Toyota maintenance: cost, plans and service schedule

Are Toyotas expensive to maintain?

According to RepairPal data adjusted for inflation, Toyota vehicles average $602 per year in repair and maintenance costs. That’s significantly lower than the industry average of $891 per year and much more affordable than what you may spend with other popular automakers.

How Toyota compares with other automakers

This affordability may be a result of Toyota vehicles’ reliability. Toyotas have a RepairPal reliability rating of 4.0 out of 5.0, which puts them in eighth place out of 32 car brands.

Author’s note: As a mechanic, I’ve found Toyota to be one of the most reliable automotive brands. When properly maintained, a Toyota can run for 200,000 miles or more. However, that reliability doesn’t make it immune to problems, which is why it’s still important to have a plan in case you get stuck with a big repair bill.

Toyota maintenance and repair costs by model

While Toyotas average $602 per year in maintenance and repair fees overall, it’s worth pointing out that these costs aren’t consistent across every model in Toyota’s lineup. You can see this variation across a few of Toyota’s most popular models in the table below.

Toyota maintenance schedule and costs

The statistics we’ve given so far have also combined maintenance and repair costs into one figure, which makes sense from a certain point of view. You might not care whether you’re paying for maintenance or repairs if the result is the same — spending money at the mechanic.

However, maintenance services are fundamentally different from repairs, and you need to understand that difference to budget effectively:

• Maintenance refers to regular services the manufacturer recommends to keep your vehicle running in good condition.
• Repairs are unplanned services needed to fix or replace parts that aren’t working as they should.

Here are some average costs for Toyota’s recommended maintenance services. (We’ll go over some costs for common Toyota repairs in the next section.)

If you’re buying your Toyota new, you won’t have to care about maintenance costs for the first two years or 25,000 miles, though. All new Toyotas come with a ToyotaCare maintenance plan that includes:

• Tire rotations
• Fluid inspections
• Motor oil and filter changes
• Multipoint inspections
• Toyota genuine parts
• Service from Toyota-trained technicians

Basically, ToyotaCare covers all the recommended maintenance we outlined earlier and comes with free 24-hour roadside assistance.

But how often can you expect scheduled maintenance? Toyota has different maintenance schedules for each model it makes. To find the recommended maintenance schedule for your vehicle, plug in your vehicle’s information on Toyota’s website or speak with your local dealership.

For example, on a 2022 RAV4, Toyota’s best-selling SUV, you can expect tire rotations, fluid level inspections and brake inspections every 5,000 miles, and oil and filter changes and various component inspections every 10,000 miles.

Scheduled maintenance for severe driving conditions

Toyota doesn’t have a completely different maintenance schedule for cars driven in severe conditions, but it does have some recommendations to keep in mind if you’re tough on your vehicle. According to Toyota, you want to consider more frequent or additional maintenance services if you:

• Drive on dusty, dirty or muddy roads
• Drive on roads with melted snow and ice
• Tow with your Toyota vehicle
• Use a rooftop cargo carrier
• Burden your vehicle with heavy loads

These activities may put extra wear on your vehicle, so it makes sense that they can accelerate the normal maintenance schedule. More frequent maintenance can make your vehicle last longer and help your technician spot problems before they turn into major failures.

Toyota repair costs

Repair costs for individual vehicles are generally much harder to estimate than maintenance costs because there’s no telling what’s going to go wrong with your car ahead of time. However, you can make an educated guess by looking at what has happened to other vehicles like yours.

The most common repairs for your Toyota will obviously depend on what kind of vehicle you have, but let’s look at some common repairs for the 2020 RAV4 we mentioned earlier as an example.

According to CarComplaints.com, the least reliable Toyota models are the 2019 RAV4, 2007 to 2008 RAV4s, the 2007 Camry and the 2009 Camry.

If you compare the maintenance and repair estimates for this vehicle, you can see that repair bills tend to be less frequent than maintenance bills but more expensive when they come due. That means you may not have to pay a repair bill for years, but once you do, it will likely cost you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.

While your car insurance can protect you from repair bills after a collision or vandalism, it won’t help if your Toyota breaks down on its own. That’s what a warranty is for. New Toyotas come with three years or 36,000 miles of bumper-to-bumper warranty coverage and five years or 60,000 miles of powertrain coverage. You shouldn’t have to pay anything if a covered part breaks during your warranty period.

However, once your factory warranties end, you are responsible for paying the parts and labor costs for any repairs, and these costs can be higher than you might expect. For example, replacing the head gasket in the 2020 RAV4 we mentioned earlier can cost $3,929 to $4,824, according to RepairPal. It’s entirely possible that you may never need such an expensive repair on your Toyota, but it’s helpful to have a plan in place in case you do.

» LEARN: What is a manufacturer’s warranty?

How can an extended warranty or maintenance plan help?

If you’re concerned about affording a large repair bill, it may be smart to look into buying an extended warranty. These vehicle service contracts are available from third-party warranty companies and directly from Toyota itself, and there are a wide array of plans available. You can choose a powertrain plan to avoid costly engine or transmission repairs, or you can opt for a bumper-to-bumper warranty that covers almost every part of your vehicle. For some, third-party warranties have been a cost-reducing option.

“The coverage itself has been a lifesaver,” said Cora, a ConsumerAffairs reviewer from Washington, D.C. “I have had to use it twice already and both times, the claims process was smooth and hassle-free.”

On the other hand, if you’re more interested in saving a little bit on your scheduled maintenance, a prepaid maintenance plan might be more your speed. These plans have a modest upside compared with the possible savings from an extended warranty, but you can potentially save by paying for your maintenance ahead of time. Toyota and other companies sometimes offer maintenance services at discounted rates through these plans because they guarantee future business.

Whatever you choose, it’s important to make an educated decision about how you want to handle the costs of keeping your car on the road.

» MORE: Pros and cons of extended auto warranties