cliffy1

Oh good gawd! Y'all actually are considering aftermarket warranties? Are you nuts? We can debate all day as to the value of an extended factory warranty, but I have yet to see an aftermarket warranty that was worth the paper it was written on. Okay, maybe that's an exageration, but only a slight one.

Do you know how the warranty company shell game works? Some "new" company approaches your credit union and tells them all the great benefits of their warranty program. "It has roadside assistance, oil changes, a $250 deductible and is honored everywhere! Heck, your members don't even need to take it to a Toyota dealership. We just give the repair facility a credit card number over the phone. Here's another benefit, if the member doesn't use the warranty, we refund all the money! Look at the benefits for your members and it costs only $995 as compared to those factory warranties that can cost up to $2000."

Your credit union looks it over and it sound pretty sweet. They get a kickback on each one they sell and they look like heros to the members. They don't realize that this "new" company is run by the same guys that just ran another company into bankruptcy after 3 years of being in business. They also don't realize this company's credit card will be turned down more often than not, they will not be around to issue a refund and the there are warrants issued for the CEO of this "new" company.

Don't believe me? Ask the folks who bought a plan through Warranty Gold in the last 3 years how that plan is working out for them. Ask the Prius customer who had a failure of his central display and was told Warranty Gold couldn't pay the $4200 repair bill but would be glad to refund the guy's $1200 initial cost for the plan.

Seriously folks... you may or may not be up for the cost/risk of the factory coverage. You may have total faith in the car to last 100K miles without a single failure or that any problems will cost less than the $1250 the warranty costs (have you seen a shop bill for an AC compressor lately?), but please don't be suckered by an aftermarket warranty plan.

fr130

You can cancel your extended warranty and get back a prorated amount of what you originally paid. I did that on an older car I had because I needed the money. Go to the dealer where you got it from and tell them you want to cancel. Then you have to fill out an info form, like name, address, VIN, mileage currently on vechicle. The Dealer should then contact Toyota warranty group or whatever their name is. In about 2-3weeks you'll get a prorated check back, however, at least on mine since I had my old car still financed, I was told to send the check to Toyota Financial Services and lowered the remaining financed amount on the car.

My old dealer took awhile (warranty folks said it should take 1-2business days, dealer took a week to contact the warrnty folks). On the same extended warranty information is a number. Call that number up 3 business days after you filed with the dealer to confirm. If the warranty people have not seen anything from the dealer, they will expedite. BTW, keep the original documents. Do NOT give them to the dealer.

cliffy1

Oh yeah... if you financed the car, the refund goes to your bank. It lowers your principal and therefore, your total interest and makes for a shorter term. It will not lower your payment though. There is also a $50 cancelation fee if you do it in the 1st 30 days. After that, they charge the $50 plus pro-rate it.

Gerberscion

WOW!! I can not believe how you scion buyers, no warenties! 3/36 bumper to bumper goes fast!!!! With a $15,000 puchase or (more) who in there right mind would not want protection form problems, I know scions are toyota parts, but they are bran new in production, dont be foolish, they could break down, I hope you dont have to learn the hard way!!
A warenty is probably only about an extra $10 -15 a month.

InfamousBri

I agree with you if the customer doesn't plan to do extensive modding. If the consumer is an enthusiast then there is no reason to purchase the extended warranty.

OKIHost

funny story.. i buy my xb and he tellsme 6.75% is BEST I can get.. ok fine..so he tries to shmeggle the extended warrenty on me when I go into sign papers and tells me he can get me like 3.??% if I grab extended warrenty (makes it look like he is going to hustle them for me ;)) anyhow I get warrenty added for $1600 extra and finance the whole thing for 3.??% wait 3 months cancel the warrenty and payoff the 1600 and still get 3.??% lolzz...


man I hate car dealers... I must say my scion buying experience was the best I have had yet and the finance manager was the only one that really tried to 'teabag my nutz' lol..

jrussell

Even in the Scion-world of doing business there are at least 2 areas that are ripe for dealers using "smoke and mirrors" tricks (also known as confusing the hell out of you) and they are:

1) Trade-in value of car
2) Loan Interest rate

Actual cost of car with options you want, warranty (if you so choose) and documentation fees should be published on dealer web site so you know going in what these will cost you.

The trade-in value of your car and interest rate that you actually qualify for are very car and person-specific and, as a result, are ripe for local dealer abuse if the dealer chooses to do so.

