Toyota Fixed Price servicing - revised service schedules

[FROSTYBALLS]

From an earlier thread, and since the costs for Fixed Price Servicing were increased (from April 2016), it became clear that Toyota GB had revised the content of the Intermediate, Full and Full+ services.

See  https://www.toyota.co.uk/caring-for-your-toyota/service-and-maintenance/car-servicing.json  and

https://www.toyota.co.uk/download/cms/gben/Toyota Service Pricing Content Updated_tcm-3060-294039.pdf

I contacted Toyota GB for some clarification , and have copied the reply below:

"Thank you for your email and apologies for the delay in providing a full response.

The Full or Full + service is determined by mileage/time and for some new models service indicator.  

Full+ does include the spark plug inspection and replacement (there's an error on the document on the website which we have just spotted!)

Coolant change is due in the Full + service at 10 years/100,000 miles, the other Full + will not have coolant but will include other applicable items.

What has changed is that items such as coolant, cabin air filters and spark plug replacement which are part of the service schedule (not optional) are now included in the respected service price. Previously they were an unexpected extra for the customer. Clarity and transparency was one of the main aims of this service pricing review.  

The servicing matrix by model is complex, I've attached an example of some new models: Full versus Full+ occur at different times depending on the model and needs of that vehicle. Would the detail of this be useful for your website?  

The main source of data we use is the technical website: www.toyota-tech.eu - this details every model and whats needed at every single service. I would suggest this is too complex for the Owners Club but also demonstrates the complexity we are trying to simplify!!!

In summary - thank you for raising these questions, we will, as a result, review how we can improve the website communications around when the different services are due!"

The example shows when each of the different services are due for certain models. The coolant change is due for the first time at 10 years/100,000 miles and thereafter at intervals of 5 years/50,000 miles or 6 years/60,000 miles, depending on the model,, and is included within the Full+ service due at these times/mileages.

Where a coolant change isn't due, there are other additional service items which are done instead of the coolant change (ie spark plug replacement), but within the same overall cost.

Hope this helps make the changes clearer.

I have also suggested Toyota GB publish something on the Toyota UK Blog to make other Toyota owners/non-TOC members aware of the changes.

 

[Cyker]

Thanks for your time following this up frosty, much appreciated :) :thumbsup:

 

They are right that it was often an extra thing they'd charge for, which I know caught a lot of people on service contracts out who weren't expecting to pay anything extra, but it does kinda suck as I deliberately wouldn't let them change air and cabin filters because it'd cost me £20-odd for the parts to do it myself vs the £80+ they'd charge to do it! I do wonder if they'd let you decline parts off it and knock some money off tho'.

One bright side is my car is so old it qualifies for the new Gold/Silver services which AFAICT are literally the old intermediate/full services!

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

I suppose as regards the cabin filter, one could negotiate with the dealer that that part of the service isn't done - reducing the cost of the service by an appropriate amount. Although any cost reduction may be more in-line with just the cost of the filter rather than £39 (which was the cost of when the filter was a maintenance option).

[Classic Iron]

It's a rip off, my Auris hybrid has just had its 10k service . £180 for a glorified Oil & filter change. In approx 7 months time it will have done another 10k miles and that service will cost £330 for basically the same service with a few more visual checks added. If indeed plugs and additional filters are replaced when due as part of the price, I will have already more than paid for them.

The intermediate service should be less than £100, the full should be £180. Additional items (plugs etc) should be extra at clearly defined mileage intervals. There would be no surprises for customers then.

The spark plug visual inspection is a waste of time, there's more chance of a technician damaging a serviceable plug removing it, to inspect for what?  A modern plug has a long service life, leave it until the specified mileage then replace.

If I decide to keep this car long term I will be finding a decent specialist for service. 

[FROSTYBALLS]

2 minutes ago, Classic Iron said:

Additional items (plugs etc) should be extra at clearly defined mileage intervals. There would be no surprises for customers then.

Toyota had this system previously, and this also caused confusion for owners who weren't expecting to pay for the so called extras.

At the end of the day, you pay your money and take your choice - if you want to take your vehicle elsewhere that is down to you.

[Classic Iron]

Indeed, it is my choice. The lower prices charged for 5yr + vehicles merely underline they are ripping off new car owners.

Just checked local specialist charges 

 

Auris Hybrid

Intermediate: £105 Full: £155 Full +: £229

Even taking it to Toyota for £39 hybrid health checks every 10k miles it's a big difference.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Interesting to see how Toyota's Fixed Price Servicing which is available from the first service, compares in cost with Volkswagen's Fixed Price Servicing which is only available for VW's from 3 to 15 years of age 

https://www.toyota.co.uk/caring-for-your-toyota/service-and-maintenance/car-servicing.json

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/owners/servicing/fixed-price-servicing

Presumably as the above is VW's reduced cost servicing scheme for out of warranty vehicles, their in-warranty servicing is more expensive than Toyota's current pricing.

