Toyota reduces it's warranty

[CliffEdge]

From June Toyota reduces it's warranty from five years to three.

[bungeejumper]

From June Toyota reduces it's warranty from five years to three.

Whoa, not so fast. In fact the new Relax warranty may work out better for many users. The headline manufacturer's warranty reduces from five years to three, as you've said, but you get an extra year's warranty (up to ten years) every time you have the car serviced at a Toyota dealer. (And Toyota's servicing costs for my Auris are well below most other brands I've had to deal with, or many independent garages for that matter.)

The warranty applies to commercially used cars and taxis as well as more normal user patterns, and it tops out at 100,000 miles or ten years, instead of five years as previously. Maybe I've missed something, but I'm struggling to see how that isn't a better deal than before, not a worse one?

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/toyota/35 ... r-warranty

BJ

[CliffEdge]

Why did they not keep the five years and add Relax to that. I don't know I just wonder.

[bungeejumper]

Why did they not keep the five years and add Relax to that. I don't know I just wonder.

Because they're pitching for the lifetime servicing of their cars, I imagine? Under the outgoing system, you could have your car serviced by an independent and still get the five year warranty. Under the new system, you're being squeezed from year four onwards to bring it in every year to a dealer for servicing.

But, given that Toyota servicing isn't absurdly expensive, that's probably what many customers would have been doing anyway.

Let's clear up one thing, though. The old five year warranty is still in force for any Toyota that was bought new before this month. It's only new cars from now on that get the three year warranty. Inevitably, that brings up an anomaly - you could go out today and buy a one month old used Corolla with a five year warranty, or a brand new one with the "three year" Relax warranty. The distinction is all a bit theoretical, insofar as a Toyota of any age (up to ten) can extend its warranty under the Relax scheme just by bringing it in for a service.

I haven't read the small print, so I don't know what's included or excluded under the new warranty system. There might be a few negatives in there. But AFAIK the new Relax warranty applies to Lexuses as well as more ordinary Toyotas, and I doubt that they'd want to risk p1ssing their better-heeled customers off with a dodgy deal. It looks okay to me.

BJ