Best advise is to shop trade-in and interest rate. The difficulty in doing this right now is that Tc's are not widely available and you may feel that you are locked into the dealer that has the car you want. The issue that this presents is the dealer saying to you "here is the car you want" and here is OUR (the dealer's) trade-in value and interest rate. If you really want the car right now what will most people do? Take the trade value and interest rate as gospel and drive the car home today.

cliffy1

What you have just described is not only a violation of the Scion agreement, it is a violation of federal banking laws. Its called packaging and you should absolutely call them on it. Business practices like this are as illegal as rolling back and odometer. It makes my blood boil when I hear this kind of thing still happening, especially with Scion.

SWF_05_tC

When I bought my car, the dealer gave me a lifetime powertrain warranty, which was a direct extension of the factory power train warranty for as long as I personally own the vehicle. It was the business manager that was trying to get me to purchase additional extended warranties on top of this. That's their job, they're commission sales people too. If you say no the first time and they offer it again, it will usually be at a lower price. I have no complaints about my buying experience though, got a great car with a lifetime warranty, couldnt ask for more.

OKIHost

Sorry you got your pantys in a bind and allbut he was screwing me first.. Also I was not 100% sure I was going to cancel but he toldme about 5 times how I could cancel down the road if I decided I did not want or sold car along with the fact I would transfer it toa new owner if I decided.

After 3 months I decided I did not want it and I cancelled it big deal!

And all your ethics BS is nothing to me.. He was going to charge me 6.75% which gave him whatever his cut was an decided if he could sell me the extended warrenty which they make ALL of the money off they would take a cut on the APR.

I did not even realize till after how he screwed me on the extended warrenty so this was another factor in choosing to cancel.

cliffy1

My ethics BS? I'm not talking about an ethics issue. I'm talking about a felony. A federal felony. If you want the money refunded, you have them by the *****. Start off by talking to the General Manager or owner of the store. Tell them exactly what you have described here and insist that they refund you the entire purchase price of the warranty. If they balk, call Scion customer service. I know they would love to know about something like this. This is exactly what Toyota wanted to get past by going to the pure price system for finance rates.

rounder

I disagree. I plan to mod the tC but with Scion parts. These parts fall under the extended warranty as outlined by my dealer.

3_IGs

Personally, I will get the "Extended Warranty"...Have you seen the list of parts that the Platinum Warranty covers?...it's pretty extensive...and IMHO definately worth the $1250 to extend it to 7yrs/100K miles...and you don't have to buy it at the time of sale...you can go in and drop the cash anytime w/in the original 3yr/36K period.

After paying way more than that to have my 2001 VW GTI 1.8t fixed after warranty - it just makes sense...to me anyhow.

I think in a way that Scion is sort of like "The New VW". In this sense...VW used to be known for a pretty good quality car for lower cost. And I think that was the case until they came out w/ the MkIV series....which seems to have sacrificed some quality in the name of profit. Now here comes Scion offering a very well engineered and equiped car at an inexpensive price..."The new VW". My 2 cents.

Cheers.
Josh

2JZ

yea... i haven't signed the papers yet, but the three year/36000 mile warranty leaves me a little uneasy...

Lexus is supposed to be the most reliable company and i have no arguments with that... however, in the two and half years and 48000 miles i had my IS (yes, i drove alot... didn't plan on that but my last job required alot of driving), I ran into some serious issues (hub bearing cracking, right strut tower problems, brakes clicking...). Luckily, Lexus took care of everything without question. that's just two and a half years of driving and my mileage is already over what the tC allows (the lexus warranty is 5 year /50000 miles). All ISes are also built in Japan, rather than some of the other models being built here so quality assurance is pretty high.

i dunno, maybe i'm just prone to "____ happening" so i figure it would be a good idea for me to take the ext warranty, especially if Scion doesn't plan on keeping the tC for longer than three years.

zoltiz

I am willingly planning to buy the Toyota Platinum plan (the "no deductible" version). With 2 things in mind: 1) I am not buying it right now - probably somewhere closer to 3/36 mark, and 2) I'm not paying $1250 for it - there are dealers that would sell the same warranty for $850-900 - it is a commodity that you can haggle about, like anything else.

2JZ

my friend only paid 800 for the platinum package... which included the alarm/window etching, "no deductible" thingy, and the extended warranty.

zoltiz

Do they sell out of state for the same money?

cliffy1

The better question would be what term the friend got. Not everybody gets the 7/100 plan. You also need to make sure that warranty is the actual Toyota Platinum plan and not a JM&A Platinum plan or some other odd-ball company that calls their plan "platinum."

tChamp

^thats funny being that your a "platinum" sponsor lol.

2JZ

i dunno if they sell out of state...

as for the term, it was a 7/72 ext warranty, not 100 so maybe that was the difference?

still, 72000 miles doesn't sound too bad for me... and it was from Toyota as well as the letterhead outlining the platinum coverage stated.