 

[Heidfirst]

18 hours ago, Classic Iron said:

It's a rip off, my Auris hybrid has just had its 10k service . £180 for a glorified Oil & filter change. In approx 7 months time it will have done another 10k miles and that service will cost £330 for basically the same service with a few more visual checks added. If indeed plugs and additional filters are replaced when due as part of the price, I will have already more than paid for them.

The intermediate service should be less than £100, the full should be £180. Additional items (plugs etc) should be extra at clearly defined mileage intervals. There would be no surprises for customers then.

The spark plug visual inspection is a waste of time, there's more chance of a technician damaging a serviceable plug removing it, to inspect for what?  A modern plug has a long service life, leave it until the specified mileage then replace.

If I decide to keep this car long term I will be finding a decent specialist for service. 

take out a service plan. I have just renewed mine & the price for 2 services (1 Intermediate & 1 Full) & 2 MOTs was £339 whereas the current Toyota suggested list price (dealers are free to do it for less if they wish) for a Full service for my car is £330 on it's own. Fair enough they have my money up front but it's earning nothing in interest in a bank & the price won't go up whereas I bet in 2 years a Full service will have gone up by more than the £9 differential.

It's a massive saving in % terms.

[Myota]

The increases are significant, for sure. And my local dealership was also a bit cheeky -- they pushed hard to sell me a Full+ service this year at £290 when a Gold service at £180 would have been more than sufficient.

Comparing prices:

Last August my local dealer carried out an intermediate service on my Feb 2010 Aygo at a cost of £99. This year, the basic cost of an identical service is £140 before any mileage/wear-related extras. That's a 41% increase for nothing extra in return, which does seem excessive.

Cheeky local dealership:

Despite having had a Full+ service in August 2014, and having only covered 12k miles since then, the dealer still recommended another Full+ service this year, at a cost of £290. They confirmed this would include oil and filter change, air filter change, spark plug change, brake fluid change, and a new Battery in the key fob. No mention of any visual checks, etc. 

I searched the Toyota website to try to find out what the recommended services/intervals are, but that's still a mystery.

However, I came across the 'reduced-cost' Essential Care servicing options for cars older than 5 years. So I asked my dealer whether I could have one of these instead. They initially seemed oddly taken aback by the question, but when I pushed them on this they agreed that I could indeed have a 'Gold service' for £180 to include oil and filter change, air filter change, brake fluid change, and a new Battery in the key fob. That's a £110 saving over the Full+ service they initially recommended.

The £110 difference in price between their recommended Full+ service and the reduced-cost 'Gold service' I got in the end would appear to reflect the "potential for a spark plug change" (i.e. a spark plug inspection, with replacement only if deemed necessary or if required due to mileage since last plug change). So, in my case, having had new spark plugs only two years ago, if I'd taken the dealership's initial recommendation and paid the extra £110 for a Full+ service, all I'd have got for the extra cost would have been a 'spark plug inspection' to tell me what I already know: which is that I don't need new spark plugs just yet!  That seems deplorable to me.

What's more, I find it particularly disappointing, particularly following such a steep increase in Toyota's fixed price servicing costs across the board, that even my dealership couldn't properly advise me on the servicing requirements of my car. They did email me a very quick video of the underside of the vehicle after they'd carried out the service, though. Nice ;)

[Heidfirst]

Pretty sure that its 1 year or 10,000 miles whichever comes first for an Aygo service. It should say in your service/warranty book ...

[FROSTYBALLS]

 

3 hours ago, Myota said:

The increases are significant, for sure. And my local dealership was also a bit cheeky -- they pushed hard to sell me a Full+ service this year at £290 when a Gold service at £180 would have been more than sufficient.

Comparing prices:

Last August my local dealer carried out an intermediate service on my Feb 2010 Aygo at a cost of £99. This year, the basic cost of an identical service is £140 before any mileage/wear-related extras. That's a 41% increase for nothing extra in return, which does seem excessive.

Cheeky local dealership:

Despite having had a Full+ service in August 2014, and having only covered 12k miles since then, the dealer still recommended another Full+ service this year, at a cost of £290. They confirmed this would include oil and filter change, air filter change, spark plug change, brake fluid change, and a new battery in the key fob. No mention of any visual checks, etc. 

I searched the Toyota website to try to find out what the recommended services/intervals are, but that's still a mystery.

However, I came across the 'reduced-cost' Essential Care servicing options for cars older than 5 years. So I asked my dealer whether I could have one of these instead. They initially seemed oddly taken aback by the question, but when I pushed them on this they agreed that I could indeed have a 'Gold service' for £180 to include oil and filter change, air filter change, brake fluid change, and a new battery in the key fob. That's a £110 saving over the Full+ service they initially recommended.

The £110 difference in price between their recommended Full+ service and the reduced-cost 'Gold service' I got in the end would appear to reflect the "potential for a spark plug change" (i.e. a spark plug inspection, with replacement only if deemed necessary or if required due to mileage since last plug change). So, in my case, having had new spark plugs only two years ago, if I'd taken the dealership's initial recommendation and paid the extra £110 for a Full+ service, all I'd have got for the extra cost would have been a 'spark plug inspection' to tell me what I already know: which is that I don't need new spark plugs just yet!  That seems deplorable to me.

