of problems experienced. But beside all of that, no matter how reliable product is perceived, at the end of the day it is still built by humans.

 

The problem is the vast majority of these recalls are politically enforced and would have been mere TSBs if it wasn't for the massive media hysteria surrounding sudden unintended acceleration. Manufacturers issue TSBs all the time and we know they have no bearing on how reliable a car is. You can rationalize all you want to justify your extended warranty purchase but ultimately it is predicted reliability that determines how likely a vehicle will break down. As it stands, most Toyota models still have excellent predicted reliability.

 

I called my insurance for a quote since I am waiting on my Prius to arrive. They offered "Better Car Replacement" which will replace a vehicle with one that is 1 year newer and/or 15,000 miles less. In the event my 2012 vehicle is totaled before the 2013 comes out, they will reimburse me MSRP. Like gap...a bit steep, but I am going to bite on the option for the first couple of years.