I'd like to hear from those that did not get extended warranty and either regretted it or found out a major repair would not have been covered or not worth having the warranty.

Similarly, I'd like to hear from those that bought it and had car fixed and figured they paid more in warranty than it was worth. 3K more miles and I need to decide soon.

 

Whether it's this car, a laptop or refrigerator, these warranties, like all other forms of insurance, are to be thought of us prepaid repairs. It will buy you some piece of mind, however.
The average long term repair (not maintenance) cost of Toyota brand cars, in the third through eighth year (I'm pulling this information out of thin air) is usually less than the cost of the policy (they're money makers for the company). The only issue is, can you afford to self insure against the cost of repairs? If you can handle a $300-400 repair every year or two, then it doesn't make sense. However, if the thought of a new water pump, transmission, etc. will devastate you financially, then get the insurance. No one can predict a loss on an individual basis, but over the years, these policies have been tremendous money makers for the insurers. In my thirty plus years of car ownership, the cumulative cost of non maintenance repairs, across five or six cars including Toyota and other makes, were significantly less than the cost of the respective policies.
However, there are those that swear by them and find them useful.
It's up to you, but remember, these are extremely well built cars and you're taking about shelling out $800, or so, to "possibly" save an expenditure of $1000 to $1500. It's a gamble.
The hybrid system is covered by Toyota for 8/100,000, so you're only talking about normal car repairs.
This is one of the most often discussed/debated topics here and to date it hasn't been decided, nor will it ever be.

 

My 2004 Prius is at 181k miles. The only repairs that would have been covered by an extended warranty (I did not have one) came well after 100k miles.

• CD player rejecting most CDs - fixed using a salvaged 2006 radio for $82 (expensive at dealer)
• MFD failure (a classic 2004/2005 Prius problem) - fixed by re-soldering a cracked solder joint - $35 (very expensive at dealer)
• Replaced upper steering column mechanism due to periodic "Clunk" - $900 at dealer

The rest of my costs have just been normal maintenance items. It still has original:

• Brakes
• 12v Battery
• HV Battery

This has been a great car for only $22k and has saved me over $10k in gasoline so far. I would expect most of you would have similar results with your TCH.

JeffD

 

Seriously doubt any of us TCH-ers will save anywhere close to $10K in gas (unless we don't drive the car at all...or compare it to a Hummer pulling a trailer). Not sure what baseline one should use, but I guess using cautious driving techniques with a TCH (~40MPG) versus a gas Camry (~28MPG) over 150,000 miles could save about 1600 gallons. With gas averaging about $3 for the last few years and assuming the same going forward, the fuel savings is a bit more than the cost of the hybrid premium, but not a significant amount. No one's retiring on the savings.

 

At 75,000 miles on my TCH (without an extended warranty) the only things that needed to be fixed after the 36,000 mile mark were a plastic piece that fell of inside the door that needed to be glued back on (cost me maybe a dollar in silicon and about 45 minutes to fix) and the driver's side sun visor (the mechanism holding it up/down broke). That fix cost me $73 for a new visor and maybe 15 minutes total to fix.

The passenger side visor is starting to make the same popping noise that the driver's side was doing before it broke so I am assuming it will be replaced soon. The water pump will more than likely be replaced if this board is any indication but the pump costs around $40 to $50 dollars and will take me about 2 hours to replace.

If the car makes it to the 100,000 mile mark before replacing the water pump, I will consider it normal maintenance of the car as I usually replace the water pump, timing belts, idlers and the like at the 90,000 to 100,000 mile mark on ANY of my cars. Even though this engine does not use a timing belt, the water pump will still be replaced on that schedule just for peace of mind.
Total cost so far (even adding a water pump that the car has not needed) would be in the range of $200 in parts and around 3 hours of my labor. If you have an independent tech work on the car, the labor should be well under $100 an hour but even using that figure, my "repair" cost will be around $500 which is well under the cost of the extended warranty that was available for my car.

 

It appears these cars are nearly bulletproof. I have 17K on mine, and will not be buying the extended warranty.

On a related note, if you use a shop that uses BG products, the system they use their products on has a lifetime warranty, just for using their stuff!

http://www.bgfindashop.com/bgprotectionplan.htm