Yes, I know - full price plus penalty but if the coverage term starts from the day you purchase the ECP it's more than worth the penalty as you will gain an additional 2-3 years of coverage.

 

Doesn't work that way. It's still from date of purchase. When the car hits 100K or 7 years, its over regardless of when you bought the Warranty

 

Loonbeam is correct. Buying the first bit of insurance after the warranty period expires is the least expensive. Adding more time to the back end would bring the price up significantly, since the chance of a malfunction increases with the age of a car.

 

My primary reason for buying the extended warranty was resale. I typically replace my vehicles around six years. With a year of warranty left for the buyer, I can easily sell the car myself for top dollar. I figure it saves me days if not weeks of time, and almost pays for itself in higher resale even if it is never needed for a repair. Nearly every one of my last half dozen cars sold for top blue book to the first or second person to look at it, and I have no doubt the peace of mind the warranty gives the buyer makes the difference. That also means I come out typically $3-5K higher than I could do with a trade-in, after loosing the nearly $1K sales tax advantage of a trade-in.

-- Alan

PS on the rare occasions where I've had to use the warranty, the repair usually does not cover the cost of the warranty! However, repair costs saved on two cars (a Ford and a Mercedes) covered the cost of the extended warranty many times over!

 

As mentioned, the 7yr/100K warranty will expire at 7yrs from the time the car was first put into service, or 100k miles on the odometer, regardless of when or what mileage you purchased the warranty.

So why not wait and buy it later? This is the decision you need to ask yourself. If at 2.9yrs and 35k miles, you have not had any problems, and you don't feel that you are going to have any problems, then maybe you will decide not to buy the warranty. But let's say you do decide to buy the warranty at that time. Maybe the price for the 7y/100k warranty will be $2000 at that time, instead of $990 right now. By purchasing the warranty now, you lock in the price. In fact, the dealer price for the 7y/100k went from $650 in mid-June06 up to $990 by mid-Aug06 as Toyota refined their calculations on what the actual costs would be. I'm not even sure the current cost today in mid-Oct06 is still $990, it might be over $1k by now.

 

Just got my TCH Monday, love it! The dealer wanted $1695 for the extended warranty, but I had printed off a post in Camry Warranty with the genuine Toyota contract available for $990 at Midwest Toyota Superstore in Kansas. My dealer met that price and the service contract came down, too - don't remember how much off-hand. Print stuff off and take it with you, black and white speaks volumes!

 

December 2006 quote from the Toyota Midwest Superstore in Kansas is $825 for a 6yr/100,000/$0 warranty. I drive 20,000 miles a year so the 7/100k would not do me any good.

 

A lot of the above reasons for the warranty factored into my decision. Lock in the cost now, and even if you never need it, it was still worth a portion of the total in peace of mind.