Look at My 100k Km Car Service

Hi all,

I took our family's Toyota corolla 2015 for its 5 year, 100,000 km service at a large Toyota dealership in Sydney. We purchased the car from there and dad is obsessed with Toyota so we keep the logbook up-to-date. Could someone please tell me what I would expect to pay if I got it done from a 3rd party service centre like NRMA, Ultratune or the (mod: edited) from Greenacre?

The total was $1035.80. I got 2 pirelli tyres because I could not be bothered going to my usual tyre shop and getting the Bridgestones I usually buy.

Service Receipt: https://imgur.com/a/m1FnrsO

Comments

  • +9

    I took our family's Toyota corolla 2015 for its 5 year, 100,000 km service…

    That's nice, but we're going to need much more information than that if you're expecting comments!

    The total was $1035.80. I got the pirelli tyres…

    If you got a set of tyres included in that price, then it can't be that bad. The tyres alone would make up about half that cost already!

    • That's nice, but we're going to need much more information than that if you're expecting comments!

      I uploaded a picture of the service job. Sorry about the delay.

      • +1

        Looks alright.. doesn't seem to be anything unusual there. Standard service alone of about $350.

        • The Toyota app quoted me $411 for this service without any additions which Toyota love to plug when you deliver the car.

          • @Orico: for that kms… you might and high possibility to get timing belt replace.

            if the cost is including the timing belt replacement and labour…. that's sound right

            • @thomalfa: No timing belt, all 2015 variants are chain.

    • No, only 300 for the tyres. I bet the tyre shops love your money.

      • +1

        No, only 300 for the tyres

        Before OP uploaded the itemised receipt, I originally assumed he did all four tyres which, if he did, would be $600.

        I bet the tyre shops love your money.

        I paid $1500/set for mine, but obviously different car and different tyres.
        Tyres and brakes are not things I would ever cheap out on, nor should anyone else (but people do!)!

      • +1

        I'm guilty of spending more than I should on tyres and replacing them when they still have life in them. We also get a trade-in credit when we replace our tyres. I love the feel of new tyres in my sports cars. hahaha

        • I am not sure about the price of the service that you did, but for tyres, I got them done today from the black friday 50% off pirelli tyres sale with mycar, and also did a wheel alignment for $69. I think $69 is pretty standard price for wheel alignment, so I think you paid too much for wheel alignment. Tyres pricing is different for different sizing, but I would guess that you probably paid more than if you had if you got your tyres done as part of the black friday mycar/pirelli sale. I normally only do the service at the mechanic, tyres I go to tyre places, and the small things I kinda just do it myself, like wipers, car lightbulbs and batteries.

  • +18

    Seems about right for a stealership service.

    A shite load of looking but not a lot of doing.

    • +3

      Looking and joy riding.

      • +1

        A man brought his Toyota Supra in for service (latest model) and was a bit pissed when he saw that they had driven it for 10 km that day. According to the GPS data, they took it on the M4 motorway and brought it back along the same road. I dunno if that's normal.

        • +6

          That's normal. It's even listed on your service as "road tested vehicle".

      • Thats why I have a dashcam fitted with a secure mount, stops them going to far with joy rides or exceeding the speed limit

        • +1

          There's always the fuse box or the battery leads. I prefer to make it easy for them if they want to disconnect it rather than have them force it and potentially damage something.

        • They always disconnect my dashcam. They remove the USB plug or just turn off the hardwired dashcams by pressing the button.

          • +3

            @Orico: I have the Blackvue security mount, prevents them from tampering with the leads or SD card. It compeletely blocks it off. There is no way to shut the dashcam off except by unplugging the car battery. I would never go to a mechanic who unplugs my dashcam, it is personal property, if they are't comfortable with a dashcam being on then I am not comfortable taking my car to them and they should make this information clear. Honest and genuine mechanics have no problem with dashcams.

            • +1

              @nubzy:

              unplugging the car battery.

              They literally do that or disconnect the fuse. lol

              • @Orico: Yeah, but they can't do that when taking it for a test drive

                • +1

                  @nubzy: They can remove the fuse I think.

                • @nubzy: I'm curious. Which exotic supercar are you actually trying to protect here?

