Who cares for their warranties?

[WingsofWar]

Upon inspecting all these threads these days, a common comment i find across the forms is, "I CAN'T WAIT TO SWAP THE ENGINE AS SOON AS I GET IT!"

How many people are planning on buying this car next year, at full sticker price and only to immediately void their warranty?

I mean, if i were buying a car at 20-30k and i know that a good portion of that money is the installed warranty, i wouldn't want to throw that money away.

Engine swaps are something i would do with an old car, with plenty of miles and should be brought into the 21st century. And i wouldn't risk voided anything.

I really want to know what you select individuals would do and how you think. Have you ever owned a brand new car with a warranty before? Is a warranty something that doesn't mean shit especially at 20-30k?

For you planning on engine swapping, do you really justify buying the car at 20-30k only to spend another 5-10k on a proper STI or other swap. It sure sounds like a big waste.


If i could give you guys a recommendation for you people thinking of such a thing. Hold off on thinking of swapping. Petition Toyota or Subaru to offer factory turbo or SC options or installations that do not void the warranty.

Molesting the car too early may hurt the value of the car, and trap you in a financial bind when better options becomes available 1-3 years down the road when consumer reviews becomes apparent to the auto makers.

[sfwg]

Ill be rocking the warranty. Had a gas tank crack on me , while under warranty thankfully, and it saved me about a grand cause the dealership said half of the missions components got messed up due to it cracking. I may even go extended as this will be a DD till it is paid off.

[Dave-ROR]

I don't tend to care about warranties. Then again, I've been driving Hondas and have literally never had to have a warranty repair. I've had things go bad over time of course, but that wouldn't have been warranty work anyways (radiator plastic end tank failing after 8 years, clutch MC failing after 8 years, brake MC failing while bleeding after 10, etc).

I have no interest in swapping the engine either though.

[RRnold]

Part of my warranty is watching the first-in-line owners and the issues they'll possibly have.

My general rule of thumb is basic bolt on upgrades during the warranty period, no internal engine mods and then once it has expired, open the floodgates!

I think it'll be a very small percentage who goes all out and voids the warranty; like a motor swap. It's usually the DIY shows/mags or full out race teams that are usually the ones who tear the car apart.

[madfast]

yeah if this car is cheap, 20-25k, then the warranty doesnt mean much to me. i'd much rather throw away the warranty for a super fun car vs keeping the warranty and not having as much fun as i know i can. this is of course contingent on the fact that you can easily make power on this car. and that requires a fully programmable ecu. once you have that, everything else will follow.

its kinda like the early days of the honda K series. before hondata, it was 1000 posts a day about SRI vs CAI and what cat back can give you 10 hp. after hondata? the sky's the limit... so once this car's ecu is cracked, if ever, then it's time to throw that warranty away...

[Giccin]

Originally Posted by madfast

yeah if this car is cheap, 20-25k, then the warranty doesnt mean much to me. i'd much rather throw away the warranty for a super fun car vs keeping the warranty and not having as much fun as i know i can. this is of course contingent on the fact that you can easily make power on this car. and that requires a fully programmable ecu. once you have that, everything else will follow.

Whoa whoa baller!

I didn't know 20-25k is cheap! Not as expensive. But deffo not cheap! LOL

Anyways... I'd keep the warranty, but like RRnold--I'm might wait it out 1 year to see what happens.

[madfast]

Originally Posted by Giccin

Whoa whoa baller!

I didn't know 20-25k is cheap! Not as expensive. But deffo not cheap! LOL

Anyways... I'd keep the warranty, but like RRnold--I'm might wait it out 1 year to see what happens.

compared to something like a 370Z? or cayman? yeah i'd call this car cheap!

[Shevon]

Like RRnold said basic bolt ons for a while

[Abflug]

Originally Posted by RRnold

Part of my warranty is watching the first-in-line owners and the issues they'll possibly have.

My general rule of thumb is basic bolt on upgrades during the warranty period, no internal engine mods and then once it has expired, open the floodgates!

