Three free oil changes?!?

Jolly, are you sure it's free lifetime oil changes? I bought at Champion Toyota Austin a few months ago and I thought it was only three free changes. And someone else thought it was free for the first three years, regardless of mileage.

 

you're kidding ... right? Never heard anyone suggest driving front tires 'till they're worn out. Let's do the math. Worn tires now on rear. So ... by the time the fresher tires are put in front and wear another 25% or so ... the cords are showing through on the rear ones. No thanks. Call me silly, I'll just keep rotating.

Of course not ... they want you to change it while there's still 50% of its life left. Pretty ridiculous, and wastefull, too.

There ARE no chincy 0W-20 manufacturers . . . and there are no 0W-20 NON-synthetic oil manufacturers eilther . . . so worries about it are a non-issue. And with as often as Toyota 'recommends' changing it out, there's no way there'd ever be even a remote chance of damage anyway. So you're good to go.

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I checked with Champion and I was wrong. It is free oil and filter changes for 3 years or 36K miles, no more often than every 5K miles. I remember asking the sales person during the actual purchase how much they charged for oil changes, and he said they were free. I clearly misunderstood him.

It is still a good deal, but living on the other side of town still makes it difficult for me to use.

 

Thanks Jolly

 

The Champion guy I just asked about the free oil change program also mentioned the new 10K interval. He said something to the effect of right now they will do it free every 5K miles or 6 months, but soon that will be changed to 10K miles or one year to reflect the Toyota announcement.

 

Heh, no they won't. My Prius happens to be in their service bay right now, with 4970 miles. The service advisor told me that they're already on the new maintenance schedule and that there's absolutely no need to change the oil. Since Toyota recommends the new interval and Champion is paying for the oil changes, it was difficult to make much of a case for doing it anyway. So I left it for a tire rotation and courtesy umpteen-point inspection. I wasn't willing to wait 10k for my first tire rotation.

 

My service advisor told me that "you can't change your oil to often". The prepaid Toyota maintenance coupons say 5000 miles, but at least at my dealership, they'll take a coupon and do an oil change at any interval I like, from 1350 when I did my first oil chance after break in, to the new recomended 10K. It's up to me, as long as it's within the 1 year time frame of the prepaid plan.

 

Wow! That is raw. Never underestimate the speed of greed. The guy talking to me made it sound like the new standard was still moving through the local dealership's bureaucracy. Oh well, I take it as one of those good news, bad news jokes.

 

Octavia, another avatar change? I can't keep up!

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Being There -- Peter Sellers. Man, I'm getting old.