Originally Posted by LexBob2

I think at one time or another, most drivers have fallen victim to these nickel and dime charges at dealer service departments.

My last one was when our Audi was in for routine service (oil, filter & rotation). The SA said, "do you want us to reset the service monitor/reminder?" I said yes, only to find a $30 charge for the "procedure". Yeah, the tech had to hook the car up to his computer, but you'd think that would be included with the service. I remembered this incident for future visits..

Originally Posted by PirelliES

I am nearing my 20k service, by next month i will take it in because the certified pre owned sales manager threw in 2 free services so i will definitely take advantage of that.

Also i think its beneficial when you are buying your car ( as i am ) to take it to a Lexus dealership for minor service like oil change and tire rotation in the early years of the vehicle because i rather pay $150 and have documents that prove i had my car serviced at an authorize Lexus dealer in case i want to sell it someday. Buyers like to see that the vehicle has been serviced at the dealer. Saving $50 by taking it else where is not worth it for me, plus the customer service and free M&Ms are delightful

Originally Posted by lesz

I agree with the others.

First, with full synthetic oil, there should be no need whatever to change the oil at 5000 mile intervals. Even the Lexus recommendation of 10,000 miles is quite conservative for full synthetic oil. Vehicle manufacturers like BMW are now using 15,000 mile intervals for full synthetic oil changes, and I can't imagine that BMW's production tolerances or lubricants are so superior to those of Lexus as to allow them to use those longer intervals without issues.

But, even if you insist on changing the oil at 5000 mile intervals, those prices are ridiculously high. My local Toyota dealer will do a full synthetic oil change on my ES using the same filter and oil as the Lexus dealer, and the cost is $52, which is about 1/3 what the OP paid using his oil.

While the Lexus 5000 mile, 15000 mile, etc. service intervals basically call for only tire rotations, even the tire rotations at 5000 mile intervals are not really needed. I've regularly rotated my tires on all of my vehicles at 10,000 mile intervals, and I've never experienced either premature tire wear or uneven tire wear (assuming that I haven't done anything to cause the wheels to go out of alignment). If 10,000 mile tire rotation intervals are sufficient even for the all-wheel drive vehicles that I've owned, they would certainly be sufficient for the ES. With my ES, I rotated the tires for the first time at 10,000 miles. At that time I had about 1/32 more wear on the front tires than the rears. By the time I do the next rotation at 20,000 miles, I expect that the wear on the fronts and rears will have evened out.

The bottom line is that the cost of service at a Lexus dealer is, I think, excessive, even considering the waiting room amenities. And even the amenities at the Lexus dealers are no longer head and shoulders above those at other dealers in the way that they might have been 15 or 20 years ago. Even my Toyota dealer now has a waiting room with a big screen TV, free Wi-Fi, Starbucks coffee, donuts, etc. About the only difference between what I get at the Toyota dealer and what the Lexus dealer would have given me is that, if I need a loaner, I'll likely be driving a Camry from the Toyota dealer and not a Lexus ES from the Lexus dealer.

Considering how many people spend many hours trying to squeeze a few hundred dollars of extra savings when they buy a vehicle, I've often found it curious that many seem to be willing to give those savings back to the dealer in their first couple of trips to the service department.

Originally Posted by 2merc3lex

My 13 ES is due this month for 25K mile or 30 month service. Looking at the service guide it looks like all it recommends are fluid levels check and other minor checks, plus a tire rotation. I, like some others on this forum, only rotate every 10K. Also I only have total of 24K miles presently. So with this said, I am going to skip this service. Will do the 36K service which calls for oil change and all the rest. What do you think of this particular action/non action?

Originally Posted by bc6152

This is beneficial only if you plan on selling the car yourself, privately. If you're trading it in, the used car sales manager cares about two things; the appearance of the car and the mileage. They don't look at any service records. If the car looks good it will move quickly. This is what they want. As far as documentation, you could have service records from Joe's garage down the street and it wouldn't matter.

Originally Posted by mrBillFL

I have seen a 5 series head that was totally gunked up at 80k. 15k oil changes is too long IMHO.

looked like molasses inside. car was driven mostly around town, short hops. buddy's wife's car.

-YMMV