<p>Also, if your credit history qualifies, the dealership should have offered you the new car financing rate for your area, as well as the carfax etc. From their CPO website: “Standard New-Car Financing Rates Available”. <a href=“Used Car Certification | Certified Used Toyota Vehicles”>http://www.toyotacertified.com/certification.html</a></p>
<p>I sold cars a while back, and whether or not these are worthwhile plans depends a lot on your situation.</p>
<p>The way these plans generally work is that some specialized insurance company offers a set package of plans to the dealer at certain prices. Those prices are set based on the estimated cost of the coverage plus a profit margin that is often in the 100% range. The dealer then adds more profit on top of that, again, often another 100% of the actual cost. So if a dealer asks $3000 for a plan, chances are that the original actuaries expected that plan to yield about $1000 in claims. You can negotiate the dealer portion, but the best you can get is still around twice the actual value of the covered repairs.</p>
<p>From a strict financial standpoint, that means that the value to you must be 50-67% of the purchase price of the plan to be worthwhile. If you can pay out of pocket for the types of repairs covered, then it makes no sense. If you can’t… then you have to compare your total costs to your total risks. We did get the plan on our newest purchase, because my wife was going to be using it for long trips and we didn’t want to mess with things (and costs beyond our means) when she was by herself a thousand miles from home. We didn’t get it on my car - I handle most repairs myself, and rarely take that car far from home - my worst case for most repairs is absorbable and not too inconvenient.</p>
<p>You do need to look closely at what is covered, but most of these plans have some type of national network where you can get your repairs. They would not be worthwhile if they only covered one garage.</p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>
<p>I just bought a 4 year manufacturer’s extended warranty on my 4 year old Lexus - about 5 days before the original warranty expired. Lexus is a great car, but like most cars, if you keep them a while, something will eventually go wrong. The only problem is it will be really expensive to fix!</p>
<p>With two kids in college, we decided to keep the car since it has low mileage for its age. Based upon past Lexus’ I’ve owned to the 7+ year mark, you are basically guaranteed one good-sized repair after the original warranty expires (and I’ve had 2 or 3 expensive repairs on my previous cars) - the extended warranty pays for itself if you have two incidents. </p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the extremely helpful info. Car was approx $14K, with 10k miles on it. Extended warranty (or vehicle service agreement) was $1300 for bumper to bumper 7 year/100k “platinum package.” The car came with a 1 yr/12,000 mile bumper to bumper and a 7 year/1000K powertrain warranty as a toyota certified pre-owned vehicle. The original factory warranty has about a year left on it. I financed a portion of purchase price of car at 2.9%.
I will consider all of your helpful info and make a decision. They didn’t provide the detailed paperwork for the extended warranty (i.e. Vehicle Service Plan) at purchase so I can cancel it when the contract arrives if I decide to do so.</p>
<p>Our D has already had the car towed twice by AAA. Have never had to wait more than 30 minutes (often much shorter) for any tow or AAA service. With our older vehicles, it is inevitable that someone needs their older car atowed. In HI, we don’t have the 100 mile tow–our mechanic tends to be just over 5 miles from where we break down, and if it’s a bit more, I don’t mind paying the $5 per mile in addition. We’re more concerned about our kids having breakdowns far from mechanics we know and trusts.</p>
<p>Finding a good mechanic you can work with is important to me–have had Sears try scamming me on car repairs many times. Never trusted them to do more than change oil and batteries and after awhile, not even trusting them to do that.</p>
<p>Extended car warranties certainly seem to be luck of the draw. Good luck! The prices of some do seem inflated–good to read the fine print and be sure as to what you are actually buying and where you can get servicing. I like to have options instead of only having to get service from the dealer (who generally has inflated service prices, in our experience).</p>
<p>Basic AAA has limited tow distance, Plus gives 100 miles, IIRC, and then theres even a higher level (cant reccall what they call it) that tows farther, or to more places (I forget- I threw away the ad). I live in a larrge metro area, and we typically wait 2 hours for AAA to show up. Once was on the side of a busy highway. Once was in a not so good part of town. </p>
<p>One of the things I dont like about the extended warantee is that it forces you to do repairs at the dealership, and other things that might not be covered (basic maintenance, etc) cost twice aw much as at the local repair shop.</p>