<p>My 6 years old Lexus now is 120K, dealer told me it coasts $1,500 for the 120K services.
Expensive! After paying college tuition, I really have to tight my wallet.</p>
<p>Should I go somewhere else for the service? Should I Sell it and buy a new one (cheaper one)? Or, should I spend the money and drive it few more years? It’s a good car and over all in very good condition.</p>
<p>‘120K service’ means nothing. What are they planning to do for that $1,500? It might call for a timing belt to be replaced which is generally expensive but not that expensive I wouldn’t think.</p>
<p>If my Dodge can manage 200K miles without much of a problem (and without a $1,500 ‘120K service’), I’d expect a Lexus to last considerably longer than 120K without a lot of difficulties. </p>
<p>Your choices aren’t ‘have to spend $1,500 to keep it’ or ‘sell it and buy a new one’. You might not need the so called 120K service at all. You need to see what they plan to do to warrant the $1,500. If what they plan to do is legitimate then you can shop the particular items around. A Lexus dealer will likely be the most expensive place you can take it for the particular service.</p>
<p>Whenever I bring my Accord to a dealer for something, they generally find about $1500 - $2000 worth of work that needs to be done.</p>
<p>I get a breakdown of this and then decide. One year, I had them do a couple of things, but had the timing belt done by a mechanic we know that does work on the side.</p>
<p>Also, I had an exhaust leak fixed at a local mechanic recently at half the price quoted by the dealer. </p>
<p>The $1500 sounds excessive, I would find out what they do for that service and then decide.</p>
<p>The biggest problem with your message is the word “dealer”. Once I leave the showroom, that’s the last they see of me. Find a qualified and honest mechanic and I guarantee the price will come down. Get a referral and if the guy is trustworthy he’ll only do what is needed. Look up what “120K service” entails and you can probably cross off half of it.
Dealers are savages.</p>
<p>What items are in the “120k service”? Make sure that it does not include unneeded items not listed in the owner’s manual.</p>
<p>Also, check other shops (including other Lexus dealers, Toyota dealers, and independent shops specializing in Toyota and Lexus cars) to see how much they cost. Specify the list of services in the owner’s manual when calling them.</p>
<p>We drove our 1999 Lexus for 10 years to 170K miles and sold it for a decent price. We went to the dealer once and the bill came to $700 for regular service. Never went back. Had a local trusted mechanic service it and it did very well. I still miss driving it. I guess they figure you can afford the service if you are driving the car but overpaying for service is not a smart thing to do.</p>
<p>Agree that you should find a reputable mechanic elsewhere. Also agree that you should find out what that service includes, if it is the timing belt, etc, its not outrageously out of line, but I have also been talked into excessive and overcharged for repairs at the dealership. Recently complained to corporate headquarters and got a $500 credit at the dealership. that will be burned up in one visit, easily.</p>
<p>If it is an ES series, its just a Toyota. It can be serviced anywhere. And do not trust a name brand like “Goodyear”, they stick you up as well. I do a lot of the “expensive” stuff like flush coolant and rotate tires myself, but not timing belt of course. You can have the timing belt done for about 600, and that is all you need, most likeley.</p>
<p>A mechanic I truest told me that dealerships don’t want customers coming back with continued problems, so often instead of fixing something that may be an easy, inexpensive fix, they may recommend replacing the entire system. Thats what happened to me. Replaced the entire rack and pinion system at under 60K (my regular mechanic, who unfortunately I didnt have time to see before a scheduled long trip so got “scared into” the expensive replacement) because of a leak (some gaskets). Guess what. A week or 2 later the catalytic converter went out, so took it to the dealer. The brand new rack and pinion was also leaking!! Had to replace THAT too (their cost on both, fortunately). But sheesh-- 2 rack and pinion systems leak on a young car with under 60K mi? Parts defect maybe?? </p>
<p>I had some brake work done at my regular mechanic. It needed, IIRC, drums and pads. Very reasonably priced fix at my regular mechanic. I avoid the dealership if I can. Only reason I went was my DH thought the 60K service should be done there, just because it was a big (important) service. Wrong.</p>
<p>I just needed a new timing belt on my 2003 Lexus. It was around $600 at my mechanics. I’ve had so few issues with this car I think I can drive it another 8 years. DH’s Accord is even older and very few issues with his car besides the usual (brakes, timing belt,etc.)</p>
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<p>Could be. Or it could be the word “Lexus,” or maybe it’s the phrase “Lexus dealer.” Whatever the issue, you should consult the maintenance schedule in your owner’s manual. If you have not omitted something important from an earlier service interval, you could take that maintenance schedule to any reputable mechanic and ask, “What would you charge to do this?”</p>
<p>I do advocate doing scheduled maintenance. The manufacturer set the maintenance schedule up for a reason. And frequently, the old line from the Fram oil commercial does apply: “you can pay me now, or pay me later.” It is expensive to change a timing belt; it is more expensive to have your timing belt wear out, flap around the engine compartment, and bend some valves. </p>
<p>I know that the Jaguar and Land Rover dealership near me charges $150 for an oil change. As it happens, I learned this from a service advisor at the Honda dealer where I take my care, and where the price for an oil change is considerably lower.</p>
<p>I’ll say this in favor of having service done at the dealer. It is often more expensive; I don’t dispute that. But because I have two Hondas and get almost all my work done there, the dealership near me does often cut its prices somewhat for me, or comp me an occasional oil change or Enterprise rental car, or squeeze me in if something comes up. I know I could sometimes save money by going elsewhere; I know they have given me good service and occasional freebies to keep me loyal. Plus, I have all my service records in one place.</p>
