Toyota – Free Maintenance For Two Years or 25k Miles
Jason Lancaster | Oct 06, 2010 | Comments 5
Toyota just announced that they will be offering free maintenance on all Toyota and Scion models for either two years or 25k miles, whichever comes first. This free two year 25k mile maintenance plan will include:
- As many as 5 oil changes or as few as 2 oil changes (depending on model)
- 5 tire rotations
- 24 hour roadside assistance
- Various chassis inspections and minor maintenance items
Why is Toyota offering free maintenance? Because…
- It’s a relatively inexpensive incentive. The hard cost of giving every new vehicle customer five oil changes, five tire rotations, roadside assistance, etc. is fairly low. Somewhere near $400-$500 per customer (maybe less).
- Dealers love it. Toyota dealers sometimes struggle to build a service relationship with their new vehicle customers. By offering new Toyota buyers free maintenance at their local dealership, new Toyota buyers aren’t going to visit their local Jiffy Lube® or Midas® for service (at least not for the first 2 years of ownership).
- It helps differentiate Toyota. As of right now, this is something that makes Toyota different than other non-premium automakers. While BMW has been offering free maintenance for years, Toyota is the first “full line” manufacturer to offer this.
The million dollar question: Will other manufacturer’s match Toyota’s plan? Only if it seems like consumers are responding.
Filed Under: Auto News
A lot of dealers have already done things like this. Why I wouldn’t be satisifed:
1) I’d expect 8 free oil changes (one every 3 months).
2) I hate going to the dealer for an oil change that should take 30 minutes yet it takes 90. They aren’t the most convenient location for many reasons.
3) I’d prefer a $3K rebate or other incentive that made more up-front financial sense.
4) A large enough population can change their own oil; what do they get out of this?
5) They throw a lot of the other things into packaging already, so again, no real incentive for a consumer.
I’m not picking on you at all for writing it, but most people don’t really care to rotate their tires on schedule that this is going to be beneficial. And most insurance policies will already have coverage for 24 hour roadside assistance. I’d like to see better marketing tactics from Toyota or none at all.
TXTee – I think that you make some great points. Dealerships rarely change oil as quickly as the JiffyLubes of the world, and the dealers will use this opportunity to try and “upsell” some needless crap.
Having said that, the last time I went to a JiffyLube I was told I needed a new air filter even though my current filter was fine, and I was also offered an upgrade to a synthetic “blend” that smelled like a ripoff.
As far as the 24 hour roadside, Toyota should include this free of charge on all new vehicles for the full length of the warranty. They are one of the only manufacturers that don’t offer this perk.
It burns me up getting the Toyota “coupon” for cabin air filters installed at $42. $10 and 2 minutes works really well for me. I spent more time emptying the glovebox than changing the thing…..but this is one I’ve seen them run by customers so many times with the oil change, it’s ridiculous. Some real incentives would be nice but I guess you take what you can get when it’s free.
I for one will never use jiffy lube again. Had tranny service done on my Tbird and the pan bolts were still loose. No fun cleaning the underside of any vehicle. I will still use the dealership service department for the reason anything goes wrong, I’m sure it will be covered by Toyota/Dealership. I’m awaiting Toyota’s version of customer service/experience center on my cost of $4,000 for the tranny rebuild and torque rebuild. I’ll be satisfied if they would meet me halfway.
Mickey – The only reason I went to Jiffy Lube was location…there wasn’t a dealer close by and I needed an oil change. I checked to make sure everything was tight before I left…LOL. Can’t trust those guys!