              • @Orico: They simply disconnect the fuse for hardwired dashcams.
                I am not sure if there is a way to lock the fuse box from tamper.
                I guess if you do lock the fuse box, they won't service the vehicle.

            • +1

              @nubzy: nice, hardwired to the battery with a fuse….but yeah, honest mechanics shouldnt care if the dashcam is on or not…

              • @Zachary:

                …honest mechanics shouldnt care if the dashcam is on or not…

                The video alone might not be so bad, but the mic will also record the nearby conversations.

                Imagine some little old lady picks up her car, reviews the recordings and just hears a whole bunch of blokes making dirty jokes and swearing at each other using the crudest possible words. That wouldn't be a very good look for anyone.

                And even if the above doesn't apply, who wants to be video and audio recorded in their own workplace.. by their customers?

                • @bobbified: I just realised something….they could just simply unplug the power cable that's going directly the camera or simply cutting the cable……..whats stopping from doing just that? unless the hardwaire's cable is so thick that you cant even cut it or the plug has itself seems to be soldered onto the camera's board, rendering it hardwired literally….

                  • @Zachary:

                    I just realised something….they could just simply unplug the power cable that's going directly the camera or simply cutting the cable

                    haha… that's what I was saying earlier about the fuse and battery leads. No matter how you secure the camera, they can simply remove the fuse or follow the cable to the power source and disconnect it (I doubt they'll cut the cable since they're often proprietary cables/plugs).

                    That "secure" cover that nubzy was talking about can be removed using a generic allen key so it's actually quite useless.

        • +2

          secure mount? , whats that. don't mind me if i "accidentally" unplug it from your cigarette lighter or pull out the hardwired power plug from the side of the camera.

          LOL

  • Seems about right for a stealership service.

    Did they actually evacuate the ac gas and recharge? Would be so easy to add labour for this but do nothing if the ac is still blowing cold.

    • +1

      No, they did not. They asked me if I wanted an anti bacterial clean for my AC but I said no. I don't use the AC often because I like to have the window down unless the mercury is at 40+

  • +4

    In my experience you would have paid about 50-70% of that if you'd gone to a good mechanic and, say, JAX for the rubber.

    How much is convenience and a Toyota stamp worth to you?

    • How much is convenience and a Toyota stamp worth to you?

      This will probably be the last time I go to Toyota. Hard to justify the absurd cost.

    • +1

      ….and, say, JAX for the rubber.

      It really depends on what tyres OP got and whether the price difference is worth the extra time to book another place and then having to take it there and wait around etc. Convenience usually comes at a cost.

  • What's a registration inspection?!

  • 3rd party service centre like NRMA, Ultratune or the (mod:edited) from Greenacre?

    You know you could just call them and ask…

    EDIT: Sorry, I forgot this is OzB forums :D

  • +2

    Pays full price. Complains to OzBargain.

    • +4

      That's not the purpose of this thread. I'm curious about how much cheaper it is from a 3rd party place.

      • http://www.carservice.com.au/car-service-cost/toyota/corolla…
        use bogus email address if it asks

        you got stictched up in multiple areas:
        ~$60-80 too much for service
        ~$65 for a bulb replacement!!
        ~$115 throttle body clean (suprised they didn't machine your discs too).
        ~Pirelli's start at ~$90 each, 2 tyres plus fitting plus alignment at 380 is at least 100 too high.

        you probably could have done $300 better.

      • +1

        But wouldn't you make all those enquiries yourself by phone to all those service centres mentioned BEFORE taking the car to the dealership?

        The fact you mention you got the tyres they recommended just because you couldn't be bothered to go to your usual tyre guy.

        I get the impression you couldn't be bothered getting quotes before getting the service done because its too much hassle and after the fact you want Ozbargain to provide all those answers; after the members bother to look it up for you, because you can't be bothered and saving money may not be that important to you at this time

        • I get the impression, you couldn't have been bothered getting quotes

          Yes, that's true. We have always gone to the dealership for the 15+ Toyotas we have in our extended family.

          after the members bother to look it up for you,

          That's exactly what I wanted.

          because you can't be bothered and saving money may not be that important to you at this time

          Yes, that's true. I'm more concerned with future servicing. I'm not unhappy that I paid this much money because the corolla is on the cheaper end for what we usually pay for the bigger vehicles.

