Often times you can prepay for 3 at the price of ~2. I can change my own oil for ~$35. I rotate my tires every time too. I didn't use any of my ToyotaCare oil changes.

 

Same. If you want it done right and without pushy upsells or potential intentional damage being done to your car, you have to do it yourself.

 

No free service by a junior tech who is counting down the time to leaving. Its not free having to chase a dealer to fix things muffed up or god forbid scratches or other such issues.

Do my own. Luxury of having a heated garage so season doesn't impact me. Up on jackstands...move all four around while its draining. 38 bux with tax using full syn and a proper filter and I can recycle at AutoZone, AdvanceAuto or ORielys

 

$75 synth oil change, OE filter, and tire rotation.
$65 without rotation at another dealer.
Haven't checked with the 3rd and 4th local Toyota dealers.

Problem is... they'll all always write up $600-1000 worth of unneeded services like coolant/brakefluid/airfilters/TBcleaning/belt/hoses/fuel cleaner/engine flush/atfPSFgearoil......... and then charge extra to replace the flux capacitor, top of the blinker fluid, and grease the muffler bearings.

I DIY and haven't decided if I'm going to skip the 2 freebie changes or not. I personally don't care to have dealer hack lube techs touching my car. I'll avoid arrest by not snapping when they impact wrench the wheel lug nuts or oil pan drain bolt, lose screws/clips for the underpanels(cabin or engine air filters...), lazily skip the filter change, over/underfill the sump by gallons, or leave other parts off. Only a fool trusts their dealership. A smart owner watches them like a hawk if they can't DIY.

 

$75 synth oil change, OE filter, and tire rotation.
$65 without rotation at another dealer.
Haven't checked with the 3rd and 4th local Toyota dealers.

Problem is... they'll all always write up $600-1000 worth of unneeded services like coolant/brakefluid/airfilters/TBcleaning/belt/hoses/fuel cleaner/engine flush/atfPSFgearoil......... and then charge extra to replace the flux capacitor, top of the blinker fluid, and grease the muffler bearings.

I DIY and haven't decided if I'm going to skip the 2 freebie changes or not. I personally don't care to have dealer hack lube techs touching my car. I'll avoid arrest by not snapping when they impact wrench the wheel lug nuts or oil pan drain bolt, lose screws/clips for the underpanels(cabin or engine air filters...), lazily skip the filter change, over/underfill the sump by gallons, or leave other parts off. Only a fool trusts their dealership. A smart owner watches them like a hawk if they can't DIY.

OK so this is a bit of a sensitive topic so to speak because yes I am one of the many that hates to see the snafus dealer techs subject our vehicles to (last example at Toyota: overfilled complimentary oil change for the RAV4).
Which is why for instance once the complimentary stuff was over at 36k miles and I bought the car, I started doing my own.
But. As much as I love my car, I love my own health even more, even my own comfort. So in winters, here in New England, I am NOT doing my own oil changes. I used to, on my old Volvo S80, but by then I had a professional lift in the barn, so I would lift the car up to the ceiling. Now that I moved, I'm not crawling under the car on cold cement in winter, not worth it by a long shot.
Which is why in my naiveté (or delusional thinking perhaps) I like to believe that by taking the car to Lexus (which is what I've done last winter) they will do a better job simply because a luxury brand has a higher expectation of quality, both from the dealership management, but also form their customer base. So hopefully they try to hold themselves up to those standards.
Naive? Delusional? Would love to hear opinions.

 

We had a fog light get water in it & It shorted out, when i was in the write up lane, a guy comes to move the car & Bangs on the front left Fender with his fist to try to make the light come on. I said you mind not beating on our NEW CAR...?

I asked about an alignment, they said only the first whatever was free, the next time we went there, all of a sudden it needed an alignment, for 99.00, i said but 3 weeks ago it was fine.

I went to Hibdon Tires + and got a lifetime alignment, for 89.00.

Pan Gasket leak, replaced pan gasket under warranty, over filled, did not replace filter. I came home and replaced the filter my self. Then the oil Level Was Fine.
when i did the filter change, i didnt even put it on ramps or Jack Stands.

