I paid $67 + tax for oil change only at a bay area, ca dealership.

 

That's a great deal if they used 0W-20 synthetic oil.
Can you confirm?

 

My 20K service which is a glorified oil change cost me $220 at Tustin Lexus in CA. That's what I call a rip-off.

 

Here's the 0W-20 spec from the 2010 owner's manual.

 

Lexus has to charge more to pay for the big screen tv, leather chairs and free coffee juice bar.

Thats why I get my work done at the local Toyota dealer. 1/3 the cost that Lexus charges. I just buy a Pepsi out of the machine.

 

Yes. Toyota dealerships should have 0W-20 as well.
Here is the 2010 Toyota Camry oil specification from the owner's manual.
The 2.5L (4-cylinder) engine requires 0W-20.

 

a trusted local mechanic will be cheaper than the dealer. what a surprise. One way to go is to choose to have the work done at the dealer, overpay then complain that you got cheated. Try search. you'll find lots of that.

 

I’ll share experiences about Lexus warranties, since I have a couple Lexus vehicles (and LS and an RX). First the Lexus warranty is longer than the Toyota line. I had several issues with my RX during the warranty period. For example, I had a rear wheel bearing seal start making noise at 30,000 miles. Took it in to Lexus and asked them to replace the seal and the bearing under warranty since a defective seal would shorten the life of a bearing. They would only replace the seal – even though they had to remove the bearing to get to the defective seal. At 60,000 miles the wheel bearing went bad. I brought to their attention that the bearing would not have went bad if the seal would not have been defective 30,000 miles ago. They said that is true but they only replace the defective parts, not collateral damage. They had to special order the parts, it took three weeks to get the parts, and they charged $1,000 to replace the bearing, hub, and seal. I contacted Lexus corporate and they were in agreement with the dealer. As such, the Lexus warranty and service is NOT as good as other manufacturers. In fact, Lexus said I should have bought the extended warranty if I expected protection from these types of failures. Bottom line – the RX line is NOT reliable and the warranty service is cheap. While I still like the Lexus line, I now understand the cost of ownership should include the cost to purchase a full protection warranty. Still not a bad deal, as full warranty to 100,000 miles is about $3,000, which is only about 6% additional cost to the vehicle. By 100,000 miles most people have at least replaced a transmission for $5,000.

 

Which one do oil change for $47? Maplewood or Wayzata? Thanks.

 

Wow! That's a great deal.
I would confirm that they are using 0W-20.

 

I've never had to replace a tranny before 100K in any of my cars except for my 99 Acura TL at 67K miles. Those trannies were junk and was part of a big recall on Honda.

Never had a Toyota or Lexus tranny fail on me and I've had 4of them.

 

This may be only sort of on topic, but my "other" car right now is a 2004 Ford Focus used for the daily commute to work (wife gets the RX during the week). It has about 98000 KMs on the clock; power train warranty to 100,000KMs. Last week I had the 2nd rear wheel bearing and the thermostat replaced, free, under the power train warranty. Got to say that's not a bad deal! Work would have cost about $500.00 out of warranty. First wheel bearing went last Fall.

One could argue that these parts may not faill on a Lexus, but stuff happens to all cars.

 

my rx 330 has been costing me approx $1000 a year on maintenance while its under warranty.

 

1000 a year is a it expensive for maintenance on a RX330. what do you get done on the car?

 

I have zero idea what I pay for at services (I mean the work done) , I don't think I have even looked at a printout once.

I drive about 15k per year, so that means 3 services

I go into the dealer in santa monica, get a loaner, usually come back the next day and pay whatever it was.

I think I drive the car pretty hard, I think I get break pads / rotor issues, the car wasn't really designed to be driven like that I guess. Lots of shuddering and funny break noises very often, then it has to go get whatever it is fixed or replaced.

Really was a great car this lexus RX 330, but if I had to level 2 criticisms at it (and for many people this may not affect them at all), I would have to say the road handling is not very good, and the breaking is not very good either.

Of course I do drive some pretty tough reference SUVs often (BMW X5 and porsche cayenne), obviously more pricey cars, but just using them as a reference point regarding what can be done with SUV braking and handling.