Woman wants to buy the 5 year/50,000 mile maintenance.
Lexus says it saves about 15% over paying services separately as needed.
Prepaid will cover the 30,000-mile $799 service.
She says it also covers 5,000-mile tire rotations. Discount Tire does them for free.
DiscounTire cleans the wheel and hub interface and balances the tires. Think Lexus only rotates tires.
Your recommendations?
Thank you.
That’s ~$155 per year/10k miles, excluding the $800 at 30k miles.
I haven’t seen the Owner’s Manual but I figure that’s $155 for an oil change, two tire rotations and some visual inspections.
30k miles adds a couple of air filters and some other inspections.
What else is in the Manual to add up to $800? Not counting extras like “induction cleaning”.
I’d pass, while it may save some $$ (15% isn’t much) at the dealer, much of the service can be done cheaper at a good independent.
Those service agreements are NEVER worth it.
What happens to your prepayment if the vehicle is
…wrecked
…stolen
…or you simply decide to trade it in after a few years?
Can you get a refund for the unused services?
If I was buying a Lexus, and planned to have it serviced only at the dealership, I’d consider this kind of prepaid deal, especially if I could confirm it saved me money.
I should note that, since I’m frugal, I have no interest in owning a luxury brand. Also, I’m no fan of dealership service departments. Tires, for example, are more expensive at a dealership, and if you buy them at a tire retailer, like Goodyear, Firestone, or Discount Tire, you can pay a little extra for lifetime balance and rotation service that costs much less than paying each time. (Discount tire might tell you they rotate and balance for free, but that just means they included the cost of lifetime balance and rotation in your initial purchase.)
So if you can afford to own a luxury car, and you can afford to drive and maintain a luxury car, I don’t see why you’d want to be frugal about car maintenance, but this isn’t a complex math problem. If you plan to have the car serviced exclusively by the dealership, and paying in advance saves you money, I don’t see any reason not to do it.
In the end, if you’re sweating over 15% of your car’s maintenance costs, a luxury car might not be the right car for you. Luxury cars are more expensive to buy, more expensive to insure, more expensive to maintain, and more expensive to repair, so owning one isn’t a good idea unless you’re the kind of person who has disposable income to spare.
Given the RX350 is 90%+ a Highlander, maintenance-wise, I’d trust an independent shop to handle this, no problem.
Giving advice to anyone about something like an extended warranty or service contract is DUMB !!
They take advice to not purchase than wish they had you are wrong. They take advice to purchase and than do not feel they got their monies worth you are wrong.
I’d pass and do maintenance as per the owner’s manual and have it done by an independent shop.
My Toyota dealer tried to sell me on such a package as well; based on how little I drive this car it would have been a waste of money since many activities are TIME BASED “inspections”.
My Toyota maintenance over 54,000 miles including tire rotation, came to $912 with most of the work done by an independent garage. It covered all the work specified in the owner’s manual.
The only maintenance plan I’d ever buy would be on an very expensive exotic car. And since I’d never be able to afford one unless I win the lottery I’ll never buy one of those programs.
I’m close to 30,000 miles and have just paid, first time, for oil change and tire rotation because the maintenance was free up until now so don’t pay extra for something that probably is mostly free anyway. I like to be contract free because it is less worry to me. You will suffer buyer’s remorse until you are free of the contract.
No…these types of plans are never worth the money. No way…no how.
After her two free oil changes at 10k and 20k, I plan to change her oil every 10k. (I bought plastic wheel ramps at Wal-Mart.)
The $799 service is probably worth $70. Most items in it I can do.
I’ll ask Lexus dealer what the $1,420 includes. She says other Lexus dealers charge more for their maintenance contract.
Yes for sure it is probably a savings over having the dealer perform all the suggested maintenance, If you plan on having everything done at the dealer would have to calculate it out as far as what is covered, though I am sure the saleshuman would be glad to break it down,
Lexus provides the first oil change on new vehicles, your dealer provides the second at no charge?
Why are you asking about the maintenance contract if you plan to perform the maintenance yourself? Those packages are for customers that cannot perform their own maintenance, plan to use the dealer for maintenance and take advantage of using the Lexus loan cars.
Lexus dealer does her firstwo oil changes: 10k and 20k and tire rotations 5, 10, 15, 20k.
Scheduled service. Brought in on time and was called to take blood to a hospital. (Did they noticed the additional 419 miles on the loaner car?)
I don’t know how they can sell those maintenance plans if they are providing the four services for free, the maintenance plan would only pay for six services. The retail price for the services 25k through 50k is ~ $1500. Local dealers send out 10% and 15% discount coupons during slow periods.
Is the Lexus new? If the prepaid maintenance is a factory plan it may be OK or not.
Yes. Brand new 2016. One dealer says she has until 2,000 miles to purchase the prepaid maintenance plan. Another dealer says 6,000 miles.
@“Robert Gift”
BTW, who is this mystery woman?
Your wife, or somebody else?