36-Month Maintenance Visit
(April 11, 2005)

What was done:

-Oil and oil filter changed
-Air conditioning filter purchased (replaced on my own)

Visit Summary:

The last free maintenance visit paid for by Toyota under the 2002 Prius warranty is the 30-month visit, so this time I was footing the bill. To my surprise, the dealer's service advisor recommended I deviate from the list of maintenance items detailed in a booklet that came with the car. He advised that since my car has only around 16,000 miles on it (instead of the 45,000 Toyota associated with the 36-month time interval) that I start doing maintenance by mileage rather than time alone. He recommended that I wait to have my tires rotated until my next service visit and that some of the more expensive inspections were not necessary yet since I have only driven a few thousand miles since my last visit. So instead of paying well over $100 for the maintenance visit, I ended up only having an oil change for approximately $26. 

That said, the Prius' service guide recommended changing the air conditioning filter at the 36-month interval, which made sense to me since my car has mostly been kept outside. So even though the dealer said it probably wasn't necessary, I replaced the filter myself (the part was around $30) -- and judging from how dirty the old one was when I removed it, I'm glad I did.

While I was a little uneasy about not strictly following the guidelines in the service guide Toyota provided, I appreciate the dealer's honest recommendations and saving me the time and expense of unnecessary maintenance.  They also assured me that putting off the other maintenance items will not impact my warranty in any way, and the service advisor made a note in the Toyota service guide in case any future concerns arise.

Cost of Service: $55.87 ($25.84 for oil and oil filter change, $30.03 for AC filter)