    • Yes, doesn't call other 3rd party service centres to price check… OP needs to return the OzB badge.

      • I only discovered autoguru today and I didn't know you could obtain quotes online.

        • You could phone places like NRMA, Ultratune , etc… they still have a phone number you can call?

  • You can check fixed price servicing on autoguru.com.au, it comes to about $500 including everything except the tyres. You can get two Pirellis in that size for $214 fitted on tyroola.com.au

  • +3

    $65 to replace a headlight bulb. Says it all!

    A 3rd party mechanic would probably charge 10-20 to swap out the bulb as part of a service.

    • +3

      Some headlights are a complete $@*# to replace and would take longer than $10-20 would allow. One car I had you needed to remove the headlight, which involved removing 13 screws and clips to get the grill off before the headlight.

      Either way $30 for a globe is pretty steep.

      • +1

        From what I can see, the Toyota Corolla headlights come as an assembly that you gotta disassemble to replace the globes.

        • No wonder so many vehicles run around with one headlight out.

  • +10

    Look at My 100k Km Car Service
    The total was $1035.80

    Doesn't get much more misleading than this as a post…

    Your 100,000km service itself was $336, which is about what I would expect…

    Then you tacked on;
    Rego inspection.
    Wheel alignment
    Throttle body clean
    Replace headlamp globe
    Supply and fit 2 new tyres…

    All this is the "cream" work that you could have said no to or had done somewhere else…

    There is a shit load of lazy tax on that service invoice;
    Wheel alignment at a tyre place would be about $40~60. (maybe cheaper if you bought some tyres from them as well.)
    They saw you coming with that throttle body clean. It's about 10 mins work if you take the long way. But $116?? for a 1/4 of a can of contact cleaner and 60 seconds?
    Headlight globe was $65 in labour/parts? It's literally a 5 min. job and they charged you 30 mins??? and $35 for one globe? Most places would have done it for free while doing the service. But $65
    Did they do the actual tyre fitting or just get the car sent out? More than likely just sent it out to a tyre place then charged you $60 to take the wheels off the car and put them back on. They even double dipped here. Part of the service is to "rotate" and "balance" that you paid of as part of the service. So, they had to take the wheels off and balance them anyway, but then charged you again via the "supply and fit" charge on Job 6… ($120 for each Pirelli tyre isnt too bad, but not with a "supply and fit" charge tacked on)

    They saw you coming, that's all I can say.

    • They saw you coming, that's all I can say.

      Please understand that my family have never used a 3rd party shop to do this kind of work except tyres because our friend does it for us. We've been going to toyota for like 20+ years. We buy new Toyotas, keep the log book up to date, sell or give the car to a family member. I know it's expensive to get it serviced from Toyota, but every family splurges on something for convenience and for us it's car servicing. We also have Audis, Mercedes, 1 BMW and 1 Porsche in the wider family so I'm pretty happy with how much I pay compared to how much my family pays to the German car dealers. We also live 1 minute from the Toyota dealership. lol

      Thank you for your detailed analysis. In the future, I will be looking to save money on all our car servicing. I don't think Toyota's service is worth it anymore.

      • +1

        What convenience are you getting? you can book any mechanic any time

        • Dealership is 1 min away, book using the toyota app, get quoted instantly, log book is signed by Toyota (that's the main reason I guess) and turnaround time is quick.

      • +16

        In the future, I will be looking to save money on all our car servicing. I don't think Toyota's service is worth it anymore.

        You dont really have too move away from the Toyota dealer. As I said, the actual service cost for a 100k service was pretty reasonable. What you then did was just them them talk you into shit you shouldn't be getting done at a dealership. Wheels, tyres, brakes, alignments, a/c systems, wiper rubbers, headlight globes, etc., get it done elsewhere.

        These are my tips to save money on servicing; (ex-Stealership service advisor/service manager.)

