Toyota has vowed to continue stipulating shorter servicing intervals on some of its most popular new models for the foreseeable future in Australia, citing greater reliability and engine longevity.
At a time where aftersales provisions are firmly in the spotlight due to cost-of-living pressures, Toyota is at odds with the majority of the car industry by enforcing shorter six-month/10,000km servicing intervals on models including the HiLux, Prado and LandCruiser.
Toyota’s petrol hybrid models, meanwhile, align more closely with the industry norm of 12-month/15,000km parameters.
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The company’s upmarket arm Lexus also stipulates shorter six-month/10,000km intervals on a couple of its models in Australia.
However, this take contrasts with the likes of Mazda, which began merging its servicing schedules to 12-month/15,000km intervals back in 2023.
Similarly, Subaru has recently increased its intervals to 12 months and 15,000km, while Honda meets somewhere in the middle, stipulating a trip to the dealer every 12 months or 10,000km.
Speaking with CarExpert this week, Toyota Australia vice president of sales, marketing and franchise operations, Sean Hanley, said Toyota had no plans to alter its current servicing arrangements.
“The six-month intervals are unique to Australia, because of Australian conditions,” Mr Hanley explained.
“We bring these cars to perform in certain environments, and they can be quite harsh in Australia. So we reduce the service intervals so that we get better coverage of servicing the car for reliability.
“There are no plans to change that.”
As well as being more frequent than most rivals, the cost of Toyota’s six-monthly service intervals can also be more expensive.
According to respective manufacturer websites, three years’ worth of servicing on a SR5 HiLux will set owners back $1830, while the same schedule for the equivalent Ford Ranger 3.0-litre V6 diesel amounts to $1385, and $1467 for the Mitsubishi Triton – both based on longer 12-month/15,000km intervals.
However, Mr Hanley stood behind Toyota’s servicing arrangements and its unbeaten spread of dealers nationally, with more than 260 dotted around the country.
