I am wondering if any one knows if you have to follow the stringent service schedule in order to keep the warrantys valid??? My dealership has us coming in every 3 months for either an oil change or an expensive maintanence service with oil change. I am figuring on around 2K in service dollars for the first 60 months. I have not heard of anyone else having to do this. I need to do my one year service @ $220.00 and I don't know what to do. Please help.

 

You do not have to have any service work done at your dealer. You can change your own oil and do most of the other things listed as needed. Do not beleive the guy behind the counter that says you have to pay him $200 a month or your warranty will be void. If that we're the case, how are all these oil change places making it?

 

Your owners manual lists what maintenance items are required. You do have to maintain the car to keep the warranty intact, but you do not have to have it done at the dealer.

My suggestion is to call orcheck the websites ofall the dealers near you to see who runs the best prices for services. Another suggestion is to take your owners manual in with you when you get the car serviced, especially at 30,000, 60,000 and 90,000 miles. Go through their "recommended maintenance" and cross out anything that is not explicitly called out in the manual, then have them quote you on that. I saved $100 on my 30k maintenance by do that, because things like "emssions system service" and "fuel injector cleaning" are *NOT* required by the owners manual.

It's a good idea to know what it is you need before you go to the dealer, so look your manual over before you go. I'm trying to teach my wife to not just blindly get the service the dealer recommends because it costs a lot of extra money, for no tangible benefit.

Make sure that wherever you go, you get the service done properly. For example, when I aked Sears about getting an automatic transmission fluid flush, they said they use a "universal" synthetic AT fluid. To keep your transmission warranty intact, though, you MUST use SP-III AT fluid, which is genrally only used on Hyundais, Kias and Mitsubishis. If you let them sell you the universal stuff and your tranny lets go, Hyundai will not pay for a warranty repair.

 

Not only do I agree with the above posts, but in my 05 Sonata's owners manual it says something like "if you are handy and have tools, you may want to perform some of the maintenance yourself." Just keep records, etc. If any of these stealers try to tell you you have to have them do the maintenance, show them that.

John

 

Good point: In the end, anything the dealer might claim is superceded by the owners manual. That is, in essence, the contractual document.