I would like to waive the included maintenance on a new Toyota vehicle. Every new Toyota comes with ToyotaCare, a maintenance plan that covers normal factory scheduled service for 2 years or 25,000 miles, whichever comes first, and 24 hour Roadside Assistance for 2 years, unlimited mileage.The value of this is baked into the price of the car. So I want to waive it to lower the overall purchase cost. Does anyone know the value of their ToyotaCare? Like how much of the overall purchase price is baked into the value of the car to pay for this Toyota Care?
I want to waive it because I wish to be the only person to service the vehicle. I do not trust the service departments at dealerships and will not be using this anyways. I prefer to do regular maintenance by myself.
John , they are not going to do that and besides it is not that much money for the manufacture and dealer. Also it is a good thing to use the dealer for service until the basic 36000 mile or 36 month warranty is up in case of an expensive warranty problem . Where are you getting all these strange notions anyway ?
About all there is for maintenance in the first 36,000 miles oil, filters, and tire rotation. If you keep records and material receipts, the warranty should be valid.
They (meaning pretty much any mfg) aren’t going to “unbake” that cake, not for you or anyone else for that matter. There may be legalities involved, I dunno. Besides a brand new vehicle could only benefit from being serviced by the dealer in its infancy. Give it time to work out any bugs if there are any and its just good insurance all around really.
I’ve never owned or purchased a new vehicle…and I doubt I ever will, but if I did… I’d allow them to care for it during its break in period…sure, why not.
You can make an educated guess using the maintence schedule and just add up what the dealer would charge for the first 2 years of maintenance. It’ll probably just amount to 3 oil changes and tire rotations. Maybe $150 give or take.
I don’t like or trust dealership service departments all that much either, but I use them for routine maintenance due to the warranty implications. If you don’t trust them now, just wait until you try to get warranty work done and there’s no record your vehicle having any maintenance done.
Toyota is not going to lower the cost to the car to the dealer because you want to do your own maintenance so why would the dealer lower the cost to you. You are only talking about 2 oil changes and 4 tire rotations.
Yeah, that was a source of frustration when we bought my wife’s Hyundai (used). There was a nonnegotiable (and believe me, I tried negotiating) charge of $1095 for a year of oil changes and tire rotations. An utter and absolute money grab. Those two years of routine maintenance don’t cost the dealer much and it makes a nice selling point.
True but my wife liked the vehicle, the bottom line price was still reasonable even with the extra $1095, and our regular mechanic didn’t find anything worse than a low tire. We decided we could live with it. That doesn’t mean we were 100% happy. I’m sure you, with your godlike wisdom and unparalleled negotiating skills, could have driven a better bargain.
I have had people try to jack the price we agreed upon or was advertised when we sat down to do the paperwork. My response has always been the same.
I tell them they are no longer someone I care to deal with and I would not buy a new Cadillac from them for a nickel.
I have a similar response for contractors who come out to bid on a job after I tell them I am going to get X number of bids and they quote me a price that is not good after they leave. I just tell them they have wasted my time and theirs. The only reason for this tactic is that your price is so high that no one will buy from you if they get a chance to compare. That does noot mean I will always take the lowest bid. I asses all factors before I decide.
I do my own oil changes with no problem. I just keep my oil receipts and the tags off the filters. At any that’s like trying to get a reduction by reducing the warranty period. Not going to happen. The other thing is they expect to “make” money on the free oil changes. There is always other stuff like wiper blades, tires, brakes, or a trade to talk to you about as long as you are there.
Buy a used car “as-is” with no warranty. That way the cost of maintenance isn’t baked into the price, and there will be no implications from doing your own maintenance.
I think that the OP is misunderstanding something about the concept of “included maintenance”.
The mfr pays for that maintenance, not the dealership. Or, to put it in other terms, the dealership is reimbursed by the mfr for the maintenance that is performed.
The sticker price is set by the mfr, and–clearly–that “list” price includes the manufacturer’s cost for the “included maintenance”. Thus, declining the included maintenance will not lower the sticker price.
Dealerships are always at liberty to cut as much off of the sticker price that they want to, but refusing to accept the “included” maintenance will not have any effect on the price of the vehicle.
This is correct, but the situation is actually worse. The OP wants to take away some guaranteed service business from the dealership, which will essentially cost them some money. They’re certainly not going to discount the price to encourage that behavior.
The Toyota Service care includes 2 free oil changes at 10k and 20k miles and 5 tire rotations at 5k mile intervals
So cost to Toyota Dealer might be a total of $100 that they would consider removing from total price.
In other words…like everyone else said…they are NOT going to do that.
I too do my own oil changes. but I’m not a believer in the 10k oil change intervals yet. So I did my oil change at the 5k and 15k mile mark and then every 5k miles after the last free Toyota oil change.
In this case Toyota might have the right to void the warranty. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act states that if the manufacturer can require to use their parts if they are FREE. For the first 20k miles the oil changes are FREE. So using anything but OEM parts may void the warranty. During the first 25k miles when I did my oil change at 5k and 15k miles I used Toyota oil filters (just in case).
No, but offer the price you are willing to pay and don’t harp on waiving the maintenance. The first they are used to. The second will harden them against you.
The only negotiating skill I have is leaving the game if I don’t like the way they are playing. Springing a surprise mandatory package after a price is offered by the dealer is dishonest and I prefer not to reward them for doing business that way. If it costs me more to buy from someone else.
Wait till I tell my friends that another poster on car talk said I have godlike wisdom!