I recently purchased a brand new 2007 Toyota Prius. The dealership asked me if I wanted to get the optional protection benefits. I am considering getting the undercoating and corrosion protection. The undercoating protects from mud, dirt and road salt lifetime warranty. The corrosion is 10 years unlimited milage covers all environmental corrosion surface rust for five years with environmental paint. The cost for these two would be 570.00. Should I get this extra package?
Check your warranty. Most cars come from the factory with a warranty for this. Also most of these “protective coatings” tend to block up your car body’s drain holes with junk causing other rusting problems since moisture stays trapped in the body panels.
Pass on any extra offered, pure dealer profit.
I used to sell cars for a living. Trust me, these things are nothing but Additional Dealer Profit, and they are a total waste of money for you. No matter what the sales person says, the Prius has been rust-proofed at the factory using state-of-the-art techniques and materials. The dealer-applied “rust-proofing” will actually make the vehicle MORE prone to rust.
You don’t need any paint protection, interior protection, etc. The stuff they put on the paint is CAR WAX, which you can buy at Pep Boys for $5.95. The interior treatment is ScotchGuard, which you can also buy for a few bucks. Don’t let them talk you into this stuff. It’s truly worthless, and I mean worthless. Keep your money.
Sorry, but it really bugs me when dealers use customer ignorance to sell junk like this. The paint on your new Prius can withstand anything short of a low-yield thermonuclear blast, and the interior materials are designed to stand up to kids, dogs, and whatever else you can throw at them.
You do NOT need any additional “protection” of any sort on this new Toyota. They just want to make an extra $570 profit on the deal.
Say, “No, thank you,” firmly if necessary, because they won’t back off easily, and enjoy your new Prius. After you’ve driven it a few months, let us know how the gas mileage is. We love to get real-world mileage information from owners of hybrid vehicles.
And by the way, don’t pay for any additional “warranties,” either. The factory warranty is all you need, and the extra warranties they sell are usually not worth the paper they are printed on.
MC
Years ago I worked as a mechanic in a new car dealership. The reply by mcparadise is 100% on the money. I could not have said it any better.
Joe
All of this stuff is a complete ripoff. None of it is of any value. Ditto for “extended warranties”. The “rust proofing” may very well plug up critical drain holes and actually encourage rust.
If you want to keep your car looking good over many years:
[list]Wash it regularly, including underneath the rocker panels and inside the wheel wells.[/list][list]Vacuum out the dirt and sand that collects on and under the floor mats.[/list][list]Wipe down plastic surfaces using Armorall or Endust.[/list][list]Clean the windows, inside and out, with Windex.[/list][list]If you don’t want to wax the exterior and shampoo the interior yourself, take it to a detailer two or three times a year.[/list]
No, it’s a waste of money. By any chance did they try and sell this stuff after you’ve been there for a few hours, are tired, the kids are past cranky, and you all just want to go home.
If you want to keep your car nice, wax it 2 or 3 times a year. Shampoo or scrub the floor mats and the interior (carpet and seats) once a year. A Bissell Green Machine or just a scrub brush works wonders. I used this approach with our 98 Windstar we bought when our kids were 4 and 1. Eight years later when I sold it the paint and interior were still in great shape.
Ed B.
That won’t protect the car from collision, which is much more likely to happen in seven years than rust through. Even if I lived 500 feet from the shore on the East coast, I wouldn’t have that done. It also won’t protect you from selling the car seven years from now. At least wait until the car has proven that it is not a lemon. Then don’t do it anyway.
It would be overpriced at $57.00 In fact it might be a poor idea if they paid you $570.00.
Any dealer trying to sell you that stuff is only doing it to get your money. All cars today come with outstanding protection from the factory. The choice of materials they use and engineering is great and there is no need for after market additions. Some after market products (and this is an after market product) can defeat the manufacturers efforts by blocking drain holes etc.
Isnt Armoral actually supposed to cause more issues than it helps?
Cleako
No. There is nothing wrong with Armorall.
Armor-All is good stuff but some folks get sloppy applying it. Then they advise other people it’s bad. Nothing wrong with Armor-All or its STP equivalent.
The US Toyota Prius already comes standard with 60 months/unlimited miles of corrosion perforation (rust-through) warranty.
Most of the dealer-add-on undercoating packages are just some type of spray-on gunk on the underside of the car, which often will block-up the drain holes in the body (causing water back-up and leads to faster rusting in places it shouldn’t be rusting). Keep your money, and just wash your car more often.
BTW: IF you were thinking of an extended warranty, stay with the Toyota-backed plan, preferrably the Platinum version offered through Toyota Financial Services. You have until the end of your 3 year/36,000 mile warranty in the US to purchase it, and you can buy it from any Toyota dealer (not just the place where you bought your car, nor where you have it serviced…). Prices vary from dealer to dealer, so take your time to shop around. There are several dealers that offer the longest (priciest) term 7 year/100,000 mile/$0 deductible version for less than $1000 (MSRP $1850, though I’ve heard of some dealers charging over $2500 for it!), so look around. more info at: http://www.vfaq.net/docs/ExtendedWarranty.html though a bit dated.