Platinum Service Plan

"Josh Carter" quipped:

..actually that's pretty reasonable. The scheduled maintenance portion is over $3,200. That only leaves $800 for an additional 3 years/50k of warranty coverage. That's less than I paid ($1,100).

However, I'd still ask them what the extended warranty alone would cost.

You might find it cheaper to have most, if not all of the scheduled maintenance done at a good, reliable independent shop at

25-40% less cost.

Having said that, definitely get an extended warranty. If something goes wrong on a Lexus, the parts alone could easily cost twice what you paid for the warranty. For example, *both* of my power side mirrors on my LS430 went bad. Both mirrors/motors had to be replaced. Had I not had an extended warranty, it would of cost me $1,800 out of pocket!

And never, ever get a third party warranty. Make sure that any extended warranty they sell you is a genuine Lexus factory warranty.

Third party warranties aren't worth the paper they're written on....don't ask.

Services are every time you turn around - 5000 miles! Most frequent service interval of any of the modern luxury cars. But then who said the Lexus is a luxury car line except Lexus? So with an average of

15000 miles/yr that is about $500 per year not counting the 30,000 and the 60,000mi and the 90,000 mile services. Don't worry, they only want you to put in that cheap dino oil that other Luxury car lines won't suggest you use - of course the other brands have longer service intervals. And there is the question of the extended warranty. Get one and do not drive the car after it runs out. So if you get a 100,000 mile warranty, drive the car until 100,000 miles. If you don't get an extended warranty, dump the car at 50,000 miles or own several banks or equivalent. $4,000 sounds more or less reasonable, but I think you can find cheaper and longer warranties by looking around a bit.

This whole discussion is silly. $4000 for an extended warranty? Listen, if you change your oil as per the instructions, do the other maintenence without overbabying the car, it will run for 150,000 miles without anything too major. Certainly not $4000 worth of whatever. THAT'S WHY YOU BUY A LEXUS.

Hey DD - that $4K is for the warranty AND for the routine services. The present schedule of services costs for my dealer shows a total of $2,625 to 50,000 miles. So that puts the cost of the warranty somewhere less than $1,400 ignoring routine maintance costs over 50,000 miles. Not too bad I would say. The first ES300 had a tranny rebuild problem for around $1800 and there have been some problems with the 2000 ES that replaced it. So I think with the electronics on the new ones, that such contract is required. I sure plan on it with my total duded up version with the radar cruise, radar pcs, reverse tv, etc.

Ah! I did not realize this included BOTH. So if I now understand it right, this coveral all maintenance for 4 years/50K miles and warranties the car to

7 years/100K miles. Probably not a bad value then. Not a blow-out giveaway, but not a bad value.

While the deal seems to be decent value, here is what i might do -

For my 60K service, the local lexus dealer qutoed abt 1150$. The nearby Toyota dealer offered to to do the same at 300$ (and this was a highly decorated service dealer). You can get decent oil changes at any number of places.

The warranty is great peace of mind. Fixing the autodim rear view costs a 1000$. For just one part that goes bad, you get back your money's worth.

However, one might as well try get just the warranty (7yr, 100K) negotiated with the base price. You might be able to get that for a good value too!

D.D. Pallmer wrote:

Well you can kiss that Toyota cheap service good bye here! The same dealer owns the Toyota and Lexus shops - they are right next to each other. And I already checked out possibility of oil changes at Toyota - they will NOT do them!!!!! Violation of the policy !!!!!!! And they would have to get the Lexus oil filter which is unique to Lexus and can only be purchased through the Lexus dealers!

On 1 Oct 2006 09:27:50 -0700, "mcbrue" graced this newsgroup with:

bullhockey. They're giving you a line. I get both of my Lexuses oil changes at the local grease monkey for $49.95 with Mobil 1 and I've never had any problem with them having the proper filters in stock.

Go to your local autoparts store. You'll find filters for every make and model of Lexus for a third of what Lexus will charge you.