<p>It’s a good idea to follow the owner’s manual for scheduled maintenance. We usually take our cars to the dealer for scheduled maintenance for many of the reasons that Sikorsky details. A few exceptions would be some of my H’s cars, which he likes his mechanic to look after, if he can. These are probably classified as somewhat ‘exotic’ cars so there’s the difference, and the dealerships aren’t always conveniently located. One thing to watch out for if you’re going to a non-dealer mechanic, depending on the kind of car you have, is that the mechanic is certified to work on your make of car, and also that he has the proper equipment. With the technology in many cars today, there is specific make equipment that a mechanic needs to ‘match’ the computerized components. Even my H’s mechanic, who is renowned in our area, cannot work on one particular car my H has at the moment, because he does not have the proper equipment, and so, that car goes to the dealer for service. Not all mechanics can work on all cars.</p>
<p>DH says this is not bad. The service “packaging” has changed over the years with LESS being done at smaller mileage intervals and a complete overdo at higher mileage spots…like this. Since you haven’t been paying every 5000 miles to get similar service things done…it’s just all happening at once. Still…LOOK AT THE LIST…there might be things the dealer is recommending but it NOT recommended by the manufacturer. The manufacturers recommendations for service are in your owners manual. Of course, when we get our cars serviced they always seem to find something else wrong…so just be prepared for that!!</p>
<p>“Find a qualified and honest mechanic and I guarantee the price will come down. Get a referral and if the guy is trustworthy he’ll only do what is needed.”</p>
<p>I took a look at the recommended service list, and there’s not one thing on it that requires special tools and special equipment. The best thing about having a trusted mechanic working on an older car is that they’ll give solid advice on what service the car should get BEYOND what is in the manufacturer’s list. (For example, should you replace the transmission fluid with synthetic fluid … or should you replace the water pump when replacing the timing belt … etcetera.)</p>
<p>Your deal sounds like a bargain compared to when I got hosed for $1000 for 30,000 mile at the Hyundai dealer where I bought my car. No more “dealer” services for me. Now I use a local mechanic who has done right by my husband on our past cars a volvo, camray and now our 2 hyundais’</p>
<p>^^ What in the world did the Hyundai dealer do for $1K at 30K miles?</p>
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I think this is a good point. I fairly recently had a transmission failure on my Dodge with the 190K+ miles on it. I’m quite certain that if I’d have taken it to a dealer, a transmission shop, or most mechanics, they would have swapped out the trans for a rebuilt unit to the tune of thousands of $$$. Instead I fixed it myself for about a hundred dollars - I troubleshot the problem and found a broken solenoid inside the trans and replaced it. Since then I’ve driven the vehicle across the country and back with no problems.</p>
<p>This brings up a related point to Jym’s - it takes a far lower skill level to swap out the entire transmission (or many other components) than to fix a problem in the existing one. Time and cost of labor, which is higher for more skilled mechanics, is money so there’s a greater tendency to swap major areas.</p>
<p>Back to the Lexus - if the 120K service includes the timing belt then it makes sense to also replace the water pump and belts/hoses at the same time since those components need to be removed so that bumps up the service cost - but not necessarily to 1,500.</p>
<p>Sometimes, of course, it’s the design that’s the trouble, and not the mechanic. I was listening to Car Talk in the car this morning; they were discussing the failing clutch in a Jeep. One of them (I think it was Ray) said, “If you’re lucky, it’s the master cylinder that’s leaking. That’s easy to reaplace. If it’s the slave cylinder, you have to take out the whole transmission to replace that.” Which, they agreed, was a stupid way to build the thing in the first place.</p>
<p>But I will second ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad on this: I’m mystified at the thought that a Hyundai could cost $1,000 at 30,000 miles–when it’s still under warranty!</p>
<p>I had the exact same experience. I bought my 97 ES 300 new and had it dealer serviced, until about the same point… 120,000 miles, when it no longer made economic sense to take it to the dealer. Then after moving to NC I almost got rid of the car, because expected cost of maintenance exceeded the value of the car. But fortunately, I found a very good reasonably priced local mechanic - something that is not easy to do - and he performed some major deferred maintenance, timing belt, water pump, some leaky seals, cracked exhaust pipe, and the car is still going strong with 180k miles.</p>
<p>And some more history: Had dealer change timing belt per schedule at 60k miles. When I learned that timing belt failure would NOT destroy my engine (varies by year, find out if you have an interference or noninterference engine) I went to 170k miles before changing timing belt a 2nd time, and at that time replaced the original water pump also.</p>
<p>I like the machanic I use. He will diagnose the problem and you goto the dealer to buy the replacement parts and he will put in for you, labor quote only. I use him, especially for the routine jobs like break services.</p>
<p>‘Dealer’ is not necessarily a four letter word if the independents are just as expensive and do bad work. As a driver of a pair of Saabs, repairs are inevitable but it’s not cheaper to fix many things outside the dealership in many cases. Routine things like clutches and brakes and mufflers, sure, but anything more complicated and you’re talking ‘European Automobile Specialists’ types who deal with more prestigious and deep pocketed owner marquees. One such specialist - on a rare occasion I gave an oil change to them - cross threaded the drain plug and re-tapped the oil pan (without my knowledge or consent). Six months later it started leaking and required a $1k repair - of course, good luck proving Mr. Specialist did it since only they and the dealer have ever touched the car.</p>
<p>Mr. Specialist’s hourly rate is more expensive than the dealer’s, and the only cost savings is by not using OEM parts (which the dealer can do as well if you ask)</p>