Your Guide to Toyota Warranty Coverage

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The Toyota warranty covers mechanical failures up until 3 years/36,000 miles. But chances are, you’ll drive your Toyota much longer than that.

In our Toyota warranty review, we’ll explain the many different coverages that come with a new Toyota. We’ve also researched extended auto warranty options. While Toyota’s extended warranty can go far, the best extended car warranty companies in the industry can offer longer coverage terms.

Table of Contents:

• Toyota Warranty Overview
• Toyota Certified Pre-Owned Warranty
• Why Would You Need a Toyota Extended Warranty?
• Toyota Extended Warranty 
• Comparing Toyota and Third-Party Extended Warranty Options
• Our Recommended Toyota Warranty Providers

Toyota Warranty Overview

All new Toyotas come with a variety of warranty coverage terms. Here’s a summary: 

While the Toyota warranty is comprehensive, it doesn’t last as long as warranties from other companies. For example, Volkswagen offers a 4-year/50,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty. Kia, Hyundai, Mitsubishi and Genesis all offer 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranties. It seems like Toyota leans more on its reputation for reliability than long warranty terms to gain customers.

To check if your Toyota is still under warranty, you can go to the Toyota Owners website. You can look up general information by make and model, or you can perform a Toyota warranty check with your vehicle identification number (VIN) and see your car’s service history.

Toyota Bumper-to-Bumper Coverage

The Toyota New Vehicle Limited Warranty is a bumper-to-bumper warranty. It uses an exclusionary contract, which means it only lists items not included to define coverage. In short, this warranty will fix manufacturing defects in almost any mechanical or electrical component on the car.

It doesn’t cover damage from misuse or lack of maintenance. It also doesn’t cover wear items like brake pads and regular maintenance services.
 

Toyota Powertrain Warranty

Toyota’s 5-year/60,000-mile warranty covers powertrain components in the engine, transmission and drive axle. The powertrain warranty is a stated coverage contract, which lists every item included in the plan. 

These parts can be expensive to repair, so it’s nice that coverage lasts a little bit longer. However, you probably won’t have to use the powertrain warranty in the first few years. While these parts are expensive to fix, they’re also designed to last for a long time.

Toyota offers a number of hybrid vehicles, so it provides good coverage for different parts in these vehicles as well. The hybrid system is covered for 8 years/100,000 miles, and the hybrid battery is covered for 10 years/150,000 miles.
 

Emissions Warranties

Different emissions parts are required to function for a certain amount of time under federal and state laws. A few critical components like the catalytic converter are covered for a longer period of time. The California warranty terms apply to a number of other states as well.
 

ToyotaCare

Every new Toyota comes with ToyotaCare. There are two main parts to ToyotaCare:

• Roadside assistance: ToyotaCare covers roadside assistance for the first two years of ownership regardless of mileage. It covers towing, winching, lockout services, jump-starts, fuel delivery and spare tire assistance.
• Maintenance: ToyotaCare covers scheduled maintenance items up until 2 years/25,000 miles. This includes tire rotations, inspections, oil changes, fluids and Genuine Toyota parts. If your car requires synthetic oil, you’ll get oil changes every 12 months/10,000 miles. If the oil is conventional, you’ll get oil changes every 6 months/5,000 miles.

If you have a Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle, scheduled maintenance is covered until 3 years/35,000 miles. You also get generous trip interruption benefits of $500 per day for five days.

Toyota Certified Pre-Owned Warranty

Toyota vehicles that have less than 85,000 miles are eligible for the Toyota Certified Used Vehicle program. Dealerships do a thorough CARFAX review of eligible vehicles and then perform a 160-point inspection. After that, the cars get a certified used Toyota warranty, which includes:

• 12-month/12,000-mile limited comprehensive warranty from date of used purchase
• 7-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty from original in-service date
• 8-year/100,000-mile hybrid battery warranty
• 8-year/100,000-mile fuel-cell system warranty
• A year of roadside assistance

Why Would You Need a Toyota Extended Warranty?