I think it'll be a very small percentage who goes all out and voids the warranty; like a motor swap. It's usually the DIY shows/mags or full out race teams that are usually the ones who tear the car apart.

This!

+ driving the *hit out of it and see what happens... so I care if I am getting it!

[Mari0]

Well if you are already thinking of swapping the brand new engine with another one, then chances are that you do find 20-25k to be "cheap". Unfortunately, I am not one of those people. I wouldn't want to swap the engine anyways. And to actually answer your question, I do care about the warranty even though I've never had issues with any of our Toyotas. I'll just go for some bolt-on mods.

[WingsofWar]

Originally Posted by madfast

yeah if this car is cheap, 20-25k, then the warranty doesnt mean much to me. i'd much rather throw away the warranty for a super fun car vs keeping the warranty and not having as much fun as i know i can. this is of course contingent on the fact that you can easily make power on this car. and that requires a fully programmable ecu. once you have that, everything else will follow.

its kinda like the early days of the honda K series. before hondata, it was 1000 posts a day about SRI vs CAI and what cat back can give you 10 hp. after hondata? the sky's the limit... so once this car's ecu is cracked, if ever, then it's time to throw that warranty away...

interesting, so you would throw away the warranty and put down the extra dollar for more unwarranted fun.

Lets say from day one the entire car is moddable but voids the warranty, and you bought the car at sticker price the first month. You would immediately break the warranty?

This is really interesting to me, because the larger overall premium you pay for fun. Because its a new car. vs getting similar cars or older sports vehicles for cheaper prices for the same fun factor.

[coyote]

Warranty means you have the right to take a car back to a bunch of idiots as many times as you like (to fix the same thing), get overcharged on servicing and feel constrained in what you do to your own car.

I've bought and immediately modified 5 new cars in the past 20 years and this one will be far and away be the cheapest. The attraction is the base car will cost less than most used cars I'd consider.

I have no interest in a factory turbo version because it will come with the stupid DS4 rubbish, weak pistons, small intercooler, small injectors, etc, so I'd just be ripping out a more expensive parts for ones I want.

Hence, cheap NA with DS4 will be the perfect paper weight or addition to the scrap heap. I'll still finish up with a car that costs half that of a Lotus Evora S, but leaves it for dead.

[Kostamojen]

If you want to mod a car A LOT, buy a used one.

If you mod the crap out of this car when it comes out, especially engine bits, don't be surprised when your warranty claim gets denied. I certainly wouldn't mod other than factory bits until the 3/36 is over with.

Of course, if you are building a race car or don't care anything at all about a warranty or dealer service, do whatever you want!

The thing that always irritates me are the people who do engine mods then have an engine or transmission failure and try to have it fixed under warranty...

On the other hand, I hope this car doesn't have Toyota's black box and folks who auto-cross or do track days with the car stock get their warranty voided outright.

[madfast]

Originally Posted by WingsofWar

interesting, so you would throw away the warranty and put down the extra dollar for more unwarranted fun.

Lets say from day one the entire car is moddable but voids the warranty, and you bought the car at sticker price the first month. You would immediately break the warranty?

This is really interesting to me, because the larger overall premium you pay for fun. Because its a new car. vs getting similar cars or older sports vehicles for cheaper prices for the same fun factor.

yeah i would. the car really fits the bill. RWD, 2+2, lightweight. in this fantasy i would bolt on a SC run moderate boost and make ~300+ whp. hopefully the car turns out to be lighter than the 2800 being thrown around. at that level, it'd be friggin fast and not over the top. as you can see a TRD SC kit with warranty would be IDEAL. but even if it never comes, i'd throw the warranty away and SC it with conservative boost levels and a safe tune.

i havent really found any other car that is RWD, lightweight, handles great, and 2+2. most of them are 2 seaters like the miata, cayman, elise, exige, etc. the evora is nice but too expensive. although if this car ever came to the US i'd sell one of my kidneys to have it...