u/Odd_Leadership_2317

I recently put down a deposit on a new Toyota and I’m scheduled to pick it up soon. During the paperwork review, the finance manager strongly recommended that I add the Toyota Platinum Extended Warranty.

They are quoting me $3,800 for a 10-year / 100,000-mile extension.

This seems really high to me, especially for a Toyota. I haven't picked up the car yet, so I can still tell them to take it off.

Is this a rip-off? I've heard rumors that you can buy the exact same official Toyota backing from other dealers online for a fraction of the price (like $1,500).

Has anyone bought the Platinum plan recently? Who are the go-to discounted dealers people use now? Appreciate any advice before I go sign the final papers!

Saw a new paper (Applied Econ Letters, July 2026) on the CRZ that I thought was a pretty clever angle. The toll is $9 during peak and $2.25 overnight, so there are 4 moments each day where the price jumps - weekday 5am, weekday 9pm, weekend 9am, weekend 9pm. Same $6.75 difference at all four.

Using phone location data comparing Lower Manhattan to Boston/Chicago, the author found that people only shift their visit times around two of those cutoffs:

• Weekday 5am: visits jump 5.9% right after the toll drops (people doing early food/retail/delivery stuff nudging their arrival earlier)
• Weekend 9pm: visits jump 9.2% once the toll drops (biggest effect in the whole study)
• Weekday 9pm and weekend 9am: basically nothing, statistically zero

The argument is that it's not about the price (identical at all 4 boundaries) but about whether you actually can shift your schedule - nobody's rearranging their weekday evening commute or skipping a 9am brunch reservation to dodge a toll, but pre-dawn deliveries and weekend nightlife are flexible enough to move.

Anyone here notice this in practice? Curious if food/retail/delivery folks feel like they're clustering earlier before 5am, or if weekend nightlife spots have noticed more traffic right after 9pm. Feels like the kind of pattern that'd be totally invisible unless you were the one crunching hourly data, but wondering if it lines up with anyone's day-to-day.

The study : https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13504851.2026.2702110 - Behavioural responses to time-varying congestion pricing: a natural experiment from New York City

Saw a new paper (Applied Econ Letters, July 2026) on the CRZ that I thought was a pretty clever angle. The toll is $9 during peak and $2.25 overnight, so there are 4 moments each day where the price jumps - weekday 5am, weekday 9pm, weekend 9am, weekend 9pm. Same $6.75 difference at all four.

Using phone location data comparing Lower Manhattan to Boston/Chicago, the author found that people only shift their visit times around two of those cutoffs:

• Weekday 5am: visits jump 5.9% right after the toll drops (people doing early food/retail/delivery stuff nudging their arrival earlier)
• Weekend 9pm: visits jump 9.2% once the toll drops (biggest effect in the whole study)
• Weekday 9pm and weekend 9am: basically nothing, statistically zero

The argument is that it's not about the price (identical at all 4 boundaries) but about whether you actually can shift your schedule - nobody's rearranging their weekday evening commute or skipping a 9am brunch reservation to dodge a toll, but pre-dawn deliveries and weekend nightlife are flexible enough to move.

Anyone here notice this in practice? Curious if food/retail/delivery folks feel like they're clustering earlier before 5am, or if weekend nightlife spots have noticed more traffic right after 9pm. Feels like the kind of pattern that'd be totally invisible unless you were the one crunching hourly data, but wondering if it lines up with anyone's day-to-day.

The study : https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13504851.2026.2702110 - Behavioural responses to time-varying congestion pricing: a natural experiment from New York City

Saw a new paper (Applied Econ Letters, July 2026) on the CRZ that I thought was a pretty clever angle. The toll is $9 during peak and $2.25 overnight, so there are 4 moments each day where the price jumps - weekday 5am, weekday 9pm, weekend 9am, weekend 9pm. Same $6.75 difference at all four.

Using phone location data comparing Lower Manhattan to Boston/Chicago, the author found that people only shift their visit times around two of those cutoffs:

• Weekday 5am: visits jump 5.9% right after the toll drops (people doing early food/retail/delivery stuff nudging their arrival earlier)
• Weekend 9pm: visits jump 9.2% once the toll drops (biggest effect in the whole study)
• Weekday 9pm and weekend 9am: basically nothing, statistically zero

The argument is that it's not about the price (identical at all 4 boundaries) but about whether you actually can shift your schedule - nobody's rearranging their weekday evening commute or skipping a 9am brunch reservation to dodge a toll, but pre-dawn deliveries and weekend nightlife are flexible enough to move.

Anyone here notice this in practice? Curious if food/retail/delivery folks feel like they're clustering earlier before 5am, or if weekend nightlife spots have noticed more traffic right after 9pm. Feels like the kind of pattern that'd be totally invisible unless you were the one crunching hourly data, but wondering if it lines up with anyone's day-to-day.

The study : https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13504851.2026.2702110 - Behavioural responses to time-varying congestion pricing: a natural experiment from New York City