Oil Change At Toyota Or Lexus Dealer

[coolwater]

My 2000 ES has been maintained by Lexus dealer every 5K mile and my car now has 53K. I will probably bring it to Lexus dealer at 60K and let them do whatever they usually do for a 60K mile car. However, I have a few questions for you guys.

Q1. Can I bring it to Toyota dealer instead of Lexus dealer and get the same quality service and save some money?

Q2. Instead of just changing motor oil for every 5K, should I just keep have my car checked by the dealer every 5K?

Q3. If I just want to do oil change, will Toyota dealer do the same job as Lexus dealer? And, at what's the price difference between Toyota dealer and Lexus dealer for an oil change?

[lexusk8]

coolwater, you will quickly find that Toyota is capable of servicing any of our Lexus vehicles (as long as the Toyota dealership is not located in the same address as the Lexus dealership). Toyota will also do a majority of the services at a cheaper rate (including oil change) and using the same OEM parts. For example, I used to bring my '01 ES to Toyota for oil change every 5K, and the charge was between $22-$25 every time (includes Toyota conventional oil and filter).

On that note, here are the brief answers to your Q's:

1) Yes.

2) You shouldn't need to have your car checked by the dealership every 5K; you'll start throwing hard saved money down the drain! ;) Rather, I'd consider bringing the Lexus into the dealership every 30K miles (i.e. when odometer hits 30K, 60K, 90K, etc). If you refer to the owner's manual, you will see there is more involvement of the services when the car is serviced every 30K.

3) Not sure of the exact price difference of oil change since I've never brought my ES to Lexus for an oil change, but I imagine the difference is substantial :whistles:

[coolwater]

Thanks, lexusk8!

My local Toyota dealer's services include <Express Lube> according to the Toyota website. Does Express Lube mean no appointment necessary? I mean, do you usually make an appointment for an oil change at your Toyota dealer?

$22~$25 with genuine Toyota oil and filter sounds very good. :D

[2XLexV8]

Good Evening,

I work in a small Toyota dealership, in the service department.

We service any Lexus we can, exclusive of warranty repairs (Because we aren't authorized)

I personally own two Lexus (SC400, LX470) and two Toyota trucks (Tundra V8 and Tacoma 4cyl)

There are many ways to save money, since many of the parts are the same. For example, the water pumps from all V8s interchange. Timing belts, serpentine belts, seals, etc. Buuuuttt, oil filters are different... We stock the part numbers for Lexus filters.

We install genuine Lexus parts when needed, and we order them from one of three Lexus dealers convenient to us.

Express Lube means 29 mins or less (weekdays only, when most people are needing the time to get back to work.

So, we did a 140K service on our 92 SC400, interchanged all the parts we could, and saved about 40% on the Lexus dealer cost. Well worth the effort. Even considering my employee discount, the average consumer will still save big.

Choose your service department as carefully as you'd choose child care. This applies if you're planning to keep your vehicle for some time.

Good Luck

[coolwater]

2XLexV8, good evening to you, too! :)

It's really great to hear from an actual dealer employee and thank you for your insider's tip! I'm sure we can all benefit from your information.