Lexus Maintenance Costs! Ouch!

BMW's variable valve timing mechanism. Has proven to be problematic with high miles in early iterations, particularly the E36 M3.

- Mark

I found that "a passion for perfection" also mean "doing your own maintenance".

So just coat your garaga floor with epoxy, buy a stainless steel tool box, tons of tools, a thick book of repair manual, and start telling your wife she looks like Jill Allen.

For what it's worth - here are the intervals and rates at one of the dealers in the Dallas area.

JS

I change my own oil (Mobil 1 5W30 and Toyota filter for a total of $25 an oil change) and Discount Tires rotates/balances for free.

But, I do have the dealership perform the 30K service.

So, for me it is:

Every 5K: $25 Every 15K: $40 (air filter and cabin filter) Every 30K: $350 (I specify which items I want serviced, typically transmission, radiator, filters, brake fluid)

So, if you follow the owner's manual, vice the dealer's schedule, you can save some $$$$$$ and still maintain your vehicle well.

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And spend WAY more than what the dealer wants in buying and maintaining your tools.

BTW, it's Jill Taylor, (Pat Richardson), TV wife of Tim Taylor, (Tim Allen), on the hit show Home Improvement. Too bad it's been cancelled, it was a good family oriented show. Probably why it's gone, not enough "perversity"!

I hardly believe that Lexus is over maintaining their cars. After all JD Powers has had Lexus as the leader in reliability for what ? 7 years running? Where is BMW on that list? Not even in the top 3 or 5 last time I checked.

The dealers clearly add additional items to their checklist that aren't in the owner's manual.

For example on our RX330, they wanted to change the transmission fluid at 15,000 miles. I looked in the manual, it doesn't show a change until 60,000 miles. It isn't like they did an analysis on the fluid, they simply wanted to replace it because on their checklist that is what they did. This was at the low price of $149!

Our 88 Camry just turned 306,000 miles and still on the original engine (oil changes about every 4,000 miles) and transmission (fluid changes every 30,000 miles), so I figure that works nicely.

I will end up changing it at 30,000 miles just to be safe.