Toco Warranty Review: Great Cover for High Mileage Vehicles

Car ownership can be a headache when something goes wrong with your vehicle. With the cost of repairs a concern for many drivers, having protection for your car can go some way to alleviate the stress. While car insurance provides cover in the event you’re involved in an accident, for a breakdown, you need other protection in place.

If your manufacturer’s warranty has expired or if you’ve brought a used car, then an extended warranty can bring peace of mind. The best extended warranties aim to cover your vehicle if something fails, enabling you to have it fixed at an approved repair shop, pay a deductible, and avoid a huge bill.

There are lots of extended warranty providers out there, and Toco offers something a little more unique.

Toco review: What you need to know

Toco Warranty is based in Houston, and was founded in 2013. Toco Warranty offers four levels of coverage (Green, Blue, Yellow, and Orange) providing basic to comprehensive coverage.

The four levels of cover are based on the current mileage of your vehicle:

• Green – 200,000-250,000 miles
• Blue – 150,000-200,000 miles
• Yellow – 100,000-150,000 miles
• Orange – 100,000 miles

Toco’s coverage extends to older cars, from 2002 onwards, which means that the firm will happily cover vehicles up to 22 years old.

There’s a waiting period of 30 days and 1,000 miles before any claim can be made, however customer experiences show the waiting period being closer to 90 days. However, Toco says that during the waiting period, customers are likely to be entitled to partial payment. Those who want immediate cover, without any waiting period, should look to Olive’s offering instead.

Also standard is the stipulation that in order to take out Toco’s coverage, your car will need to have been serviced according to the manufacturer’s recommendations.

The coverage limit is $15,000 at all levels, which has its advantages and disadvantages. On the positive side, if you have an older vehicle with high mileage, you’ll still be able to get an expensive repair – something that might not be possible through other providers that offer cover only up to the value of the car.

However, if you have an expensive car with expensive parts, then you might hit this limit easily and be left bearing some of the cost of repairs. In this case, opting for a different provider that offers total value protection might be more attractive. Select Auto Protect, who doesn’t limit the number of claims you can make, might be the better choice if your car is more expensive. Note, too, that Toco’s contracts aren’t transferable with the car if you sell it (unless you’re in Florida), which isn’t the case with most other extended warranties.

Be aware, too, that Toco is not available in Alaska, California, Missouri, Washington, or Wyoming.

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Toco review: Tiers and parts coverage

Toco structures its tiers slightly differently to other providers. Rather than choosing the level of cover you want, you’ll be limited by the mileage of your car. If you have a lower-mileage vehicle, you’ll get a higher level of coverage; and the opposite is true, too.

If your car is in the 200-250k mile band, you’ll qualify for Green level cover – similar to a powertrain coverage. As such, your engine, transmission, drive axle, turbo, and air conditioning will be protected from failure. Blue level cover – that’s 150-200k miles – adds cover for the cooling system, fuel system, and electrical components to the list.

Neither level guards against problems with high-tech components such as satnav, parking sensors, or in-car displays. However, most high-mileage cars are likely to be older, hence in-car tech might not be something you’ll need to concern yourself with.

The Yellow level warranty (100-150k miles) sees high-tech parts covered, as well as the steering, suspension, and brakes. Finally, if your car is relatively new with pretty low mileage then Orange level (under 100k miles) offers comprehensive cover, adding the heating system; but note that there isn’t a huge difference in the offering between Yellow and Orange.

Other warranty suppliers will give you the choice of parts coverage, allowing you to just have powertrain coverage for a fairly new car, for example. Toco’s cover is slightly different. The thing to take into account is what Toco quotes you for their coverage compared to rivals – you don’t get to choose coverage based on the parts you want, Toco’s parts coverage is set, depending on your car’s mileage.

Toco review: Breakdown cover and extras

Toco offers comprehensive breakdown cover, so if you have a critical failure when you’re out in your car, then you can be assured of additional protection. This includes up to $100 a night for accommodation if you’re more than 100 miles from home, plus you’re covered for gas delivery (excluding the cost for the gas itself) and battery restarts, as well as if you’re locked out of your car.

Towing is offered, too, but it’s only free for 15 miles, with the idea that Toco will have your car towed to an approved service facility – any greater distance and you’ll have to bear the cost yourself.
There’s also reimbursement for rental cars, which comes in at up to $40 per four hours of rental, up to $200.

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Toco review: Customer service

Toco offers phone, email, and online contact options for its customers, providing you with a range of options when it comes to getting a quote or putting in a claim.

Toco aims to deliver great customer service and has a 4.7 rating on Trustpilot based on over 500 online reviews – 87% of those are five-star reviews. There are also around ~400 Google reviews for Toco Warranty, with an average rating of 4.3, so customer satisfaction for Toco looks good based.

Toco review: Verdict

Toco Warranty works on a tiered system based on the mileage of your car, which means that the firm offers coverage for those who want comprehensive protection for a low-mileage car, through to basic coverage for higher-mileage vehicles. There isn’t much flexibility here, but the protection levels favor those with older cars. Owners of more expensive cars might be better off with another provider, such as Select Auto Protect and Endurance.

The firm offers decent breakdown coverage, too, plus Toco prides itself on good customer service resulting in great customer feedback. Nevertheless, it’s the lack of flexibility next to some rival extended warranty providers that mean it might not be the best option for some.