Hey guys,

I'm new to the forum and was just wondering what you thought about factory service at the recommended times... I have an 07 Lexus IS 250 AWD My questions are:

1. I bought my car used from an infinitti dealership which gave me a 100,000 mile warranty, do you think it would make a difference if i got it serviced there?

2. aside from the regular vehicle maintenance like changing oil, filters, etc does everyone abide by the 5k servicing that lexus recommends?

3. how much is the 5k service?

Thoughts/suggestions?

I love my car and the fact there is a forum like this really cool,

Thanks in advance for any replies

I would think depending on how many miles your Lexus had on it and if all the prior work was documented and supplied to you than I would just continue with a paper trail that Lexus recommends. I feel a good paper trail adds a piece of mind to the next potential owner. Just my .02.

Hey mg...
I can't speak to numbers 2 and 3, but I just bought my car, and in the process I asked what the rule was about service, because I have a great independent that I go to here in SoCal. The dealer said basically that as long as you have records to back up your periodic service, your warranty is good. That being said, I did add an additional $12/month to my payments, for which the dealer does all my PM with no further charge.

I would have paid $12 extra a month to have them do all the maintenance. Damnnnnnnnn!!!!

First service is included with the purchase of the car. Take it in!

Yeah...I was in the finance office to sign the papers, and of course he was trying to get me to tack on all kinds of extras, some of which would have added another $200 to my payment! I declined all of those, and was just about to sign, when he turned his computer monitor toward me and said, "Well, how about for another $12/month we give you all PM included?". It took me about a nano-second to agree. I wanted to take it to the dealer for all the PMs, but I always balk at their prices. $12 for the term of the financing seemed a small price to pay. I am diligent about PM anyway, but this will help it not sting so much!

5000 mi service is FREE from Lexus

He bought a used 07, I suspect he's well past 5000 miles.

I'd suggest you read the 100k warranty the infiniti dealer gave you, it should be pretty explicit about what is required to maintain it.

That's what I would have thought, but musta been a LOW milage trade, b/c he asked how much the 5K service costs.

5K or 1 year

Sorry, what i wasn't clear... I purchased it with 25,000 miles on it, it's still covered by the Lexus and the warranty i purchased... In my Lexus warranty, Lexus recommend" that you take the car in for a service every 5,000 miles... I am definitely going to take it in at 30,000 miles just to have the Lexus techs look at it. But after that I was wondering how many people adhere to the 5,000 miles service... or is that overkill?

On the Lexus owner's site you can get a history of all the service done on the car. If it was done by Lexus it is all there. If it was done elsewhere the owner has the option of entering in info. But assuming they did the service you might get a better idea of its history.

If you look at what is actually -done- at those 5k services the vast majority are just oil changes and "inspections" where they don't actually -do- anything. Won't stop the dealer from charing a bunch of $ for it though

There's some additional services at some intervals that you're still much better/cheaper doing yourself like the air or cabin filter changes... and then a couple of services that are probabably worth hitting the dealer for.

By and large my suggstion is to change my oil at intervals that make sense for the oil being used (ie 5k for normal dinosaur oil, 7.5-10k for something like mobil 1, and once a year regardless for something like amsoil) and get that done however it can be done properly for the least money- which will pretty much never be the dealership.

Do the filter changes yourself.

Document that you're doing things on a "regular" basis otherwise in case there's every a warranty question.

Hit the dealership for the couple of major services it makes sense to do so.