        • Take it to the dealer for just the service. It gets dealer stamp, better for resale or out of warranty good will repairs.
        • Before you get the service done, ask what that service costs. Pay no more than what they say.
        • Ask for the SERVICE ONLY, and for them to just report anything else.
        • NEVER get anything done at a dealer that is outside of the service requirements. Ask them to just note and report anything that is not part of the service.
        • Get them to quote on the work they are suggesting. Use this as the base line when you call other places for quotes to do the work.
        • Learn to do the basics yourself, globes, wiper rubbers, washer fluid top up, rotate tyres, etc.
        • Dont fall for shit like; battery health tests, de-carbonise "x" part, a/c flush/disinfect, torque tappet cover bolts, rotate your muffler bearings.
        • Remember: "Just the service today, thanks. And if you find anything, just report it."
        • Ignore emergencies like "Your tyres are bald and your brakes are worn out, you need them done today!"… just say "Ok, thanks, just report and quote on it, I'll let you know…" If it drove in there ok, it will drive to a tyre/brake shop just fine as well.
        • "How did the service go today? Find much else? Oh, good. Did you get a list of it for me and quote up the work? Fantastic. I'll let you know if I need to book it in to get that work done. Thanks!"
        • Pay for your service…. and leave. Go home/back to work and use the list they gave you and their quote to find other places who will do the work for much less.
        • +1

          Very good advice.

        • Learn to do the basics yourself, globes

          Strange thing is I don't remember my headlight globe being out.

          • +3

            @Orico: And that's is why you get them to "report only" on the service and check these things yourself.

            I'm thinking that I might have to start a YouTube channel and show people how to do some of these simple things for themselves…

        • +2

          Brilliant advice.
          Exactly what I do with my Toyota.
          Having said that, Youtube is fantastic on "How-To" videos.

      • Most local tyre shops have mechanics on their staff. You’ll likely find that at most dealerships it’s not a mechanic doing the work. It’s normally an apprentice. Qualified mechanics usually get left to the harder jobs.

        The bloke I use is both a mechanical workshop and tyre supplier. He’s also a qualified mechanic and only employs licensed mechanics and tyre fitters.

        The service was $336. Rego check standard price is $42.

        The throttle body clean is a clear upsell item that you probably didn’t need.

        Wheel alignment - overpriced
        Tyres (depending on model) - most likely overpriced
        Headlight globe - may/may not have been reasonable

    • +3

      They forgot to do the indicator fluid…

    • Headlight globes can be a pain to fit on some cars. Had a work ute once, and took a qualified mechanic about an hour to replace.
      This was an in-house mechanic so definitely wasn't about money, just had to remove a heap of stuff that was in the way.

      • The headlight globe is inside an assembly.

        • I also didn't beleive it until I saw it, but the place I worked had a fleet of a few hundred work utes. Mostly Hilux and Colorado's so the mechanics spent all day every day working on the same types of car.
          The hilux was a 5 minute job, the colarado was not. But they did have after market modifications such as dual battery setups, isolation switches etc which might have been in the way.

        • +4

          I did a whole headlight assembly on a Toyota Corolla recently, same body shape as yours (but a bit older), and the whole headlight assembly change took less time than what they charged you for just changing the globe. The globe on these Corollas is literally a 5 min job if you are messing about.

          I'm just blow away that they had the hide to charge you $35 for the globe AND $30 labour for a 2~3min job. This is why I quit working for stealerships.

    • +1

      Then you tacked on;

      $4.58 CC surcharge/hand in OzB membership/disabled user in 3, 2…

      • +2

        $1000+ service with that much cream work ($700+) on top and they couldn’t give the guy a break on CC fees. A $5 fee just for the privilege of letting OP pay them. I don’t know how some stealership service managers live with themselves.

        • +2

          They even had the nerve to ask me for $20 to wash the car. ;(
          I said do it for free but then I realised how long it took to get my car back after getting it washed in Toyota and said no wash needed. It also thunderstorm that night so I got my free wash! hahaha

          • +3

            @Orico: Sure fire way to get swirls is letting the stealership wash your car!

  • Other than the tyres the prices are reasonable. I would have done headlight globe change at the service station myself for $20 rather than $65 including $35.47 labour.

    Throttle body carbon clean was important.

    You will be getting your drive belts changed soon. Get it done from Toyota and pay a bit more to get pulleys and bearings replaced. These are expensive but your car will run great and that's what you pay dealership premium for. An oil change can be done yourself/from outside. I paid $1930 for the Belt change service to SUBARU a couple of weeks ago (all fluids and filters replaced except brake fluid)

    • +3

      Get it done from Toyota and pay a bit more to get pulleys and bearings replaced.

