30K miles

I've got about 30K miles on my car now, so I took it to the dealer for a 30K mile service. The base price was a jaw-dropping $425 (with coupon). According to an undated article at Edmunds, the price is more likely to be $300, or something like that. I live in one of the costlier areas of the country, so the higher price is unsurprising. In any case, I had no idea what to expect and hadn't bothered to do the research, so I just took it on the chin.

The bill is remarkably difficult to deciper. Here's what they did:

• oil change plus new drain plug gasket and air filter
• "replace non-platinum and non-iridium spark plugs" - not sure if they actually did anything there
• test: battery, hoses and belts
• drain and refill cooling system
• "clean throttle body" - what is that?
• drain transmission assembly (hopefully they refilled it too)
• service differential assembly (hm)
• inspect: exhaust system, suspension, steering, brakes
• lube as needed (so did they do anything)?
• top off fluids as needed (did they...?)
• rotate and balance tires
• clean and adjust brake system
• new wiper blades

I notice I was charged $18 for "BK-44 cleaner" and $25 for something called "super long life c" (apparently the printout only allows 17 characters, to help keep you in the dark).

The parts cost about $150, with $275 going to labor. I wonder how much of that goes to the guy doing the actual work.

Despite the cost I'm happy. The dealer gave me a loaner car for the day, making the experience pretty painless. In addition, I had a slow leak in one tire, which was patched for about $20, nice to get that done at the same time.

My loaner car was a Camry. It was actually a rental, and it had a kind of stinky smell like someone had smoked in it, but other than that it was fine. After driving around in a Prius for a couple of years, I found the Camry engine annoyingly noisy. I notice it humming all the time, and I kept thinking about how much gas it was wasting when at stop lights. It made me appreciate the Prius more. I was also very happy when I got back into my own car and could immediately make use of the backup camera. I love that backup camera!