Toyota Service Plan

Kimberley

I bought a 2005 reg Toyota Yaris yesterday. Really pleased with it. Has a full service history all by Toyota 9 stamps so previous owner had it serviced every year. Now he kept all the invoices and OMG he spent a lot of money on the car replacing stuff, the servicing and MOTs etc. he also had the number plates replaced twice., don't know why.

Anyway, what I want to know is shall I continue to use the Toyota dealership for the yearly servicing or get it done cheaper at a garage? I've added up all the invoices and in 5 years he has spent about £4000 on the car. He certainly has looked after the car though, it's in good nick. However I thought Toyota were mean't to make reliable cars.

gilbert_and_sullivan

What a lucky buy, you won't find many cars as well cared for as that one in your motoring life.

No i wouldn't necessarily carry on with the main dealer, but i would continue with the excellent previous care via a good independent mechanic, if you have one.

With some of the difference in cost i would get someone to rust proof the car as much as possible with a view to running it for another 9 years, and then some.

You have a unique opportunity there to own a car as likely as any on the road to last donkeys years, a bit of time and investment will see you with minimal depreciation, bangernomics almost, for a long long time.

enjoy.

Horizon81

Sounds like you've got a well cared for car there. There's no harm in asking Toyota for their servicing prices as you may well find that they are no more expensive that local independents. Your car needs a service every 10k miles/year (whichever comes first) alternating between an interim service one year and a full service the next, but you'd probably gathered that already if you have all the previous receipts.

I suppose the problem with the main dealer is that they won't see many of the old Yaris now, so they're perhaps less likely to have the added expertise that you think you're paying for by using them. I'd advise you to stick to Toyota parts though, which should be no problem for a good independent to procure.

If you're worried about the fact he spend £4k on what you thought was a reliable car then post a few of the things here that were done. I'm guessing it's consumables like tyres, exhaust, aux belt, battery etc + all the servicing rather than anything serious? All of which is great news for you.

knightstyle

We have just changed our Toyota for a Nissan. During the 5 years we owned the Toyota we used the Toyota garage and a local indy there wasn't a lot of difference in prices and I only used the indy as the Toyota garage was 17 miles away. Some things like windscreen wiper blades are cheaper at Toyota than local indy or Halfrauds.
So ask your local Toyota garage for prices, they do a monthly payment plan that may be useful and compare them with an indy.
I find the amount the previous owner spent alarming, our 07 Auris never had anything other than routine servicing and tyres, brake pads, not even a bulb failed.

Kimberley

I'm at work so will post everything he had done on the car, will take some time lol but won't post the consumables. MOT or servicing costs because that's all normal.

Horizon81

It shouldn't take too long. 5 years servicing/MOTs, a couple of sets of tyres, discs and pads, new exhaust (especially if a genuine Toyota one), battery etc could easily come to £2.5k to £3k so there's not a lot of expenditure left to account for, especially if he changed the number plates a couple of times!

gilbert_and_sullivan

The only nasty thing about these is that, together with far too many other modern designs, rear wheel bearing isn't replaceable and comes complete with rear hub, and they're around £250 each from Mr Toyota parts alone, pattern parts are available but this car has been dealer maintained, if its needed 2 new rear bearings thats probably £800 inc fitting.

I had the full history file from one of my old Mercedes from new, i didn't add things up but not a single service came to less than £500, and even when the bill was £2k the main dealer never once failed to charge for screen wash, sump washer, split pin etc to extract every last ha'penny from their captive cash cow.

cootuk

Most Toyota main dealers now do fixed price servicing (excluding brake fluid etc) and will happily set up a monthly payment plan to help you budget. This could help spread the cost out, and gives a good basis to compare against an independant, especially wrt repairs and wear/tear items.

Last time I was in the dealership some old guy was in with his car and the advisories came to around £700. Most seemed to be the sort of thing that would need doing eventually over a few years (advisory rather than fail), but presented in such a way that they felt pressured to have the work done quickly to be on the safe side.

Kimberley

Air Con treatment
Supply and fit radio control on steering wheel
X s body carried out repairs
X s body paint and materials
Carry out four wheel geo adjustments
Supplied and fitted n/s/f airbag after diagnostics tests and confirming fault
Tighten drive belt
Supply and fit front brake pads and discs ( every second year)
Replace passenger rear wheel bearing
Hub and bearing

Those are all the more expensive items done, the other is the servicing, consumables and MOT

The car has done 85,000 miles and going by the service stamps around £10,000 per year, so I think a lot of motorway travelling so that may explain the brake pad wear and tear.

Not sure about the body repair and materials though.

Kimberley

The thing about servicing with Toyota is I'm worried they will find faults just so they get more money from me. The same as if you get an MOT at a garage rather then a council run one the garage could find faults if you know what I mean

gilbert_and_sullivan

That's not been my experience Kimberley, the family owned Toyota dealer i used when i had one went out of their way to keep my costs down, but that way of doing business may not apply to a city or multi dealer network which is part of a chain with umpteen managers to pay for.

Nothing from your list of work done raises any alarms, discs and pads every two years sounds a bit heavy, but the previous owner sounds like they were fastidious and any mention of a slight wear lip or 50% of pads left might have had them asking for new ones.