      Why? I wouldn't want the 2nd year apprentice at the dealership doing it but the independent mechanic that is highly regarded on Toyota forums.

      • -4

        Lol. Most dealerships have factory trained technicians. Also, they have 1 guy who does a specific job in the same car. Like a Toyota dealership would be doing 100+ Corrola belts in a month using OEM parts Vs a local mechanic who will charge you same labour rate and bill you for the same hours and offer you value with cheaper aftermarket parts. Also, dealers doing volume know which parts fail. Eg Subaru has a Metal Water pump VS BMW which has a plastic one. Subaru pump and thermostat doesn't need to be changed in most cases when doing the belt but is a must on BMW most of the time. Independents are Jack of all trades (brands) Master of none.

        • Ok

        • +3

          Most dealerships have factory trained technicians.

          And that is where you are wrong. Most dealerships are staffed with the cheapest labour they can find. This is quite often the apprentice labour pool. At one dealership I worked at, there were two qualified technicians and about 8 apprentices of varying years. At every dealership I have worked at, the apprentices always outnumbered the tradesmen.

          As for factory trained, this is also a lie. The manufacturer may have a few training days a year and the guy in the workshop who sucks the service managers (fropanity) the most is usually the guy that gets to go, as most of these “factory training” sessions are just junkets to the head office. At all of the ones I went to, I didn’t learn much as it was just a classroom full of hung over, bong smoke smelling students and a teacher that has all but given up because everyone just wants to sleep.

          they have 1 guy who does a specific job in the same car.

          And there is no “one guy” who does the “same job” on every car. If there is, that guy is considered the workshop idiot and they give him that same job because they know it’s the only thing he can do without (fropanity) it up. You could be doing an A service in the morning and an engine replacement in the afternoon. You get given one car and you work on that car until it's done. You don’t have a sump plug guy, a wiper refill guy, a spark plug guy, a tyre rotation guy, a headlight guy all coming over to do their "one job" on that one car.

          Independents are Jack of all trades (brands) Master of none.

          And some independent places, I agree, Jax or Kmart, these guys know nothing, but they are the workshop idiots and filter monkeys that other places reject, but most of the specialty workshops, these guys know MORE than the dealerships, because they are staffed with the guys who were worth more than the dealerships wanted to pay them. They spent their time at BMW or Subaru and got sick of seeing the shit apprentices they were employing and decided to either go it on their own, or to join a specialist workshop.

          So, no, dealerships are not staffed with the best, they are often staffed with the worst, cheapest labour. They are not the all knowing, all seeing specialists you think they are and most dealerships don’t retain decent staff long enough to send them to factory training sessions.

          Source: I’m an ex-stealership mechanic that got sick of being paid nothing and being surrounded by idiotic, low skilled, cheap apprentice labour, so I moved onto specialist work.

          And the fact you thought the “throttle body carbon clean” was important shows just how much you know about dealerships. $116 for a 30 second squirt of contact cleaner up the intake… great value. Had your muffler bearing repacked lately?

          And your car will run great after getting the belts and pulleys changed?? What belts? The accessory drive belts? The timing belts? Accessory drive belts have almost nothing to do with how the car runs and you wouldn't notice if someone changed them. And timing belts, if you changed them and your car was running better, they were probably due to the changed.

          Good lord, where do you get this information from?

  • +1

    Part of the service was a ‘wheel rotation’ which probably wasn’t done if they replaced only front tyres that were worn.

    • 2 tyres on the left were worn out. 2 pirelli tyres were moved to the front and the two right tyres were moved to the back.

      • Doing a lot of circle work?

        • +1

          Must be a courier. The most efficient delivery route is to only make left hand turns and really really fast.

        • Parramatta Rd left lane pot holes, and uneven and coarse surfaces along the curb.

  • +2

    I guess the argument for dealer servicing is you can just get them to do everything (replace bulb, as per customer instruction) and if something goes wrong, you can yell at the manager and say you have been coming here for 20 years.
    But you pay extra for that.

