Why bother with 5K dealer maitenance?

i think its a good idea to get oil changed at 5,000 then 10,000 after that. your engine should be settled in. any particles from less than perfect manufacturing should be flushed out before they can cause some major wear, etc.

as far as any maintenance schedule, Toyota is like any car company, they are way over cautious. i think you should get things done or replaced, refilled or whatever, but other than oil changes, most of the schedule is done with intervals that can easily be extended.

 

^This

What many people fail to realize is that warranty coverage is a two-way street. There have been many occasions where I've seen warranty repairs denied due to the owner's inability to provide a comprehensive service history when requested by the manufacturer. BMW/Toyota/Buick/Nissan/VW/et. al. will certainly keep to their end of the bargain, providing the owner keeps up their own end.

I don't like wasting money. However, I'm not a gambler. So, I go to my Toyota dealer diligently and have the factory-recommended (note: I didn't say "dealer-recommended") services performed.

I do this for two reasons: (1) I have a well-documented service history on my vehicle (for which I paid much wampum) and (2) I have built a relationship with my dealer. Being that I am a service writer myself (albeit for a competing manufacturer), I know of which I speak. Whenever something falls into a grey area, the first thing I look at is how good of a customer you've been to date. I'm not going to be very inclined to spend any goodwill dollars on people who never bring their vehicles to the dealership for anything but warranty work. (These people are commonly referred to as "warranty whores" in the local vernacular.)

If you're out of warranty and have a valid concern and have been a good paying (as well as warranty) customer, you'll receive the benefit of my full negotiating powers with the manufacturer. Heck, I'll probably even make the call on your behalf. However, if this is not the case, I'm going to tell you to take it back to "your mechanic" -- perhaps they will goodwill something for you since they're the one who've done all the work on the vehicle to date.

 

I have a 2010 w only 3K miles so far. But I thought that the 2010, because of the synthetic oil, would cost a lot more than $30 to change. Make sense, or is syn oil a lot cheaper than I guessed?