My Toyota dealer is recommending that I get a 15,000 check-up done on my 2007 4 cylinder Camry automatic LE. The price would be about $289.00. My questions are: Is this necessary? If so, what should be included, and what is a reasonable cost?
Thank you,
Sharon 11
The Owner’s Manual will list any required 15k scheduled maintenance. Anything additional the dealer wants to do won’t hurt the car (just your wallet), but isn’t required. For instance, my Toyota dealer charges $50 to inflate the tires with nitrogen. I have a 2006 Sienna and I take to my trusted mechanic for oil changes and to the dealer for any warranty problems. Other than 4k oil changes (instead of 5k), I’m going to follow the owner’s manual recommendations.
Ed B.
It should all be spelled out in the owners manual.
At 15k miles, not much should be required and most of it would be inspection of numerous items.
One deviation may be in air filter replacement. The manual may specify a longer interval than 15k for these, but a lot can depend on environmental/meteorological conditons.
New air filter, check fluid levels and tire pressures, change oil and oil filter should be well under a hundred bucks; just a guess.
Dealers are no better (or worse) than independent mechanics for almost anything you might need done on your car. They will almost always charge more per hour and often more for parts and supplies. They also tend to look at repairs a little different than the independent.
A dealer may well recommend work that strictly may not be needed, but could be connected to the problem or maybe replace a part when a little repair would fix it ALMOST as good a new.
There is no need to bring your car to the dealer for any service other than service that is going to be paid for by a recall or original warrantee.
I suggest that most people would be better off finding a good independent (Not working for a chain) mechanic.I got the same song and dance from my Honda dealer on my 2007 Accord. Have your oil and filter changed at first 4k miles. If the car has other issues,then take to dealer. A tune-up at 15k miles is obsurd.
A tune-up at 15k miles is obsurd.
Why would you say that?
Modern cars rarely require what was called a “tune up” in the past.
The standard Car Talk forum answer to questions like this is to check your owner’s manual, and only do the service listed there for the specified mileage. However, I’m not sure that recommendation works any more. It doesn’t work on my 2006 Honda Accord. There’s an indicator on the dash as to what the car thinks it needs, and the service manual does not list any mileage intervals. I suspect if Toyota doesn’t do this now, they will soon.
But to answer your question, $289 sounds way too high. Honda only charges about $190, and that includes $25 for a new air filter, which is not needed at 15,000 miles. I don’t have a Toyota, but I’d be very surprised if you needed anything more than an oil change and tire rotation. Still, it’s a nice new car, and if you’re totally clueless about mechanics, maybe it’s worth $300 bucks to have someone knowledgable look it over.
Why would he say that? Because he doesn’t know how to spell ABSURD!
But to return to the original question, since the term “tune-up” is essentially meaningless in modern cars without points or condenser and without adjustable ignition timing, the owner should simply perform the services listed in the factory maintenance schedule for 15k.
If you visited 5 different mechanics and asked for “a complete tune-up” you would likely get 5 somewhat different versions of what constitutes a tune-up, including some items that are not necessary–hence the recommendation to perform the services specified by the people who designed and built the vehicle.
If you think air filters don’t need changed at the 15k mark, move to Oklahoma for a while and see what happens between about March to July. 