Trading in my dream car for a Toyota hybrid for longevity, lower maintenance costs, and lower insurance costs.
Putting together the final paperwork when the warranty packages are introduced.
I decline all but the manager insists on one of them alone specifically covering electronics (and everything else for 10 years). He says that the newer Toyota’s electronics are expensive to replace and commonly malfunction or break. I figured this is just pushing warranty, but he got to me mentally and broke my confidence in the brand.
Was this guy just trying to get me to spend more money, or is there truth in his tale?
Toyota tech. Toyota hybrids, no matter the model, do have their own inherent issues. Yes, the electronics are very expensive to service. We’ve had a handful of new prius’ in for various faults already.
The hybrid system itself will likely last you for years before needing anything done to it, but the battery pack can eventually go bad, just like any other electronic that cycles through charge often. The inverter itself can develop issues keeping up with charging later in its lifespan.
If it were a traditional ice car, maybe pre 2015? I wouldn’t worry with extended warranty as long as I planned to diligently stick to regular service intervals and adhere to the lifetime maintenance schedule of the vehicle (coolant, spark plugs, timing if needed). But every manufacturer these days has more electronics in their vehicles, more expensive tech in general, that will be costly to replace when it does eventually fail. Not just Toyota.
Though Toyota has certainly made major changes to their design process over the last 2 decades, the keystone of their philosophy will never change; reliability.