Hello, new to the forum. I’m considering a 6g es350 as my replacement to my 2010 Volvo S80 and am in the research phase of car shopping. I figured I’d see about the price of a simple maintenance item, so I called both Lexus and Toyota dealers to get a price on an oil change and was quoted $92 and $110 respectively (shocked Toyota was more). So out of curiosity, I called Toyota again asking about an oil change on an identical year Avalon (being an identical power train) and was told $57. Has anyone run into this before?

 

ATUCKER... That is strange.. first thing that crossed my mind was if perhaps the prices were different because one quote included the oil and the other did not.. even so, you should put nothing but full synthetic in your new car, and the price of synthetic can be kind of steep. I know that the last time I took my lexus in for an oil and filter change ( and I provided the oil and filter ), the charge was around 29 bucks. Could be a few dollars off there since I just don't remember the actual total, but it was close to that... curious, did you ask them why there was a difference in the quotes between the Lexus and the Avalon.. as you pointed out, same engine.... Maybe they're charging you more because of that big L on the grill... seen it before.

 

I take my 5 quart jug of Mobil 1 bought at Walmart for $23 minus Mobil's twice a year rebate of $12 and my Toyota oil filter bought on line for $5 to my local Toyota dealership. They charge me $30 for labor. The Lexus dealership charges the same but the Toyota dealership is much closer. So total is $46. I do this every 10,000 miles. Every 30,000 miles the brake fluid needs to be changed which cost $130. Once a year, I change the cabin and air filter. For me this is 15,000 miles. Lexus recommends 30,000 miles. These combined cost $40 and takes me five minutes to do both. At 105,000 miles the coolant needs to be changed. Once a year I replace the wipe inserts that cost $18. So for me every two years/30,000 miles it cost me $384 for two years or 30,000 miles. Lexus is the third least expensive to maintain. Consumer Reports just ranked Lexus #1 in reliability. J D Power has ranked Lexus #1 in reliability for eight years in a row.

 

 

 

I'm sure that pricing practices for maintenance and repairs vary considerably from one dealership to another, but I've had all non-warranty maintenance and service work on my Lexus vehicles for the last 15 years done at the local Toyota dealer. My experience has consistently been that the prices for both maintenance and repair work at the Toyota dealer have been 1/2 or less than what they would have been had I had the same work done with the same parts at the Lexus dealer. I have, however, read posts here on CL in which some people have indicated that pricing from Toyota dealers for work on Lexus vehicles has not been as favorable when the Toyota and Lexus dealerships share the same ownership.

For oil changes, my Toyota dealer charges $42 (with a $10 coupon that is always available) and uses the same oil and filters that the Lexus dealer would be using.

 

I appreciate all the information. The dealers are independent from each other and the quotes are for full synthetic oil. I’ve been very highly leaning toward the es350 over the Avalon and have test driven the Lexus already.

An additional question I have is that given the reliability of Lexus, is it worth paying a CPO premium or just buy used and save the money on the purchase?

 

I consider 0-2 year old CPO vehicles to be among the worst buys in the car market.

If you buy a 0-2 year old used Lexus, a good part of the factory bumper-to-bumper warranty is still in effect, and an even bigger part of the power train warranty is still available, and the CPO warranty doesn't cover wear-and-tear items, such as brake pads and tires. In order to qualify as a CPO vehicle, the tires and brakes only need to have about 1/3 of their useful life left. While the 161 point Lexus CPO inspection sounds impressive, most of the checks are things that anyone could check for himself/herself in less than an hour. They are things like making sure that the car starts, that the power windows work, that all of the lights work, etc. Thus, you are paying the CPO premium of around $2500 (for a 0-2 year old CPO ES) for some, but not a lot of additional protection, and, since the CPO warranty is not transferable to another owner, you are not increasing the re-sale or trade-in value of the car.

The demand for 0-2 year old CPO cars is high because many buyers think that, when they buy a 0-2 year old CPO car, they are buying one that is "almost as good as a new car" at a significantly reduced price, but that simply is not the case. The number of 0-2 year old CPO is somewhat small because not many of 0-2 year old cars have yet come back to dealers as trade-ins or lease returns. Thus, the combination of high demand and low supply leads to highly inflated prices. The dealers can stick to those inflated prices because they know that most buyers don't realize how much discounting is available on brand new cars or that the reality is that the price difference between a brand new car and a 0-2 year old CPO car is relatively small.

For a 4 -6 year old ES, to me, buying a CPO car would be more of a consideration. For those 4-6 year old cars, the factory bumper-to-bumper warranty will have expired, and so will most of the power train warranty, which adds more value to having a CPO warranty, and the price difference between an older CPO car and new car becomes more significant.

Thus, for me, the bottom line is that, if I was looking for a relatively new ES, I'd try to find one that was not a CPO car. Instead of buying a CPO car, I'd put the extra $2500 that I could have spent to buy a CPO car into savings earmarked for car repairs, but, if I was looking for a 4-6 year old ES, I'd, at least, consider buying a CPO car.

 

H

How old is this list? Saturns have not been made in 10 years, there is no Pontiac or Mercury either

 

If you drive long trips, I just got rid of my 2014 ES after a month. I do a lot of driving and it's the first car that damaged my back and the pain kept getting worse. The Avalons prior to 2013 have immensely superior seat as well as the ES prior to 2013. My problem was the top portion leans forward too much where my shoulders the hit and part where the seam is that is supposed to fit your shoulder blades just left a small void. The old seats don't curve back forward and do not cause this issue. Anyways, may or may not affect you, but thought I should mention after my financial loss on buying/selling still eats at me.