I've been considering finally buying a Toyota Certified Pre-owned (Prius liftback), but I'm a bit specific about trim level and year range - so they've been tough to find at good prices locally. I'm seeing a lot more inventory at Toyota dealers two to three hours away (OC and LA.) This presents some questions: 1) Normally, I'd insist on having a used car inspected by an independent mechanic before purchase. With Prii that seems tricky to do even locally, since the dealers will at most allow inspection only by a certified Prius mechanic (which are few and far between.) If I'm buying a car out of town, it'd be almost impossible to do this in one day. Can I rely on the Certified Pre-owned Warranty? Or am I taking a gamble that a problem that I notice after I get home or that creeps up later won't be fixed under warranty by my local dealer for one reason or another? 2) I've read people mention that some "certified" warranties aren't actually backed by Toyota. Can I assume if it's a Toyota dealer selling a car listed on toyotacertified.com that it's backed by Toyota? 3) The Toyota CPO comprehensive warranty says on their website it lasts a year. Used Toyota Warranty | Extended Warranty for Used Toyotas Yet some dealers claim the comprehensive warranty is shorter, e.g. 3 months. The first time it happened it seemed like the dealership just wanted to sell me an extended warranty. Now it's happened a couple more times and I'm not sure what to think. One dealership even shows it as 3 months on their website. Again, Toyota dealers... car listed on toyotacertified.com... Any ideas what the discrepancies are about? Thanks for any tips!
Stealerships always try to extract the most money out of your wallet they can. Paraphrasing what Reese from "The Terminator" told Sara Conner about the title character. "It's what they do, it's all they do." Carefully read the terms of the certified used warranty. If you decide to buy one, make sure you save all the information you find in case you need service and present it to the stealership at that time. I'm going to test drive a 2012 liftback this Saturday. From what I've read so far, it's as good as the Toyota factory warranty in most ways. Too bad it's not easy to compare what's different between them easily. I owned a certified used Chevy about 10 years ago. Something broke, took it in to the dealer, and at first they didn't want to honor the warranty. After I insisted that they should repair it gratis and showed them that it was covered, they repaired it. Sheesh. Maybe they just didn't want to do the paperwork and wanted my green upfront and make me wait for Toyota to pay me back. Nope, doesn't work that way.