We just got through Changing the Oil, Filter, Air Filter, Wiper Blades, (Refills From Dealer), last month we rotated the tires along with changing the rear diff & the Front Transfer Case. with AmSoil...
Next is the Transmission. 32,000 miles.

My & the Little Woman do all that we can do ourselves. I'm Teaching her & it takes the Stress off my old Body.

By the way a cold garage floor can be beat by a cheap cardboard box, just put it in the house before you go out to do the work.

 

I use the 6k mile service interval, and have been using Mobil 1 for about 2 years now. Are any of you that are running synthetics going longer than 6k miles? That interval was the same regardless of conventional or synthetic, so every time I go to the shop and spend $90 on a 7-quart Hemi oil change I wonder if I'm pouring perfectly good oil down the drain.

 

That's a trick question. My dealer didn't charge for an oil change, but there's nearly always something else that needs to be done!

 

At my dealership, I pay $75.00 + tax for an oil change and tire rotation. I have never been subjected to an up charge. I can also get my RAV washed if I wish, no charge.
Oh and BTW, the early oil changes were 0W16. Now it’s 0W20.

 

My local Toyota dealership charges $125 for a 5-quart oil and filter change. That probably seems outrageous to those of you who live elsewhere than California, but even Jiffy Lube charges $110 here, for a 5-quart oil change with full-synthetic oil ($90 for conventional oil). Doing it myself, I pay $5.50 for a Toyota N1 filter, and $26 for 5 quarts of oil (usually Mobil1 from WalMart), so $32 total. I use a Fumota oil drain valve, so I don't have to buy crush washers for the drain plug, saving 50¢ there.
I've always done my own oil changes at home, except once on a long cross-country road trip when I let a Jiffy Lube place in North Carolina change the oil in my truck. I'll let the Toyota dealer do the two free oil changes (10,000 and 20,000 miles) I'm entitled to, but that's all. The 5,000 and 15,000 mile free service is actually just a tire rotation and visual inspection, and I get my tires rotated for free at America's Tire anyway. And I don't agree with Toyota's 10,000 mile oil change intervals. On my 2019 Prius Prime, when it had 5,000 miles and I took it in for it's first free service, the oil was already a darker color than I'm comfortable with - not "black" yet, but the brown color of very dark toast. I changed the oil myself, since Toyota doesn't give you an oil change at 5,000 and 15,000 miles, and I plan to do the same on my R4P, as soon as I've run 110 gallons of gas through the ICE (110 gallons approximates 5,000 miles of running the ICE). On these PHEV cars, you can't use the odometer mileage for oil change intervals, since some percentage of the driving is done on external battery charge power, so on my Prius Prime, and now on the Rav4 Prime, I keep a log of all gasoline purchases, and 5,000 miles on the ICE = 85 gallons in a Prius Prime, 110 gallons on a Rav4 Prime.

The Rav4 Prime requires a change-out of the inverter/transaxle/battery coolant at 60,000 miles, and I'll probably let the dealer do that, because it's a complicated job and I heard that it requires a suction pump to pull the old coolant out of the battery. I changed the transmission oil in my 2019 Prius Prime myself, and it turned out to be a pretty easy job, so I expect to do it myself when my Rav hits 40K miles. The oily tool you need is a 10mm hex driver, and a funnel with 5 feet of 1/2" vinyl tubing to get the new oil in. NOTE: To do a transaxle oil change on any Toyota Hybrid, the car needs to be level, so if you use ramps to lift the front, you have to lift the back of the car by the same amount.

 

Wait til you guys see how much the BMW dealership asks for an oil change lol

 

Why would I care how much BMW charges for an oil change?

 

Change here up to 5 quarts they advertise as $79.

Mine are always free because they have the "free oil changes for life". However as soon as the Toyota free changes were over, they immediately started the upsell, and if you don't buy there recommended services you will loose the free oil changes for life, or so I was told but it hasn't happened yet. I still go because I am still under warranty.

