30k Maintenance

2006 is250 · December 9, 2008

i have 30k miles on my is 250........was wondering if everybody thinks is necessary to go to dealer and pay $500 or can it be done outside and what things need to abs get done??

clay1 · December 9, 2008

Can't tell you... but can tell you it costs me $375.00

jrobsea · December 9, 2008

i have 30k miles on my is 250........was wondering if everybody thinks is necessary to go to dealer and pay $500 or can it be done outside and what things need to abs get done??

For my 15k service, I had good luck with the local Toyota dealer. I brought in my Lexus maintenance book and went through it with the service manager. There were a couple of checks that weren't included in their normal oil change / maintenance check-up service. They added them as extra labor items and then ended up doing them for no extra charge.

In my experience, if you get the '15k maintenance' or '30k maintenance' from a dealer, they just charge you 2x or 3x the normal price but don't do much extra work. When I first pointed to the 15k maintenance in my Lexus book, the service manager pulled out the summary of their $150 15k maintenance service. When I said to charge me for an oil change and add on the extra line items, the price was supposed to be about $70, but then they only charged me about $50.

I had a similar experience with my Siena minivan at the same Toyota dealer. When I asked for an oil change "plus do these extra things", the price was about 1/2 of the 30k service price. There were a bunch of things in the 30k service that were not supposed to be done on that car at 30k, and which I don't think they would actually do, but the service price included them (new spark plugs, coolant change, etc). The service description included an asterisk with a note at the bottom saying "if applicable" on a bunch of the items, but there is only one price whether they are applicable or not.

You could try a similar approach with the Lexus dealer if you don't mind paying the baseline amount they charge for an oil change. My dealer charges something like $150, which I consider to be unreasonable, so I go to the Toyota dealer to service my IS instead.

Your Lexus dealer will probably tell you only they know how to work on your car properly, but I see quite a few Lexuses at the Toyota dealer service shop, and I've been happy with them. I also have them stamp my maintenance book with a 'genuine Toyota service' stamp. It might not be as good as having the Lexus service stamp when you go to sell the car, but I'm doubtful that a buyer would actually pay that much of a premium for that.