Stealer maintenance... is it worth it?

[RevoRunner]

Just hit 45,000 miles and I've done all my maintenance with the stealer. I'm on the tires for life deal with them and I'm trying to figure out if it is really worth it. They just installed a new set of Michelin CT (diggin them so far). So after 45K miles I've spent $1,123.42 at the stealer. For that I've gotten:

9 Oil Changes
8 Balance and rotate tires
3 Four-wheel alignments
2 Sets of wiper blades
2 Fuel Injection Cleanings
2 Air Filters
1 Cabin Filter
1 A/C service
1 Brake adjustment
1 Tranny service
and of course
1 new set of Michelin CT

It sounds good and it definitely feels like it's worth it when a new set of tires goes on and I don't pay one penny for them. But my concern is... they probably make me get more service than I really need (3 wheel alignments in 45K???) and I probably would have changed my tires out sooner (more like 35K to 40K miles but I'm stuck changing them out when they say it's time)

I don't mind doing it myself, but I can't do alignments, rotating seems like a pain and I don't have the equipment to do balancing... much less servicing A/C, etc. Getting the satisfaction of doing something yourself it great... but I wonder if I can get all that done and still save money???

All you DIY... would you buy into this deal? or would you continue to DIY? Now that I've got my new set of tires out of these guys it's time for me to decide... continue with them??? or start doing it myself???

Thanks!

 

[toto]

I agree that the dealer is getting some extra service out of you that you probably don't need. I agree that the alignment was probably unnecessary (or maybe one max), the fuel injector cleaning is unnecessary, and the A/C service should also be unnecessary unless you had a problem with it. The rest seems fairly legit.

On the plus side, I think you got all of that service for a good price. Using the rack rates for my dealer, I figure all of that is about $2000 worth of work!

Of course it would be cheaper DIY. For example, I'm figuring $40 for an oil change + lube, but it wouldn't cost anywhere near that to do it yourself. Most tire places will do a simple rotation for around $10, so that's easy to take care of as well. You don't need to balance the tires every time.

I think you could still save some money with DIY, but if you're not sure if you want to, then I think in this case the dealer is taking pretty good care of the truck at a reasonable price.

 

[toybox]

I agree with toto that some of that stuff was not needed but for what you spent it seems like a pretty good deal.

 

[jeober]

Like the previous posters said - you're being overserviced...

Tire rotations and balance - more that I would do. Rotate when you're seeing unever wear tire to tire. Measure tread depth with a depth gauge. Did you have vibration issues for rebalancing?

Alignments - unless you're seeing unusual wear on a tire then I would do with replacement tires only.

Brake adjustment?? What's to adjust?

I'm not sure what the tires for life deal means but if you got 4 CT tires free, this is worth $800. I'm glad my CTs are wearing very slow - currently at 56,000.

 

[RevoRunner]

tires for life basically means... as long as I do all the maintenance with Toyota at their recommended intervals... then they will give me free tires for the life of the vehicle (tires that are equal to or greater in value). so if the michelin CTs were an $800 value then i paid $323.42 for the rest of the maintenance. Looking at it from that point of view... it really isn't that bad. i guess there's pros and cons for everything. i just hate going to the dealer every 5000 miles and thinking they're going to stick me with something stupid and i know i have to take it if i want the tires. thanks for the input guys

 

[Kmvreter]

tires for life basically means... as long as I do all the maintenance with Toyota at their recommended intervals... then they will give me free tires for the life of the vehicle (tires that are equal to or greater in value). so if the michelin CTs were an $800 value then i paid $323.42 for the rest of the maintenance. Looking at it from that point of view... it really isn't that bad. i guess there's pros and cons for everything. i just hate going to the dealer every 5000 miles and thinking they're going to stick me with something stupid and i know i have to take it if i want the tires. thanks for the input guys

The key word here is "recommended." You got over-serviced because not all those items are Toyota OEM service items as specified as regular interval maintenance, but they may be stealership "recommendations." Brake adjustment (WTF???), A/C service, wheel alignments, injector cleaning, wiper blades. None of these are interval items. Even the tranny service is too soon on the schedule (I'm surprised they didn't hit you up for coolant and only did 1 cabin filter.) They probably did the rotations but didn't balance the tires every time.
It's your call whether it's worth it.

 

[RevoRunner]

Funny thing, I know they balanced the tires cuz after I get the car back I'd always have to clean the brake dust off where the old weights used to be on the rims. I'm going to just add it up, find out how much each "truely needed" item is and compare.

 

[jeober]

So you have to bring in your truck every 5,000 miles and the dealer service does anything they find?

I'm curious - does the dealer also do any warranty work they find? BTW, the manufacturer forbids the dealer from doing warranty work the customer doesn't first request.

 

[RevoRunner]

now that is good to know... they've done 3 warranty jobs during regular visits. Two of which I've requested (popping seat and rattling sunroof) and one I didn't which they said one of my sensors went bad.

yes I bring it in every 5000 for what the dealer deems as regular maintenance. luckily i haven't had anything break on the truck yet so they haven't "found" anything to replace or fix other than the bad sensor (don't remember which one). that day will come sooner or later.

i just hate the feeling everytime time i go in that i'm about to get raked over the coals. i'm going to add it all up and figure out if i need to do it on my own or not.

 

[jeober]

Maybe since you got your new tires you could reconsider your commitment now. Most of the routine 4runner service is easy d.i.y. on the truck and you wouldn't get soaked in by the useless "injector cleaning" type costs.

I asked the question about warranty work because your visits make this easy for the dealer to generate money off warranty. [Warranty work is a money maker for the dealer.]

 

[TheBlueWave]

I like to blend in dealer service with DIY. I take mine to the stealer for service, though, not some two bit lube shop or half rate mechanic (although I wonder about stealer mechanics sometimes). When I'm residing in St. Paul, I take my truck to a good friend who does an outstanding job and charges much less than stealers do. He's very competent and has all the diagnostic tools and skills the stealers have. However, I haven't had any major problems with my truck thus far (other than the annoying driveline clunk).

 

[wolfgang]

Curious - did they supply 5 new tires? My OEM Dunlops will be dangerous to drive long before 45k miles - even with that many rotations, balancing and alignments. I'd insist they go by the book for service and not pay for blatent padding like un-called for alignments, rotations, balancing, FI cleaning. Even the trans and AC service and brake adjustment are bogus.

 

[RevoRunner]

nope they only supplied 4 new tires. the spare is still a bridgestone... but it has never been in the rotation so at least it's still newish. I think the bridgestones last a little bit longer but either way, I would have changed them out around 40K. Each visit they measure with a gauge and once it gets to a certain measurement (don't remembe what it was) they swap them out. I told myself I'd let them put me through the wringer once to let me see what this whole thing was about. now that I've got my new set I think i might become a DIY.