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By
EWAN KENNEDY
14 January 2008
In a fascinating move, Toyota has significantly dropped the
cost of dealer servicing on most of the new vehicles in its passenger
car range. This has been done to counteract the inroads being made into
regular automotive servicing being carried out by mobile mechanics and
non-franchised repair shops.
Not only have the charges on Toyotas been dropped
they have also been fixed for a period of three years or 60,000
kilometres from the time the vehicle is purchased new. So you know
exactly where you stand in your automotive budget.
The interesting scheme has the title of Toyota
Service Advantage. As an example, purchasers of a Corolla will
have to pay just $120 for each service. That price includes parts
and labour.
Toyota isn’t just doing this out of the kindness
of its corporate heart. Instead it has listened to dealers
complaining that they are losing touch with past customers if
these people are having their services done elsewhere. Dealers
love to be able to chat to existing customers about their cars,
and to sell them another one somewhere down the track, preferably
not too far down the track…
Costs and details vary from one Toyota model to
another, note that not all are covered. Contact your local
dealership or click onto www.toyota.com.au/ for the finer points.
Hopefully from customers’ points of view this
fixed-price servicing scheme may be adopted by other car makers.
That could take a while as the competitors will first of all wait
to see how well the system works for Toyota before making their
moves, and even then things can happen pretty slowly when it comes
to making major new decisions.
Much sooner we are likely to see the major
operators of mobile services responding. They are already heavily
promoting their so-called logbook service schemes and could react
to Toyota's move in the near future.
As always, when the big boys start to squabble it’s
the customers who benefit. Keep an eye on what's happening in your
neck of the woods and work out what's best for you, and your car.
© Copyright
Marque Publishing Company
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