# Lithia Lifetime Oil Change Program



## mikehen (Nov 1, 2013)

Hey - 

Anyone familiar with Lithia's Lifetime Oil Change Program? Tomorrow I fly out to take delivery on a new 2013 335i xDrive, and I agreed to sign up for this program over the phone because it seemed like a reasonable deal for the quoted price of $595.00.

What are your thoughts about this? 

I'm new to the bimmerfest site and to BMW ownership, so try to be gentle. 

Thanks a bunch,

Michael


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## 335i Driver (Nov 29, 2006)

Don't know anything specifically about that program, but given that BMW does it for you for 4 years it wouldn't make sense to consider it until you BMW service contract runs out. After that, if they change it annually you would need to keep your car about another 10 years to break even. Then, when you consider TVM it almost seems like you would never break even. Doesn't seem like a good deal to me unless there's a lot of facts I don't know about.

Also, what happens if your car is totalled after 1 change, or just decide to buy a new car? It's a sunk cost unless thye give you your $ back. Another reason why these types of deals generally are not a good investment. Whoever is selling them is banking on you not using all the changes.


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## mikehen (Nov 1, 2013)

Sound reasoning - I appreciate the reply!

My understanding is that BMW does an oil change once annually, or at 10,000 miles for the 4/50K duration. I was told that if I bought this program I could have the filter and oil replaced a second time per year at no additional cost. (i.e. Filter / Synth Oil replaced every 5,000 miles)

Do more frequent changes make sense in this car? My reasoning was that it did make sense to have the oil changed more often, and that I would have at least 4 free and additional services within a 4-year warranty range at $150 a pop, thus I would break even.

P.S. I was told a dealer filter/oil service would run ~ $150 otherwise.

Thanks again!


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## Campfamily (Sep 20, 2010)

mikehen said:


> Sound reasoning - I appreciate the reply!
> 
> My understanding is that BMW does an oil change once annually, or at 10,000 miles for the 4/50K duration. I was told that if I bought this program I could have the filter and oil replaced a second time per year at no additional cost. (i.e. Filter / Synth Oil replaced every 5,000 miles)
> 
> ...


Make sure you get the "we'll do the second oil change in a year even if your maintenance reminder doesn't indicate it needs to be done" statement in writing.......I can see them saying, well the car doesn't indicate it needs an oil change, so we can't do it for you for free, it's only free when the car says it needs to be changed.

My dealer runs specials for oil changes for $79 to $99, and I have a 550, which uses ~8 quarts or so. My indy does it for $95, $45 if I provide the oil and filter.

Keith


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## 335i Driver (Nov 29, 2006)

What camp said too, if you only drive 10k per year I wouldn't be too worried about 1 annual change. I drive about 8k annually so 1 change/yr is perfect. If you drive 15k+ annually then it could possibly be worth it to get 2 changes/yr as I do believe 15k is too long for a TT engine.

Also, I do my own changes and oil/filter is about 60 bucks so I was going by that.


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