As soon as the warranty is over I will not darken their door. Its definitely not about them doing the oil changes - they usually screw that up. However possibly you have a leak or something you don't detect, and that causes an issue - they could theoretically say because they didn't see it every 6 months there going to deny warranty because they would have caught it early. Would that really happen - likely not, but its just as easy to bring it in. So far I am at 4 years / 35000 miles and have paid exactly zero. At most I will be back twice more for "service".

 

Doesn't help you much, but I can share my last servise (1. year) costs (Estonia, EU)

• 1. year/ 15000km service 59,25€ (all: add+20%VAT)
• oil plug washer (gasket) 2,75€
• oil filter 12,24€
• engine oil (4,3L) 89,23€
• cabin air filter 15,83€
• cabin air filter change 12,50€
• injector cleaner 24,42€ (Toyota original PZ463-00PB0-04) <- this was optional
• "other ..." 9,39€

------------
In total 270,73€ (includes VAT) =~293,34$
I think it's not too much to pay for once a year

 

I'm doing 5,000 mile oil change cause I'm Using Mobil-1 0w16 & I'm half scared of it as it is.
If your really worried about it send you used oil off to Blackstone or even Amsoil for analysis, however, no matter what they say I'm changing it at 5,000 miles.

 

Here's where I got ripped off. When I bought my 2019 XSE the salesperson talked me into the Toyota Service plan of First Mile Maintenance Plan. Well they did the oil changes as they recommend every 5,000 miles as the little sticker they put on the windshield. I let them rotate the tires and they checked the wheel alignment every time along with the filters. They changed extra when they told me the wheels needed alignment. That was an extra $140. Well I did return as their little sticker said when it was due for an oil change. But I refused the Tire alignment and rotation. Tires had been replaced and Discount Tires were doing the Rotation for free and there was no sign of needing an alignment.

Wealthy called me back in October saying I was due an oil change. and I check it wasn't due by milage until December. So I made the appointment and went in last week. Lo and behold they said that was just for a tire rotation and the oil changes are at 10,000 instead of 5,000 miles. Also that would be my last oil change on the maintenance plan because they only have eight changes on the plan. Nothing was ever said about how many changes and the salesman only kept talking about the "free" oil changes. they supposedly check your filters and "clean and adjust" the brakes.

I have learned from this and will not use this dealer again.

 

This question should not even be asked! The important questions when deciding where to get your oil changed are:

• Will the correct oil be used?
• Will the oil be refilled to the proper level?
• Will a rookie pull out the transmission drain plug and then proceed to overfill the engine by 4 or 5 quarts?
• Will the person performing the service even remember to put oil back in?
• Will the drain plug gasket be replaced?
• Will the tech allow sufficient time for the oil to be drained?
• Will a hose or two be left disconnected from the air intake somewhere causing a check engine light?
• Will the oil filter and drain plug be tightened properly or will the drain plug or oil filter fall off down the road causing rapid engine destruction if at highway speed, or alternatively, will the drain plug be over tightened to the point that the oil pan threads are stripped and the filter overtightened to where it is extremely difficult to remove?
• Will the low priced or even free oil change be used as a method to try to upsell several hundred dollars of services not in the maintenance schedule and which serve no purpose whatsoever?
• Will the vehicle owner be told that the brake pads are dangerously thin and must be replaced immediately when, in fact, the friction material if measured will be found to have 65% remaining?

The answers to these questions are very discouraging at dealerships and lube franchises both. Dealers tend to specialize in attempted fraud by bogus upsells. The Jiffy Lube business model specializes more in things like forgetting to put oil back in. The cost of wrong answers to these questions is typically a great many times the price of an oil and filter change. As the owner of an independent repair shop for 44 years I have observed all these despicable scenarios too many times to count. Best to pay a FAIR price at an established reputable independent shop with ethical and responsible techs. Or DYI

 

Whether an oil last or not depends on the driving conditions... the DRIVER is the biggest variable and with the weather/driving conditions.