What Is the Real-World Value of Toyota Care Included Maintenance?
If you are shopping for a Toyota car, crossover, SUV or truck, you may have noticed that the company includes ToyotaCare in the cost of its vehicles. So we decided to have a close look at this and see what value it has. When we ran the numbers, we were surprised by just how much calue it has in the real world.
ToyotaCare is a comprehensive maintenance and car-care plan Toyota includes in its prices. The most important part of this is the 2-years or 25,000 miles of included maintenance. When I shopped for a vehicle recently, I narrowed my search to two compact crossovers. My choices were the Toyota RAV4 and the Subaru Forester. In the end, I opted for the Forester because it offered me forward collision prevention, navigation, and power seats at a lower price point than the RAV4. Today I brought th Forester in for its first service, which occurs at six months. The cost to rotate the tires and change the synthetic oil was $52.44 including tax. I used a coupon. Had I not, the cost would have been $88.20. Let’s not go crazy trying to figure out the value of the maintenance. Instead, lets’ just multiply by four the costs I incurred and call it $220.00. In more expensive to maintain cars, Toyota’s own Lexus for example, the cost to rotate tires and change oil is $225.24 per visit according to my sister, who read me her most recent invoice. So our estimate is pretty conservative.
Often forgotten in the ToyotaCare package is roadside assistance. Basic (Classic) AAA costs $66 per year, but it is per person, not per vehicle. Adding a second person is $30 more per year. Let’s call it $180 Per year in value. However, most automakers now include some roadside assistance. So deduct that if your comparison brand does.
So our analysis shows us that the value is between about $ 220 and $ 1,000 depending upon what brand you compare the Toyota to, and if you include roadside assistance as a value. Be sure to note that the costs to maintain a BMW for 4 years are zero, a Jaguar for five years zero, but a Tesla Model S costs $1,100 for two years of maintenance. Each brand varies in tis offerings.