Cost of 10K oil change? $175 everywhere?

Says who?

Why would you do that?

Why would you go to the dealership for that?

You might be surprised to find where synthetic oil comes from.

sit there because they do not

My dealership does. Also free valet service. The guy leaves you with the loaner. No charge. Saves me a 50 minute drive.

My dealer charges about $75 to change the oil on my 2004 LS430. But I rarely use the dealer. Lots of local shops that do the job for half that just fine. Avoid the dealer hype. Do the basic maintenance at a reasonable local shop and keep on truckin'....

On 24 Feb 2007 12:01:19 -0800, "mcbrue" graced this newsgroup with:

why would anyone be so retarded as to go to the dealership for a simple oil change? $175 will will do at least 3 changes at a Grease Monkey with Mobil 1.

$175 would get you 3 oil changes with Mobil 1 at the neighborhood service station, where they have a reputation and give a damn.

You'd also earn quite a bit of goodwill with that business.

WHEN are you going to sell your car and buy ANYTHING else so that you leave this newsgroup and stop ANNOYING those of us who are interested in meaningful information exchange on the subject of Lexus automobiles? I simply don't understand why you think that your posting achieves anything useful other than satisfying your insipid desire for attention?

Jeez.

My oil changes at an Atlanta Lexus dealership were only like $25 or $30. Tire rotation/balancing and wheel alignment were crazy-priced at like $80 each, which is what probably inflated your bill. You have to remember that Lexus is a luxury brand, and this level of service is the default offering for their actual customer base, made up largely of financially secure individuals. The service schedule is a little overkill, but I would have no problem keeping up with it if I was the target wealthy customer. Being more frugle, I choose to do my service either myself or at the local Toyota dealership. You have to use common sense to do what makes sense for you. But it doesn't seem sensical to gripe about the higher level of service provided by the Lexus dealer network. And as far as Kyoto accords, once you can convince "W" to sign on to Kyoto, then perhaps those standards will be applied to automobiles sold in the US. Why would Lexus/Toyota spend the money to apply arbitrary fuel/emmissions standards to their fleet when their biggest consumer market (America) doesn't ask for it, let alone have any positive environmental positions?

"mcbrue" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@k78g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

Toyota dealership.

My Toyota dealer did not know the following about my 2000 ES300 during the 60K service-

Uses Iridium plugs (they thought it uses platinum plugs) Has a cabin air filter (they couldn't find one behind the glove compartment, so they thought it wasn't equipped with one)

The Toyota dealer baited me with a $500 estimate, and added another $400+ (after work commenced) in additional "recommended" services

The Lexus dealership was upfront about the price of the 60K service (a little under $1000). And the Lexus dealership 60K service also includes belts replacement, new wiper blades and cabin air filter replacement in the 60K service, which the Toyota dealership 60K service did not include.

YMMV.

On 27 Feb 2007 15:53:35 -0800, "V" graced this newsgroup with:

Toyota dealership.

yeesh. The cabin filter can be bought off ebay for $10. Wiper blades are another $20 at your local auto store. Oil change at a local service station $45 Service still will change the belts for $100 (including the belt).

Total cost outside the dealer -

I could have saved some $$$ by going to someone who _might_ have messed up my car. I mean, even a Toyota-trained mechanic couldn't find the cabin air filter in the ES300!

Here's a partial breakdown: Radiator flush (not drain and fill), with Toyota's pink, long-life coolant (not the common green coolant): $100 Transmission flush (not drain and fill) with Toyota Type-T transmission fluid: $130 Power Steering Flush: $100 Fuel-induction service (includes throttle-body cleaning): $100 Engine oil change: $25 Engine air filter replacement: $??? Brake System Flush (and clean brake components, etc): $120 Rear differential oil change: $??? Vehicle inspection, rotate tires, test-drive, etc.: $???

What I did not get: Serpentine Belt replacement: $??? Cabin air filter replacement: $??? Wiper blade replacement: $???

Nice Lexus: priceless (OK, not more than the Blue Book value)

that begs the question, why would anyone bring their lexus to a toyota shop, except in an emergency situation?

