Extended Warranty - '04 Es330 35k Miles

[evert9]

I am hopefully going to buyout my mom and dad's lease on their '04 ES330. I understand that there are options for extended warranty plans, however, not sure if they'll be valuable.

They've taken great care of the car. It's never been into the shop and they maintain it very well. They have 35,000 miles on it currently. I don't plan to have it much more than 5-6 years and drive mostly to and from work (3 miles roundtrip). At the farthest, we drive 2 hours North to visit family 3-4 times a year. I'm currently 4K miles under my 12K/year allowance in my current lease.

With that being said, I can't find many problems with this model or model year from the boards. Considering that I don't drive it a ton, it's been well maintained, I plan to only keep it for 5 more years, and the fact that I can't find any big problems people have encountered thus far, is the $1950 price tag ($390/year of ownership) for 3 years/100,000miles bumper to bumper is worth the money? Yes, it's piece of mind but I also want to be realistic if a 8-9 year old Lexus really won't have major issues for me.

Thanks for your help!

[kaosfive2005]

that seems quite pricey for only 3 years of warranty..try continental warranty program, ive heard they're very good...its 3rd party, but typically of course you may save a LOT more or get more years on the warranty instead of just 3 for the same price

[SW03ES]

That price is WAY out of line. I paid $1500 for my 7 year 100k extended warranty directly from Lexus.

I wouldn't buy it in your situation honestly. You have some time to decide, you can buy it as long as you're within your original 4 year 50k mile factory warranty.

[gbhrps]

If I were you .... and I'm not ... I wouldn't buy the extended warranty for 3 reasons. One ... Toyotas have a great reliability record, and Lexus models even more so. Two ... you know the previous history of the car and know it has not been abused but cared for properly. Three ... say you buy the $1500 warranty and 2 weeks later some bum runs a stoplight, broadsides your car and it gets written off. Will Lexus give you your extended warranty money back, or transfer it to your next car? I'd put the $1500 in a bank account for repairs down the road, if needed. And if you don't need it ... put it towards your next set of tires or the next car. But that's just my 2 cents worth.

[evert9]

Thanks everyone - you've been very helpful! My dad even said that he wouldn't buy it since it's never been in the shop before. I'm a pretty conservative person so I'm always buying more insurance than I really need.

[SW03ES]

say you buy the $1500 warranty and 2 weeks later some bum runs a stoplight, broadsides your car and it gets written off. Will Lexus give you your extended warranty money back

I believe they will actually.