Hello, all.

I've really been enjoying reading this forum for the last few days. I'm a first-time hybrid owner and a first-time Toyota owner.

In researching the Camry hybrid, I've seen reliability ratings that I have never seen for any car. U.S. News, for example, gave it a 10 out of a possible 10. J.D. Power and associates give it 5 out of 5 stars.

My question for the forum is this: what mechanical failures have you had outside of the 3/36 warranty, and what did it cost to get it fixed?

I'm asking for this data because at this point, I can't see the need for an extended warranty. It may be that buying a scheduled maintenance plan may be a better investment. Unless several of you (especially the '07 and '08 owners just going out of your 36 month coverage) report significant problems, this car may be too reliable to need additional warranty coverage.

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

Joe

 

I've had two non-critial failures outside the warranty period. First one was a cable on the sunroof that required the headliner to be removed - cost was 0$ with extended warranty versus $480 w/o Second was the drivers sunvisor -- $0 versus $280.. So I'm now at ~$750 of the $990 cost of the extended warranty. With just 40,000 miles on the car and 60,000 yet to go on my warranty. I'm sure it will pay for itself.... The car runs like a top and I expect no major failures but these nickel and dollar repairs are the worst. Mine is the 8yr/100,000mi warranty.

 

Joe,

Regarding the likelihood of problems, I think that this car more trouble-free than even most Toyotas.

I have not had a single problem, or even complaint, with the 09 TCH in over two years, making it absolutely one of the most reliable cars I've ever owned - or driven - in my 40 years behind the wheel. If it can get through another 8 or 9 years without serious trouble, it will become my #1 most reliable - edging out my '79 Eldorado (which I still own).

Quite beyond inherent quality, I think that the Camry hybrids tend to be very gently driven and well maintained. That seriously helps a car remain trouble-free.

So, if your criterion on buying the extended warranty is the expectation of getting your money back in savings on repairs, I'd say you should not buy the coverage.

Let's face it, extended warranties are essentially insurance, and the seller (insurance company) does not expect the buyers, on the average, to get their money back. If they did, the seller would not be able to cover it's cost, let alone have any profit expectation.

The reason to buy insurance is to protect yourself against a small risk of a truly unaffordable expense. At least that's why I bought the extended warranty coverage on mine. I'm certainly not hoping to need a series of otherwise affordable repairs to "get my money back."

 

So far, I replaced both front struts at the 65,000 mile mark for a total cost of $188 and I have a drivers side sun visor on order that, with shipping, will cost $83. I do my own work to my cars so there is no labor cost in there.....

 

My car just passed it's 4th year in service, but not really high mileage (75,000km or a little less than 50,000 miles). Only 1 "repair" required, one of the rear brake pads got a bit stuck and started rubbing on the rotor (took me a few weeks to figure out the faint squeeling was me, early spring so it wasn't until the first few days with the window open I could hear it). I paid for brake pads, but they covered the rotor. Don't think any extended warranty would help with brake issues in any case...

 

My TCH passed 4 years last month and has just over 78,000 miles. The only failure has been the engine's water pump at 75K miles.

 

I'm somewhere around 90k miles/4yrs with no repairs required yet (knock on the wood), however some components on TCH are very expensive and if one of those failed, it would cost thousands to fix (primary example being inverter). On the other hand in some states like CA and NY all hybrid related components are covered under extended (150k/10yr ?? not sure exactly) warranty, so it really depends on your particular situation. Since I bought my car pretty much as soon as it came out, without any benefit of historical data about reliability, I did get extended warranty. Now, before the extended warranty runs out I intend to take it to the dealer for full check up, so then I will find out if it was worth it after all. I did loose some engine coolant, possibly indicating some little work will be required, we will see, but it's mostly about peace of mind. I usually don't buy any extended warranty on any product, so this is more of an exception for me than not. Either way I don't mind getting the extended warranty, since the car served me very well so far and that's most important.

 

I think, collectively, as all stated in one form or another, the extended warranty is NOT a financial product with a positive rate of return, or if it is, it's marginal, at best.
It is a product that provides piece of mind to those fearing an expenditure that they can't afford. All insurance should be viewed as such.
If you can afford the cost of the event, pay for it yourself. If you can't afford the event, even in an unlikely situation (such as a home burning down), you will need insurance.
In 30 plus years of auto ownership, all the expenses were paid out of pocket and will continue to be so.
But it's up to the individual...which is why there is chocolate and vanilla ice cream.

 

Ice cream comes in Vanilla?????

 

When I was young, I used to think that all ice creams were vanilla based and they just added the coloring (brown for chocolate, etc.) to get the other flavors. Who knows, maybe back then they did!