Toyota’s vehicles are known to go for miles and miles. Many of the company’s cars are cost effective over the long-term, whether you drive a 4Runner to explore nature or a Camry for your daily commute. So, why would you want an extended car warranty?

Well, remember Toyota’s warranty coverage is fairly short. In fact, the automaker has the shortest bumper-to-bumper warranty of any brand on the market. After it expires, you’ll be on the hook for almost any repair that isn’t covered under the powertrain or emissions warranties.

The powertrain warranty only covers a small fraction of what the bumper-to-bumper warranty covers. As time goes on, repairs do come up. While a Toyota might be cheaper to fix than an Audi, you may encounter $1,000 or $2,000 repairs as your mileage increases.

Since Toyotas last so long, you can add an extended warranty to cover repairs until the car has 150,000, 200,000 or even 250,000 miles. In short, you can enjoy peace of mind that repairs are covered long beyond the factory warranty expiration.

Toyota Repair Costs

RepairPal ranks Toyota as the seventh most reliable car manufacturer overall. Drivers pay about $441 per year for maintenance and repairs, which is much lower than the industry average of $652.

Here are a few common repairs Toyota drivers have experienced, according to RepairPal: 

Since Toyota repair costs are generally cheaper, extended auto warranty companies expect to pay out less to cover repairs. It’s similar to how car insurance works. The price is based on how much of a financial risk your car poses to the company. That means Toyota drivers can expect to find lower prices on warranties than people who drive less reliable vehicles.

Toyota Extended Warranty 

Toyota’s extended warranty is called the Toyota Vehicle Service Agreement (VSA). You can choose from three levels of coverage:

You can cancel an extended Toyota warranty for a full refund minus a $50 fee within 30 days. After that, you can get a prorated refund. Toyota extended warranties can also be transferred to another owner for free, but only once.
 

Toyota Extended Warranty Price

Since prices are dependent upon your Toyota model and how much coverage you want, you’ll have to get a quote from a dealership to see what you would pay. Generally, the Toyota extended warranty cost might be between $900 and $2,000.

All plans come with a $0 or $100 disappearing deductible option, which is waived at the selling dealership. A $0 deductible plan will cost slightly more than a plan with a deductible.

We’d say the Toyota extended warranty is worth it if you can get the Platinum plan for better coverage and perks.

Comparing Toyota and Third-Party Extended Warranty Options

Toyota’s extended warranty options offer a good amount of coverage until 150,000 miles. Many other manufacturers offer shorter extended warranties. However, Toyota’s VSAs don’t really extend the bumper-to-bumper warranty.

All of Toyota’s VSAs are stated-component contracts, so they don’t cover nearly as many items as the bumper-to-bumper warranty. In contrast, many third-party companies do offer bumper-to-bumper coverage. Both the factory warranty and extended warranty plans from Toyota require you to visit a dealership for repairs. While genuine parts are guaranteed, it might be more convenient to go to a local repair shop if you don’t live so close to a Toyota dealership.

Third-party options usually let you visit any mechanic who’s certified by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) for repairs. This opens up your options from just a few dealerships in your area to dozens of repair shops.

Another downside of Toyota’s extended warranty is you have to buy one before your Toyota warranty expires or at the time of purchase if you’re buying a used Toyota. At that time, you might not know if you want to extend coverage. On the other hand, you can take as much time as you want shopping from providers like CARCHEX and CarShield. These two companies in particular can also cover cars far longer than the Toyota extended warranty.

Our Recommended Toyota Warranty Providers

CarShield offers coverage until 200,000 miles, and CARCHEX can cover your car up to 250,000 miles. That sounds like a lot of mileage, but many people drive their Toyotas even further. A third-party provider can be the best option for coverage into the car’s golden years, and many companies accept vehicles up to 15 or 20 years old.

Third-party vehicle protection plans can also offer more coverage choices. For example, Endurance offers five different levels, from powertrain coverage to bumper-to-bumper comprehensive coverage.

If you’re considering extending your Toyota’s warranty, get quotes from a few different providers. Read the sample contracts to find out exactly what’s covered and compare warranty plans.

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