Maintenance package

The best maintenance package for a Prius is to pay out of pocket. Very little needs to be done for maintenance. Mostly just oil changes and rotating the tires.

Tom

 

You can have a dealer do the work if you wish. Generally even dealers are pretty cheap when it comes to normal Prius maintenance. Just watch out and make sure they stay with the recommended maintenance. Some dealers try to pad their profits with unneeded work.

Tom

 

i would seriously not recommend one. Prepaid packages are usually a rip-off, and they only cover whats in the manual anyways. If you purchase each item separately, it always somehow comes out cheaper.

for example:

5k service: $20 (Rotation...thats it)
10k Service: Oil Change & Rotation ($50 + $20)= $70

For argument sake, say that you drive 10k miles in 1 year. So total maintenance cost following the service guide from Toyota, you'd do $90 worth of maintenance a year.

The only thing that changes is at 30k miles, you change the air filters. Changing both can't cost more than $100 if you do it at the dealer. If they're going to charge you a lot of labor for a simple job like that, well...yeah.

then at 100k miles, you change the inverter/engine coolant. $200 total.

120k miles: spark plugs. $200

So yeah, like everyone else here said, prepaid maintenance usually is a rip off, and is just a profit tactic.

 

The dealerships for all brands are touting their own maintenance requirements which force you to say no. Many folks can't say no and end up overpaying for service. The oil change includes a safety check and is about $60. Rotations are $20. My prius has that stuff covered for 2 years but the dealer has already put me on notice that there is lots of stuff that is needed to keep my car running. The extra stuff is on my credit card. I of course know better. I just say no as many times as needed and enjoy a free cup of coffee and a danish in the customer lounge.

 

Take it somewhere else, or insist that they do only the items you explicitly request. I paid my Toyota dealer $50 at 10k for the required items. If I had walked in and said "I need the 10k service for my Prius" they would have found $400 worth of things to do.

Tom

 

I have close to 37,000 miles on my 2010 Prius. When I get oil changes I pay $29.95 for 5 quarts of Mobil1 0W20 with a filter from Advanced Auto Parts when it is on sale. I stock up. I take it to a Lube Stop like place and they charge 20 to replace the oil. I pay a total of $50 for each oil change.

1,000 miles oil change $50
5,000 miles oil change $50
10,000 miles oil change $50
15,000 miles oil change $50
20,000 miles oil change $50
25,000 miles oil change $50
30,000 miles oil change $50
35,000 miles oil change $50

I know the recommended oil change is 10,000 miles. I still keep it at 5,000 miles. I rotate my own tires and swap the standard tires with snow tires in the winter. At 40,000 miles I am going to get the Transaxle fluid changed. My goal is to get over 300,000 miles out of this car.

 

A agree that it's cheaper to just pay as you go, but your price quotes above greatly underestimate what Toyota dealers want to charge for it.
I had the 5K service of just tire rotation and inspections and it was more than $50 at the dealer.
They want well over $100 for 10K service with oil change.

 

Here are actual prices on "special."



The regual prices were higher. Around $90 for the service listed as $65.10 (plus extra for synthetic oil in fine print of ad) and they don't list the most basic 5K service of just tire rotation and inspection (they charged me around $50). How does the compare to buying a prepaid package?

 

Do you perform your own brake check at the 5k interval also since you rotate the tires? I also started to change the oil at every 5k too. Thanks for the info., I plan to get 200k+ out of my G3.

 

Replace the cabin and engine air filters yourself and you can keep taking it in for the 5k "special" for $65.10. Do your first oil change at 5k, then subsequent oil changes at 15k, 25k, 35k, etc. (skipping the $199 "special" at 30k because you'll replace the cabin and engine air filters yourself). Also rotate the tires (they have no warranty anyway from factory) every 10k instead of 5k so you can avoid taking it in every 5k. All you need to do is manually inspect the vehicle at 10k, 20k, 30k and denote this on your MyToyota owner's site to keep the warranty intact.

 

I do not check the brakes that offten. They will last many many years because of the hybrid system. I drive a lot of highway miles and on my last vechicle I replaced my first set of front brakes at 170,000 miles and never replaced the rear. Sold the vechicle at 305,000 milles.

I predict I will never have to replace the brakes on the Prius over the 300,000 miles I own it.