    Nothing on that list was shocking (maybe $30 to change a bulb!) but it looks like a list of set labour fees, rather than giving you the time saving of doing it all in one go. A small mechanic is more likely to say we started at 8am, and we're just taking her off the hoist now - 4 hours. Rather than a fixed list of times like 20mins to change a bulb, an hour to rotate wheels, 30 mins to replace plugs etc. etc. that might add up to more than the actual total time elapsed.

  • +1

    Other than the throttle body clean, which who knows what that is or even if it was done & the light globes looks ok for a dealer.

    I'm surprised they didn't change the air filter or cabin filter at a major service.

    You'll be begging to pay $1035.80 if all of that was all done at a 100k service on a BMW.

    • You’ll find what tends to happen with a lot of vehicle manufacturers these days is they spread servicing requirements across a larger timescale.

      That way there isn’t really a “major” service. It also means that costs for customers are more regular.

      But in saying that tho, there’s a lot of things that aren’t covered by standard service schedules. Such as brake pads, clutches, brake fluid etc.

  • +1

    Like Pegaxs said, those extras and the GST blew the cost out.
    I can recommend a great mechanic in Rosebery that wont rip you off. PM me if you're interested.

  • Replace the word "toyota" with a european brand,
    and triple the price,

    $1000 for all that at a dealership at first glance is cheap

  • +2

    You paid $336 for an oil & oil filter change & 4x spark plugs. It's fair but not cheap.

    Alignment is market rate if they did all 4 wheels.

    You paid an unnecessary $116 for the throttle body clean. That's just a profit add-on by the dealer.

    $65 fitted for a headlamp bulb is a lot for a halogen bulb imo. A Narva bulb is about $16 and it's an easy DIY.

    The price on the tyres is fair but you paid an extra $60 for the convenience of them doing the job.

    So you could have saved about $200 if you'd been on your game

  • Seems about right for dealership service. You should expect to pay more.

    The throttle body clean is probably them pouring some liquid down the throttle (Air inlet removed) whilst revving the bejesus out of it.

  • I don't see any issue. 1k is not much at all for the service you received. Two tyres alone would be basically 1/2 the amount.
    Your vehicle is now 5 years old and over 100,000km.
    Why don't you just maintain it yourself. Surely your father can change the oil. It's even tells you which cap is the oil.

    • 2x 205/55R16 tyres is not worth $500. Even for nice tyres (to be fair, Pirelli's are a good brand), probably don't need to be spending more than $300 fitted.

  • +1

    i know its just a corolla , but putting in 10w-30 mineral oil should be a crime (not even a semi synthetic). (Castrol GTX Professional)

    Charged you $0.87 for windscreen wiper additive LOL , man they really scraping the bottom of the barrel here… (Service Manager: Every 100 cars or so i make a cool $87, sweet as)

    Its one of those invoices that keeps on giving the more you read it

    To be fair though spark plug cost is average , same goes with the oil filter , i don't know what pirelli tyres you got but 2 for $240 isn't bad however you got (profanity) on the fitting , they charged you $60 for literally 15 minutes work to fit the tyres. Sump plug drain washer is fine.

    As some others have stated above "alot of looking and not enough doing"

    Its not a MAJOR service and you were left out of pocket , it was basically a glorified oil change (which at most standard mechanics cost between $99-150 depending if they are running a promo on or not) , this falls under a Peace Of Mind service as "ideally" they are meant to check ALL the things that mechanics don't do on just a Minor service.

    At the end of the day you got ripped off but in the dealerships defense , this is basically where they make there bread and butter $ to keep the dealership alive , as i am told the margins of profit on the sale of new and used car's are not that fantastic.

    Just be grateful you don't own a volkswagen , just to change the transmission oil of one of my vehicles with DSG literally cost me $500. i am deadset serious. Transmission oil , nothing else.

  • You'd be able to get all of this done within $400 including all the parts. Stupid to use these brand dealerships.

  • They got you good with the lightbulb replacement and that throttle body cleaning thing.

    • I initially said no to the throttle body clean but then I had already decided I wasn't coming back to Toyota for this particular car so I was like, go nuts. The headlight replacement they didn't even ask me about. The manager calls me up saying they already did it.

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