Toyota and Lexus run the "severe service" maintenance schedule in Canada instead of it being optional like it is in the USA, this results in more frequent oil changes. This is actually changing for 2016 (and for 2015 on the NX) to the 16,000 km interval currently being used in the USA/non-severe service.

tl;dr: Starting in 2016 it will be the same as the USA.

Jeff

 

so, ideally, what time schedule and oil viscosity should one follow if living in southern california? should i be changing it every 5k miles or every six months, whichever comes first? i mean, that was the schedule lexus recommended with the last generation IS.

because lexus has standardized maintenance across the entire nation, the vast climatic differences aren't at all taken into account. i mean, the schedule may last the car past the warranty, but it isn't (likely) going to last the car 300k miles. following the schedule, i've only had my oil changed once and it's over a year old now (purchased 4/2014 with a build date of 11/13 i think) and has 9,900 miles on it currently.

something doesn't seem right -- or maybe i have no idea what i'm thinking but i want the car to last as it's purchased and not leased and i typically keep my cars for some six years before purchasing another.

edit: of course i don't drive nearly this much, but this is what a nyc taxi's engine (2008 ford escape hybrid) looks like at the 500k mile mark with oil changes every three weeks. impressive. http://jalopnik.com/this-is-what-a-5...s-l-1717745908

 

So-cal is the most moderate climate in North America. Pretty sure 10k miles is safe

 

Yes, NX is now on a 16k km oil change interval like in the US, but there still is an 8k km "checkup" where they add oil as needed. In my NX, they topped off the oil as there was some amount of "normal" consumption is what I was told. We can expect the IS200t to have the same interval but it will be interesting to see if the 350 or 300 models will remain at 8k km. If these 2GR-FSE engines get a bump up to 16k km in 2016 too, then we know we could have likely gone to that interval with the '14 and '15 IS's in Canada without issue (unless the oil formulation is somehow change for 2016)...

I wonder what the maintenance interval for US folks in Alaska are. Still 10k miles??

 

i dunno - we had both snow this year and temperatures that broke 100 degrees. most of the time it's moderate, but we have our extremes.