Went to the dealership for the oil change ($110) / the multi point inspection. It all took about 1hr. After the inspection, this is what they said:

1. Alignment was off in the rear. They showed me the printout with camber / #s Dealership cost for an alignment: $199
2. Cabin filter (glovebox) needed to be changed. Dealership cost: $60 for filter; $60 to replace: Total cost: $120 (This one made me laugh )
3. Front brakes at 3mm; Front Brakes and Front Rotors rusted/recommended to be changed: $697

I declined all services.

• I'll have an independent shop do the alignment for $70.
• I ordered the cabin filter from Superstition Springs Lexus eBay store for $24 and will do it myself (https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...diy-video.html). Shout out to @ItzFilyO !
• I can get OEM front brakes/rotors for $260 online and I'll have my local mechanic put them in for $160. (DIYDan has a really great, you guessed it, DIY video on this)

It feels like dealerships are really pricing their parts competitively if you are willing to buy on-line. Just thought i'd share some of the prices the dealership was charging for these common services and the alternatives available esp b/c of the good work/research of other members on this forum!

 

They don't call them Stealership for nothing. $60 for 30 seconds of work to install cabin filter...outrageous!

Everything is virtually brand new on my car: brakes, suspension, wheels, tires, air/cabin filters. I'm curious what they'll try to rape me with next time in come in for an oil change. I'm only at 27K miles.

 

Lexus dealers are for warranty repairs, and all they can really do is replace parts with factory new.

It will always be significantly cheaper to DIY or use a local shop w choice of parts that include salvaged and aftermarket.

 

Man it's crazy. Lexus is just as bad as the other makes. Last time I was in for my infiniti on a 19.99 oil change special I overhears them selling some poor lady an air filter change at $200 for the same car I have. When she questioned it, the SA said "well, it's a carbon filter so the parts are $50 each and since there are 2 filters, we'll have to charge an hour labor total"

I was stunned. I can get the OEM filter from ebay for $16 each, and changing the air filter literally takes 10 seconds each side of the engine. Pop hood, undo 2 clips, pull out filter and replace, insert filter and reattach clips. $100 labor for less than one minute worth of work...

 

Agreed. The dealership gets away with robbery when it comes to service. The SA told me the cabin filter was charcoal and that you have to be really careful when changing it as there is some air box and yada yada yada -- I just nodded and said no thanks. They are basically salespeople selling you service

 

At 29,000 miles, I tried to schedule the annual oil change on my 2013 F-Sport. The dealer wanted to:

Change engine oil and filter
Flush brake fluid
Flush transmission fluid
Drain and fill differential fluid
Rotate and balance tires
Replace engine air filter
Replace interior air filter

I took the car to my local independent shop, a certified Lexus mechanic. He changed the oil and did all the required inspections. He said all the rest was unnecessary. Total cost, $86.

 

You should have spoke up and helped the lady out. Those service advisors make commission, totally backwards way of doing it. So they are incentivized to overcharge, and do unnecessary work. Service dept is bigger RIP off than new car sales.

 

Stealership will charge an arm and a leg. I just replaced 2 front axles, both left and right were shot and leaking oil badly (this is what happens when you drive lowered for a long period of time). Anyways, Lexus wanted $1,000 for the right side and $850 for the left, that's for the parts alone, excluding labor costs. I went to my local shop and he found me used axles from 2015 GS. I got both front axles replaced, with an oil change, alignment for $1,200 total.

 

If she had taken it I would have. She said "I will think about it at the next service, don't have time today for an hour"

 

i mean after used car sales, service department is where they make money not new car sales

 

I just replaced my cabin air filter last night $11.69 from a particularly well known online retail giant. Maybe I'll buy something nice with the $108 I saved over the dealership cost.

My dealership did take care of me when I was troubleshooting an electrical issue. Though they had the car for about five days, they only charged me one hour of diagnostic and an hour for the repair. I still wouldn't go there for most things.

 

Do they have that scanner that spits out a reading of your alignment as you enter the service area? Our Honda dealer has that. As you enter they hand you this paper that shows your alignment on all four wheels. I just decline these things but if it was my wife I would get a panicked phone call on how the alignment was off that the wheels may fall off blah blah blah..

They basically scare people into buying unnecessary service.

Ed

 

This comes from the FAQ at the independent shop I use. It is long, but I find it revealing:

"Auto manufacturers have many considerations when setting service intervals—which very often conflict with each other. If they do not recommend enough maintenance, they can lose a substantial amount of money on warranty claims and their reputation for quality suffers. If they base service schedules strictly on engineer recommendations, their competitors will use the comparatively lower maintenance costs as a selling point for their own vehicles. Driving conditions and climate create enormous variables in the actual amount of wear to vehicle components and fluids, which makes arbitrary service intervals a compromise.

We find that many Toyota, Lexus, and Scion owners seek out an alternative to the dealer when they begin to question the services being recommended—many of which are premature, overpriced or completely unnecessary. As a result, a large percentage of first time clients at XXXXXXX Shop have voiced concerns about the Toyota or Lexus dealer that had been servicing their vehicle. We could cite dozens of specific cases where we also deviate from the service schedule in the owner’s manual. However, we often recommend LESS maintenance than the manufacturer and any recommendations that we make are ALWAYS for the benefit of our clients.

One example is brake fluid service, which can be very critical in cold, humid climates where road salt is used. Lexus recommends servicing the RX330’s brake fluid every 30,000 miles. The mechanically identical Toyota Highlander specifies “inspection,” but never recommends servicing the fluid. To better serve our clients, we use inexpensive brake fluid test strips and a simple refractometer. The fluid is checked regularly and only serviced when needed (usually at about 10 years of age).

We realize that we cannot be all things to all people. Our goal is to use our 70 years of combined Toyota and Lexus experience and some of the most thorough inspections in the industry for the benefit of our clients. We feel that vehicles which are serviced based on our recommendations have unmatched longevity, but at far lower cost than they would if serviced based on an arbitrary schedule."

 

Yeah they definitely try to raise your level of concern. The way they did it was with a color printout after the inspection was complete showing the alignment results. Since the alignment is off in the rear, he said it could lead to premature tire wear. Definitely wasn't going to spend $200 for an alignment with them though, that's for sure.

 

hubs and i are many times at the mercy of the dealerships for service/repairs.

he doesn't know enough about cars to trust himself with repairs and he doesn't have time to do them even if he did. we're fully accepting of the fact that we've probably paid for repairs and service that were unnecessary, however, it does give us some peace of mind in knowing i'm driving a car with the dealer's assurance that it is mechanically safe while hubs travels for work. fortunately we factored dealer repair costs into total ownership before we purchased the cars. there have been a couple of times we've cringed at the cost of repairs but fortunately we've budgeted well enough to be able to afford them. we keep ours cars a looooong time. i'm not sure if we will continue this course for our cars' services but for now it works for us.