Question about required maintenance

[gm830]

I bought my car in January of this year and I paid extra for this warranty maintenance package thingy where I just bring my car in and don't have to pay for maintenance service for 5 years...When the dealer was trying to sell it I thought he had showed me this list of required maintenance at like 6mo, 9mo, 12mo and so on...But I was looking through the coupon book I received for it to see when I should take it in (last time was July) and the book is only for every 5,000 mi, is that correct or should I be taking it in more often than that? The sticker for next service that they left on my car after the July visit says to bring it in again in october but I didn't receive any scheduled maintenance reminder in the mail like last time and then I looked at my coupon book and it said every 5,000 so I'm a little confused and I want to make sure that my Smurf is getting everything it needs. For anyone else who bought that package do they do the oil change when you take it in too? Oil is also every 5,000mi right?? Thanks!

[TheRealEnth]

Well i dont know about the maintenance part... But yeah Toyota Says change oil every 5000... but if you want to be safe you should do it every 3000 miles... You would have to do it yourself. But its only the oil part?

[MadMax]

Go by the service manual! Too many people waste good oil by changing it too often. Modern synthetics can easily go 5K miles without problems, and if you are really concerned about it then take a sample to a lab the next time you get it changed and have them run it. I can pretty much guarantee that you don't need to change your oil more often than the recommended intervals!

Cheers! M2

[gm830]

so ignore the little sticker the lady put on the car about bringing the car in again just 3 months later? (said october, but I was confused about whether i needed to so I didn't take it in yet)

[MadMax]

I would call the service department at the dealership, but if they are changing your oil every three months and you are not putting a lot of miles on your car during that time (I mean more than 3-5K) then an oil change is a waste of time and money.

Unless you are driving under extreme conditions (very hot weather or long distances), you will be OK with the 5K intervals between oil changes.

Personally, I think these maintenance packages are a rip-off. I got a year of car washes I didn't want that I am sure was tacked onto the price of the car; but I was able to transfer it to the wife's minivan which we'll get better use out of it. I handwash my Yaris, a car wash would scratch up the black paint too easily.

Cheers! M2

[TheRealEnth]

well i put a lot of miles every month =( i alrdy got 25000 on my baby...

[b_hickman11]

same here....I put 2500 miles a month on

[SilverGlow]

well i put a lot of miles every month =( i alrdy got 25000 on my baby...

I think it was a big mistake to buy that package. They are a ripoff and provides the owner with little flexability, based on the number of miles driven, etc. Can you cancel it to receive a pro-rated refund? I know you can do this with the extended warranty...maybe you can also with this main package.

[blktiger60]

so ignore the little sticker the lady put on the car about bringing the car in again just 3 months later? (said october, but I was confused about whether i needed to so I didn't take it in yet)

You need to change it every 5,000 miles. Dates are unimportant.
I've changed mine twice so far, working on 14,000 currently.

[gm830]

well luckily I don't drive THAT much so the every 5,000mi coupons will work out well for me. Thanks for the responses!