Service Charges Exhorbitant!

[Sarge538]

Not everyone who buys a Lexus is rich, but it appears that Lexus dealers think they are. Not long ago I paid almost $200 for a standard oil change and checkup at my dealership. Expensive! :o Therefore, I asked beforehand next time, what it was going to cost for the 15,000 mile oil change and checkup...$365 was quoted

I felt that I received a reasonable deal on the purchase of my RX-350, but the service charges are really rather rediculous to me. What are your experiences along these lines? Am I wrong to be alarmed by these costs? I love our little Lexus, but the service charges really "turn me off."

[Nebraska99]

Not everyone who buys a Lexus is rich, but it appears that Lexus dealers think they are. Not long ago I paid almost $200 for a standard oil change and checkup at my dealership. Expensive! :o Therefore, I asked beforehand next time, what it was going to cost for the 15,000 mile oil change and checkup...$365 was quoted

I felt that I received a reasonable deal on the purchase of my RX-350, but the service charges are really rather rediculous to me. What are your experiences along these lines? Am I wrong to be alarmed by these costs? I love our little Lexus, but the service charges really "turn me off."

Sarge.......I am a newbie here myself but perusing through the board I noticed that some people actually just go to the local Toyota dealer and get an oil and filter change for ~ 40 bucks. All that other stuff isnt necessary every 5k miles. I sure as heck dont need tires rotated that much.

[1990LS400]

I am in my 18th year of driving Lexus LS cars and have rarely taken them to a Lexus dealership due to the high cost of service and the all too frequent poor quality of workmanship.

Most of the times I have used a Lexus dealership are for warranty repairs or when my favorite indie repair shop is too busy or does not have the equipment (road force balancer, for example) to work in our cars.

If you are at all handy with simple tools, it should take less than one hour to change the engine oil and filter - should cost less than $20 if you use a quality non-synthetic oil and a Toyota filter and a few bucks more if you use synthetic oil. For example, I buy a 10-pack of Lexus/Toyota oil filters for my LS400 at a Toyota dealer for less than $40 including 10 oil plug gaskets. I assume that the filter for your RX is the same as on the Highlander and Camry so you can likely go to a Toyota dealer to get them or buy them from Sewell Lexus (www.lexus-parts.com).

I was at the local Lexus dealer last spring having my tires balanced. I sat a nicely decorated waiting room in a comfortable leather chair, watching a Plasma TV, using the WIFI Internet service and sipping gourmet coffee. A variety of snacks were available. It was a nice experience but one of the reasons that service costs so much at a Lexus dealership.

[rx350guy]

I just had the 10K mile service completed on my 08 RX 350 at my local Toyota dealership for $50. The Toyota dealership does the exact same work (basically an oil/filter change, tire rotation, visual and fluid level checks) as my Lexus dealership, which wanted more than $200.

I'll be going to the Toyota place in the future. For me, it's a 'no-brainer', and the Toyota dealership even had coffee and donuts; no Toyota bottled water though...dern!

[wwest]

I just had the 10K mile service completed on my 08 RX 350 at my local Toyota dealership for $50. The Toyota dealership does the exact same work (basically an oil/filter change, tire rotation, visual and fluid level checks) as my Lexus dealership, which wanted more than $200.

I'll be going to the Toyota place in the future. For me, it's a 'no-brainer', and the Toyota dealership even had coffee and donuts; no Toyota bottled water though...dern!

There are two really good reasons why your Lexus dealer charges those extraordinary service prices...

Smallish "fleet"...!

Extraordinarily reliable "fleet".

So feel sorry for them but not to the point of using them for service.