The ES300 is basically a luxurious Camry. One would imagine a Toyota-trained mechanic would know more about this car. I usually take my Lexus to the Toyota dealer for an oil change: $25 (and much faster) vs $55. In retrospect, considering what I paid to the Toyota dealer for this major service, I should have gone to Lexus instead.

basically is one thing, it is not an exact copy, therefore you could not expect a toyota dealership to grasp the ins and outs of a lexus. My lexus has parts marked toyota, but that does not make it one

The ES300 is basically the same car as the Camry, and it shares most of the same parts. That's by design for obvious reasons, it simplifies fleet design for Toyota across the brands. There are many different Toyota and Lexus dealerships out there, and the quality among the Toyota dealerships will likely vary more than Lexus. But again, Lexus is a luxury brand. If you want the entire luxury experience, then by all means, do all the service at Lexus and enjoy the experience. But I disagree with any notion that doing the service at a Toyota dealership will necessarily result in any sort of inferior quality work. In my case, I have had the same service writer for 13 years at the Toyota dealership, and I trust his guidance. On one income while my wife stays at home with the little one, I'm not going for the luxury experience with my ES300 by paying large service bills at Lexus. Further, my '02 ES300 has not exactly been the luxury product, with transmission problems, shifter relay problem, A/C relay problem, rattling noises throughout the cabin, and 2 in-dash 6-CD changers broken. Just as my experience with a bug-ridden car isn't necessarily indicative of others' experience, others' negative experience doing service at the Toyota dealership doesn't match my experience. I realize any car can be a lemon, I believe a case can be made to include mine in the citrus family. However, I would probably buy another Lexus, likely an IS series with manual transmission, which I think would be the perfect blend of features and control for me.

"jdoe" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

there's the operative part, what do you do when something that isn't part of the "most" goes wrong and you're at the toyota shop. Maybe you didn't think of the total costs of a higher end car like a lexus, higher service costs are part of the deal

That's a pretty elitist slant, don't you think? After all, it's just a car. And when you say "higher end", it's higher end marketing and merchandising, not necessarily higher end quality anymore. Are you saying I shouldn't own a Lexus because I don't do all my service at a Lexus dealership? That's ludicrous. Most of the difference is just cosmetic. The Toyota counterpart has plastic "wood" and less amenities. Bear in mind that I only paid like $32k for my ES300. I can go out and buy a loaded Camry for the same money, so I'm not sure how the "higher end" principle applies, especially considering Lexus is still just a Toyota underneath the hood. Many of the expensive parts are shared engine and electrical system parts and are the same exact parts. To your question, what do I do when something Lexus-specific goes wrong? Well, I don't sit there and drool and lament my circumstance, I make the best choice for the situation. For instance, Lexus wants $700 to replace my broken CD changer with a refurb. They say it's $540 for the part and the rest is their service fee to "check that the unit is actually broken and remove it". I asked if I could remove it myself, which I have done several times to install custom accessories inside the dash. That's when they said "no, you have to pay for the service, that's just the way the program is set up." So I found a place that does the work refurbing these Pioneer units for Lexus dealerships, and they want $270 to do the repair. I'm not sure my hands-on approach with maintaining my car is such a bad approach. All of my disappointment has been with the quality control of the failed components and with the buggy transmission performance. All that leads me to believe that the concept of "higher end" should not be applied to my 2002 ES300. Again, it's just a car, nothing special.

"jdoe" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

I take our 04 RX330 to a independent shop that specializes in Toyota/Lexus. Two of the techs came from a major Toyota dealership and two came from a Lexus chain.

To compare prices, the 60K maintenance interval at Lexus was $900+, Toyota was $650, and at the independent, it was $425. Regardless of if we are driving "a high end" vehicle, that is no reason to pay extra for routine maintenance items.

On Sat, 03 Mar 2007 12:54:47 -0700, " snipped-for-privacy@akamail.net" graced this newsgroup with:

the independent that I takes my cars to have better paid and equally as trained and qualified techs as any in any dealership. AND, they're cheaper. Substantially cheaper than the dealer.

Also, a dealer tech doesn't necessarily always know what they're doing. They're more used to working on cars under warranty, where they just swap out numerous parts until they fix the problem.

Indy's are usually paid by the car owner so it's much more important for their continued succsss to get the job done right at the cheapest price.

I know several dealership techs that got their training at the dealership then left to work for an indy for more pay.