What's more, I find it particularly disappointing, particularly following such a steep increase in Toyota's fixed price servicing costs across the board, that even my dealership couldn't properly advise me on the servicing requirements of my car. They did email me a very quick video of the underside of the vehicle after they'd carried out the service, though. Nice ;)

Service intervals on the Aygo are every 12 months or 10,000  miles, whichever occurs first. Intermediate services are due at 12 months/10,000 miles, 36 months/30,000 miles, etc, and Full services due at 2 years/20,000 miles, 4 years/40,000 miles, etc.

As your car is being serviced on the time basis rather than the mileage basis, it would have been due a Full service.

The difference between a Full and Full+ service isn't as cut and dried as you say - see the following extract from my earlier post on this thread:

"The Full or Full + service is determined by mileage/time and for some new models service indicator.  

Full+ does include the spark plug inspection and replacement (there's an error on the document on the website which we have just spotted!)

Coolant change is due in the Full + service at 10 years/100,000 miles, the other Full + will not have coolant but will include other applicable items.

What has changed is that items such as coolant, cabin air filters and spark plug replacement which are part of the service schedule (not optional) are now included in the respected service price. Previously they were an unexpected extra for the customer. Clarity and transparency was one of the main aims of this service pricing review.  

Full versus Full+ occur at different times depending on the model and needs of that vehicle."

The differences between the Essential Care services and the Service Pricing services can be compared using the following links:

https://www.toyota.co.uk/download/cms/gben/Toyota Essential Care Plan Comparison _tcm-3060-675779.pdf

https://www.toyota.co.uk/download/cms/gben/Toyota Service Pricing Plan Comparison _tcm-3060-294039.pdf

 

 

[Myota]

4 hours ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Coolant change is due in the Full + service at 10 years/100,000 miles, the other Full + will not have coolant but will include other applicable items.

What has changed is that items such as coolant, cabin air filters and spark plug replacement which are part of the service schedule (not optional) are now included in the respected service price. Previously they were an unexpected extra for the customer. Clarity and transparency was one of the main aims of this service pricing review.  

Full versus Full+ occur at different times depending on the model and needs of that vehicle."

Personally I think the above is a patronising justification of Toyota's excessive price hikes -- in the same way that Toyota GB's representative suggested that their technical website would be "too complex for the Owners Club". As if we should apologise for having even asked.

Full+ versus Full+ ??

Toyota say, "...the other Full+ service will not have coolant but will include other applicable items."  This, in itself, is not a particularly good start at offering clarity and transparency over what work is, and what isn't, actually being carried out at a particular time, or what the customer is actually paying for. I thought the whole point of all this was to provide clarity?

"Previously they [coolant, cabin air filter, spark plugs] were an unexpected extra for the customer"

Really? How many owners of any vehicle faced with the need for a coolant or spark plug change actually hold their hands up in horror at the shock of having been told of such a need when it becomes due?  These are routine (albeit long-term) service items for which their replacement would be considered by any sensible owner as being a perfectly normal and acceptable consequence of running a motor vehicle.

"Clarity and transparency was one of the main aims of this service pricing review"

Not long after I signed up for free business banking I received a letter from the bank telling me that the cost of the free business banking tariff was being 'increased' to £7 per month "to make your charges clearer and to make it easier to manage your costs". The people that write this stuff are hilarious. Toyota's response is in a similar vein, being that the average customer will now pay quite a bit more without any additional clarity over the detail of what work is actually going to be carried out at a particular service (see Full+ versus Full+, above) and what they are actually paying for. The items referred to (coolant/cabin air filters/spark plugs) are longer terms items that I'd prefer to see costed separately when due, separate from the costs of routine 12 or 24-month services, for example in the same way that replacement brake pads would be dealt with, when due. That way, you know exactly what you're getting for your money and when, and you have all the clarity and transparency that Toyota's current approach doesn't.

Which means the only real change is that servicing has just gotten a whole lot more expensive than before. For example, an Intermediate service on an Aygo in 2015 was £99; today it's £140 for exactly the same work.

I'll be surprised if these latest price hikes don't send a lot more customers away to get their cars serviced at their local recommended indie. I'd be on my way there already if I hadn't 'enlightened' my local dealer about the 'Essential Care' options for vehicles over 5 years old -- something they weren't about to offer me until I asked the question.  So much for extra 'clarity' or 'transparency' there.

I guess I wish that Toyota would just come clean and say, "We need to raise our prices. Period".

I think folk would generally have a lot more respect for such honesty than for all the tosh about transparency.

 

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

22 minutes ago, Myota said:

How many owners of any vehicle faced with the need for a coolant or spark plug change actually hold their hands up in horror at the shock of having been told of such a need when it becomes due?  These are routine (albeit long-term) service items for which their replacement would be considered by any sensible owner as being a perfectly normal and acceptable consequence of running a motor vehicle.

Since the introduction of Toyota's Fixed Price Servicing late in 2011, there have been several posts on these forums where owners have not been happy to find that they have had to pay additionally for maintenance options (eg brake fluid changes, air conditioning filter, etc) they felt should have been included within the service, and these aren't always long service items.